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I  LLETT  E  5 


ir*^  T~^  T^V  T"**  HA  irr%'nir^-T  x^v  Tk  T 

REDEMPTION 


MELVIN  L.SEVERY 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 


KING  C.  GILLETTE 
Inventor  of  the  System 


MELVIN  L.  SEVERY 
Author  of  the  Book 


jGlLLETTE's 

SOCIAL  REDEMPTION^ 

A  REVIEW  OF 

WORLD-WIDE  CONDITIONS  AS  THEY  EXIST  TO-DAY 

OFFERING  AN  ENTIRELY  NEW  SUGGESTION 

FOR  THE  REMEDY  OF  THE  EVILS 

THEY  EXHIBIT 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  INDEX 


BY 

MELVIN  L.  SEVERY 

•^^^ 

Author  of"FSeur-<Je-Lis,"  "The  Darrow  Enigma," 
"  The  Mystery  of  June  ijth,"  etc. 


A  man  protesting  against  error  is  on  the  way  towards 
uniting  himself  with  all  men  that  believe  in  truth. 

—  Carlyle 


'Boston 

HERBERT  B.  TURNER  &r  CO. 
1907 


Copyright,  1907 
BY  HERBERT  B.  TURNER  &  Co, 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hail 


TO   ALL  THOSE   WHO,   LIGHTED   BY   THE   FIRST  DAWNING   RAYS  OF 
THE   NEWLY   RISEN    SOCIAL  SENSE,  HAVE   RENOUNCED    THE 
RED    ETHICS    OF    THE    COMPETITIVE   JUNGLE  AND 
BEGUN  THEIR  MIGRATION  FROM  SELF- 
DOM  TO  "  OTHERDOM." 


But  truths  on  which  depends  our  main  concern, 
That  'tis  our  shame  and  misery  not  to  learn, 
Shine  by  the  side  of  every  path  we  tread 
With  such  a  lustre  he  that  runs  may  read. 

— Cowper. 

When  truth  or  virtue  an  affront  endures, 
The  affront  is  mine,  my  friend,  and  should  be  yours, 

— Pope. 

Truth  has  rough  flavours  if  we  bite  it  through. 

—  George  Eliot. 


GILLETTE'S  SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

PREFACE      1 

BOOK   I. 

I.     INTRODUCTORY 5 

II.  RACIAL,  CONDITIONS 19 

III.  INTERNATIONAL  CONDITIONS 17 

IV.  TRADE  RELATIONS 24 

V.    NATIONAL  CONDITIONS 33 

BOOK    II. 

I.    RUSSIA 39 

II.    THE  WARNING  OP  RUSSIAN  BRUTALITY 5< 

III.    AGRARIAN  AND  OTHER  RUSSIAN  CONDITIONS 63 

BOOK   III. 

I.    ASIATIC  TURKEY 77 

II.    THE  CONGO  FREE  STATE 83 

III.  THE  DEVIL'S  STERN  CHASE 99 

BOOK    IV. 

I.     AMERICAN  IDEALS 112 

II.     NATIONAL  CONDITIONS,  LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  ....  127 

III.  THE  POISON  WORKS         .        . i47 

IV.  CONTRACTION  OF  CURRENCY  AND  EXPANSION  OF  STATISTICS  .        .  163 
V.     THE  RUSSIANISING  OF  UNCLE  SAM 179 

BOOK    V. 

T.     A  DARK  PAGE  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 197 

II.     BENEVOLENT  ASSIMILATION      .        . 213 

III.    THE  WAGES  OF  OUR  SIN 229 

BOOK  VI. 

I.     OUR  LAND  GRAFT 257 

II.     THE  DESPOLIATION  OF  THE  PEOPLE 275 

III.  THE  LAWLESSNESS  OF  THE  LAW,  STRIKES  AND  INJUNCTIONS  .        .  295 

IV.  THE  COURTS  vs.  JUSTICE 313 

BOOK   VII. 

I.     LYNCHING 335 

II.     BREAKING  FAITH  WITH  THE  SIXTIES     . 349 

III.  PEONAGE 363 

IV.  THE  DARK  SIDE  OF  THE  LAW 379 

vii 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTUH                                       BOOK    VIII.  PAGE 

1.    POLITICAL  CORRUPTION 399 

II.    A  KINGDOM  OF  THE  DOLLAR 413 

III.  MUNICIPAL  CONDITIONS 434 

IV.  THE  FATHER  OF  GRAFT  — THE  BUSINESS  MAN 445 

BOOK    IX. 

I.    INDUSTRIAL  CONSENTRATION 465 

II.     SOME  RESULTS  OF  COMMERCIAL  CENTRIPETALISM       ....  477 

III.  THE  DEBASEMENT  OF  OUR  COMMODITIES 496 

IV.  THE  CRY  OF  THE  STOMACH 515 

V.    SWINE  AND  SWINE 535 

BOOK    X. 

I.    INEQUALITY 554 

II.     MAMMON  AS  GOD 571 

III.    THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  DOLLAR 590 

BOOK    XI. 

I.    COMPETITION  —  THE  WAR  OF  PEACE.   PART  1 609 

II.     COMPETITION  —  THE  WAR  OF  PEACE.    PART  II.         ....  623 

III.  THE  PRESSURE  OF  SOCIETY  UPON  THE  INDIVIDUAL    ....  637 

IV.  SOME  CAUSES  AND  RESULTS  OF  SOCIAL  PRESSURE     ....  651 

BOOK    XII. 

I.    POVERTY  AND  TOIL 670 

II.    THE  WHITE  PLAGUE  AN  ADDED  BURDEN 681 

III.  THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN 697 

IV.  THE  SLAUGHTER  OF  THE  INNOCENTS .711 

CONCLUSION 725 

APPENDIX  A 747 

APPENDIX  B 758 


vm 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

HALF-TONES   AND    CHARTS 

HALF -TONES  PAGE 

KING  C.  GILLETTE,  INVENTOR  OF  THE  SYSTEM       ....      Frontispiece 
MELVIN  L.  SEVERY,  AUTHOR  OF  THE  BOOK  ....  " 

THE  RUSSIAN  FEAR Opposite  page  44 

THE  SEVERED  HANDS "          "  92 

THE  DESPAIR  OF  N'SALA "          "  100 

A  CONGO  ATROCITY "          "  106 

THE  WATER  TORTURE "          "  238 

THE  PRICE  OF  CASTE "          "  558 

THE  MENACE  OF  OUR  PRESENT  SOCIAL  SYSTEM    ..."           "  676 

CHARTS 

THE  BURSTING  OF  THE  "  OVERCROWDED  "  BUBBLE      .        Opposite  page  9 

AVERAGE  DENSITY  OF  POPULATION  THROUGHOUT  THE  WORLD           .        .  11 

THE  AMERICAN  TARIFF  FROM  1791  TO  1901  .        .        .         Opposite  page  24 

GOLD  PRICES          .               166 

BIMETALLIC  PRICES 167 

CHART  A.  —  "HOME  OF  THE  MORTGAGED  'FREE'"   .        .        ....  261 

MAP  OF  UNITED  STATES  SHOWING  WHY  THE  COUNTRY  Is  "  OVERCROWDED  "  262 

CHART  B.  —  THE  STORY  OF  THE  CLASSES 563 

RELATIVE  URBAN  DENSITY  OF  POPULATION    .       .       .       .                       .  655 

CLASS  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH .  657 

CHART  C.  —  DIAGRAM  OF  WEALTH,  PRODUCTION,  POPULATION,  ETC.         .  659 

CHART  B.  —  THE  STORY  OF  THE  CLASSES .  661 

CHART  A.  —  "  HOME  OF  THE  MORTGAGED  '  FREE  '  "  .        ....  662 

DIAGRAM  OF  "  LUNG  BLOCK"           .               683 

RELATIVE  DEATH-RATES  IN  DIFFERENT  CLASSES  .        .       ......  707 

LINCOLN'S  WARNING Opposite  page  750 


IX 


Are  there  no  slaves  to-day?    While  we  sit  here  at  play, 
Have  we  no  brothers  in  adversity? 

None  sorry  nor  oppressed,  who  without  hope  or  rest 

Must  toil  and  have  no  pleasure  in  their  toil? 
These  are  your  slaves  and  mine.     Where  is  the  right  divine 

Of  idlers  to  encumber  God's  good  soil? 
There  is  no  man  alive,  however  he  may  strive, 

Allowed  to  own  the  work  of  his  own  hands. 
Landlords  and  water  lords  at  all  the  roads  and  fords, 

Taking  their  toll,  imposing  their  commands. 

Bliss  Carman. 

Grimly  the  same  spirit  looks  into  the  law  of  Property,  and  accuses 
men  of  driving  a  trade  in  the  great  boundless  Providence  which  had 
given  the  air,  the  water,  and  the  land  to  men  to  use  and  not  to  fence  in 
and  monopolise. —  ("The  Times.")  I  cannot  occupy  the  bleakest  crag  of 
the  White  Hills  or  the  Allegheny  Range,  but  some  man  or  corporation 
steps  up  to  me  to  show  me  that  it  is  his. —  ("  The  Conservative.")  Touch 
any  wood,  or  field,  or  house  lot  on  your  peril;  but  you  may  come  and 
work  in  ours  for  us,  and  we  will  give  you  a  piece  of  bread. — ("The 
Conservative.")  Of  course,  whilst  another  man  has  no  land,  my  title  to 
mine,  your  title  to  yours,  is  at  once  vitiated. —  ("Man  the  Reformer.") 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

"  What  are  you  reading,  son?  "  asked  a  Roman  merchant  one  day. 

"  A  description  from  one  of  the  Sybilline  books,"  he  replied.  "  It  is 
there  foretold  that  an  invasion  from  the  North  will  come  upon  our 
empire,  when  it  becomes  corrupt,  and  some  say  it  is  so  now." 

"  Drop  it,  my  son,  drop  it,"  said  the  old  gentleman,  hastily.  "  These 
people  are  always  foreseeing  something,  generally  unpleasant.  Why,  we 
are  getting  richer  and  richer,  and  our  boundaries  are  extending  in  every 
direction.  Every  day  I  meet  a  king  or  two  at  dinner." 

"  But  there  are  barbarians,  are  there  not?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  a  few  million  or  so,  who  shake  to  see  the  sunshine  on  our 
Roman  eagles." 

The  son  closed  the  book  with  a  troubled  expression. 

"  Suppose  they  should  — "  he  murmured. 

And  they  did. —  "An  Optimist,"  in  The  Denver  Catholic. 


PREFACE 

This  book  is  not  intended  to  be  interesting,  nor  has  it  been  written 
with  the  idea  that  it  will  be  consecutively  read  from  cover  to  cover. 
Its  purpose  is  more  serious  and  its  mission  less  ephemeral.  It  has 
been  penned  in  the  hope  and  belief  that  it  will  form  a  substantial 
basis  for  one  of  the  greatest  social  changes  ever  known.  The  plan^ 
of  which  this  work  is  the  initial  step,  is  presented  to  the  public  in  the 
firm  belief  that  it  will,  if  adopted,  do  more  to  eradicate  the  sufferings 
of  all  human  kind  than  any  plan  hitherto  proposed.  Neither  the 
inventor  of  the  plan  nor  the  author  of  this  work  has  any  selfish 
interest  in  the  movement.  It  is  not  a  scheme  devised  to  make  money. 
From  its  inception  it  has  been,  upon  Mr.  Gillette's  part,  a  labour  of 
love  whose  beneficiaries  are  the  whole  human  race.  We  have,  there- 
fore, no  apologies  to  offer.  We  are  profoundly  in  earnest,  and  we 
believe  that  every  mariner  about  to  set  his  course  should  first  find 
out  his  present  location  to  serve  as  a  point  of  departure.  The 
object  of  this  book  is  to  determine,  with  as  much  accuracy  as  may 
be,  just  what  are  those  present  conditions  which  call  most  loudly  for 
immediate  treatment.  These  we  could  have  stated  upon  our  own  evi- 
dence in  very  much  less  space  and  in  a  manner  far  more  entertaining ; 
when  we  had  finished,  however,  the  Eeader  might  very  naturally  have 
considered  our  view  a  purely  personal  and  erroneous  one.  Such  a  re- 
sult would  not  in  the  least  have  served  our  purpose.  Although  quite 
aware  that  quotations  do  not  make  the  very  best  of  reading,  we  have 
found  it  imperative  to  make  extensive  use  of  them,  since  in  no  other 
way  could  we  show  the  Eeader  how  serious  are  present  conditions,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  how  general  on  the  other  is  the  protest  of  the  best 
thought  of  the  world.  That  things  are  rapidly  approaching  a  pass 
when  something  must  and  will  be  done,  is  a  truth  a  recognition  of 
which  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  since  it  forms  the  most  logical  point 
of  departure  of  any  system  which  proposes  a  radical  change.  The 
present  volume  willingly  sacrifices  everything  else  to  this  end.  The 
next  volume  will  treat  of  the  evolution  of  present  conditions  and  of 
the  remedy  for  them  which  Mr.  Gillette  has  devised. 

We  take  this  opportunity  to  thank  the  many  authors  we  have, 
quoted  for  the  assistance  we  have  derived  from  their  work  and  for 
the  assurance  which  we  feel  that  they,  to  a  man,  are  glad  to  be  quoted 
in  the  interest  of  truth  and  public  enlightenment. 

Some  of  our  Eeaders  will  be  sure  to  think  the  trend  of  this  work 
pessimistic.  Whether  it  is  or  not  is  hardly  our  affair,  since  we 
must  rest  content  in  the  assurance  that  it  is  at  all  events  true.  We 
may  point  out  in  passing,  however,  that  no  person  who  earnestly  and 
hopefully  enlists  in  the  struggle  for  better  conditions  can  be  a  pessi- 
mist, neither  can  that  struggle,  however  militantly  constructed  of  evil 
conditions,  be  an  act  of  pessimism.  As  well  accuse  the  farmer, 

1 


PREFACE 

hoeing  out  the  Canadian  thistle  and  the  milkweed,  of  being  a  de- 
structive pessimist.  The  builder  who  tears  down  a  rookery  to  build 
a  beautiful  dwelling  is  only  a  destroyer  in  the  perverted  view  of 
those  who  love  unsightly  shanties.  In  like  manner  this  work  is 
only  destructive  from  the  standpoint  of  those  who  would  preserve 
the  unbeautiful,  the  immoral  and  the  degenerate.  If  this  be  pessi- 
mism, we  embrace  and  hug  it  closely,  enamoured  of  the  good  and  the 
promise  we  find  in  it. 

We  feel  that  we  should  frankly  ask  the  Reader  to  make  due  al- 
lowance for  the  fact  that,  in  trying  to  put  before  him  the  views 
of  a  great  many  authorities,  expressed,  as  far  as  possible,  in  their 
own  language,  we  have  perforce  robbed  the  work  of  that  intimate 
connectedness  which  otherwise  it  might  have  possessed.  We  believe, 
however,  that  this  lack  is  more  than  compensated  for  by  the  wide 
range  of  views  obtained. 

Again  we  must  confess  that  we  have  not  striven  after  literary 
polish  nor  those  delicate  graces  of  composition  which  fascinate  the 
average  reader.  Our  cardinal  thought  has  been  to  get  as  much  of 
the  truth  as  possible  before  the  Reader  in  unmistakable  language, 
and  with  such  guarantee  of  truthfulness  as  shall  carry  instant  con- 
viction. 

Present  social  conditions  certainly  justify  a  radical  change  on 
the  one  hand,  while,  on  the  other,  the  promise  of  the  Gillette  System 
warrants  at  least  its  most  careful  consideration. 

We  have  earnestly  endeavored  in  this  work  to  exhibit  to-day's 
trend  of  affairs.  In  the  book  to  follow  we  shall  spare  no  pains  to 
put  the  Reader  in  full  possession  of  the  ingenious  plan  which  Mr. 
Gillette  has  devised  for  the  amelioration  of  the  ever-increasing  ills 
of  the  existing  social  system.* 

We  are  not  unmindful  of  the  many  solutions,  which  have  already 
been  proposed,  to  the  great  social  problem,  but  we  believe  that  a 
perusal  of  this  latest  one  will  show  it  to  be  unlike  any  of  its  prede- 
cessors in  this  important  particular,  to  wit, — that  it  follows  Nature's 
line  of  least  resistance,  being  merely  an  intelligent  application  of 
natural  forces  already  in  unmistakable  evidence.  Its  author  has 
reared  his  social  structure  upon  the  foundation  of  the  poet's  assur- 
ance, 

"  To   the   solid     ground 
Of  Nature  trusts  the  mind  that  builds  for  aye." 

MELVIN  L.  SEVERT. 
Arlington  Heights,  Mass. 
October,  1906. 

*  For  a  brief  description  of  the  Gillette  System  see  Appendix  "  A." 


BOOK    I 

CHAPTER      I.  INTRODUCTORY 

CHAPTER    II.  EACIAL  CONDITIONS 

CHAPTER  III.  INTERNATIONAL  CONDITIONS 

CHAPTER    IV.  TRADE  EELATIONS 

CHAPTER     V.  NATIONAL  CONDITIONS 


Violent  agitations  in  the  political  or  commercial  world  disclose  two 
classes  of  thinkers,— those  who  think  they  see  the  world  progressing 
toward  right  and  justice  in  a  degree  more  marked  than  ever  before,  and 
others  who  know,  from  unmistakable  signs,  that  grave  and  serious  dan- 
gers are  not  far  below  the  horizon.  The  former  are  full  of  hope  and 
cheer  and  assume  a  tranquillity  of  soul  that  bespeaks  a  happy  continu- 
ance of  our  social  and  political  institutions  ad  inftnitum;  the  latter  are 
frequently  heard  descanting  upon  the  evils  in  our  civilization  and  the 
perilous  course  we  are  running,  whose  end  must  be  political  and  social 
destruction. 

Now  the  optimist  usually  has  the  "  right  of  way  "  with  a  marked  fol- 
lowing; while  the  pessimist  is  treated  with  contempt  and  his  predictions 
received  with  the  utmost  scorn.  But  the  saying  that  "  men  willingly  be- 
lieve what  they  wish  to  believe"  is  as  old  as  Julius  Caesar,  and  was  true 
long  before  he  uttered  it. 

In  the  ancients  Books  of  the  old  Prophets  we  find  famous  illustra- 
tions of  this  last  principle.  What  hardened,  unrelenting,  unregenerate 
pessimists  they  all  were, —  for  instance  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel  all 
thundering  "  with  the  voice  of  God  "  against  the  political  and  idolatrous 
wickedness  both  of  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  nations,  and  warning  them 
of  the  impending  doom  that  ever  follows  the  disregard  of  justice  and 
the  disobedience  of  righteous  law! 

And  yet  the  fulfilment  of  their  pessimistic  utterances  is  recorded  in 
the  "  empty  apartments  of  Edom,  where  the  fox  makes  his  den,  and  in 
the  sands  of  the  desert  now  sifting  over  the  forsaken  ruins  of  Palmyra; 
and  the  owl  hoots  in  the  halls  of  ancient  kings,  while  the  soft  breeze 
of  a  summer  night  sings  its  sad  requiem  through  the  rents  of  once  gor- 
geous palaces,  and  the  dust  of  the  desert  is  piled  in  heaps  above  the 
foundations  of  the  seven  churches  of  Asia."  And  all  because  men, 
blinded  by  desire  and  passion,  failed  to  see  the  truth,  though  uttered  by 
the  voice  of  God. 

Professor  George  W.  Flint. 

"They  have  turned  earth  upside  down," 

Says  the  foe; 
"  They  have  come  to  bring  our  town 

Wreck  and  woe." 
To  this  never-ending  cry 
Boldly  here  we  make  reply: 
Yea  and  no. 

Upside  down  the  world  has  lain 

Many  a  year; 
We  to  turn  it  back  again 

Now  appear. 

Will  ye,  nill  ye,  we  will  do 
What  at  last  no  man  shall  rue; 

Have  no  fear. 

Stephen  T.  Byngton. 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY  * 

ON'T  budge  if  you  sit  at  ease,"  say  the  Germans,  and, 
like  most  proverbs,  the  saying  contains  a  generous 
morsel  of  good  common  sense. 

The  task  which  confronts  us,  therefore,  at  the 
very  threshold  of  our  subject,  is  that  of  laying  before 
the  reader  such  facts  as  shall  enable  him  to  de- 
termine in  his  own  mind  whether  he  sits  at  ease  or  is  dissatisfied 
with  the  social  conditions  which  now  obtain. 

With  this  end  in  view  we  shall  put  before  him  a  picture  of  things 
as  they  are.  If,  when  we  have  finished,  he  concludes  that  he  likes 
the  picture,  that  will  be  the  place  for  him  to  put  down  this  book,  the 
sole  purpose  of  which  is  to  bring  about  a  radical  improvement  in 
existing  conditions.  For  the  facts  set  forth  we  make  no  apology. 
If  they  are  not  roseate,  they  are  at  least  true,  and  that  is  quite  suffi- 
cient to  justify  their  narration. 

It  is  well  known  that  religious  revivals  are  most  successful  during 
periods  of  dire  commercial  depression,  a  fact  which  may  be  ac- 
counted for  upon  the  assumption  that  the  increased  misery  of  this 
world  leads  the  suffering  poor  to  reach  out  in  imagination  for  another 
existence  where  all  shall  not  be  pain.  In  like  manner  must  we 
account  for  that  unwholesome  horror  of  disagreeable  facts  which 
to-day  blinds  the  eyes  and  ruins  the  judgment  of  the  overwhelming 
mass  of  Americans.  Authors  find  it  necessary  to  say  in  a  foreword 
that  they  do  not  take  a  "pessimistic  view"  of  their  subject,  and 
friendly  critics  vie  with  each  other  in  referring  to  the  author's  "  hope- 
ful attitude." 

What  is  the  cause  of  this  widespread  sentiment?  Is  it,  too,  not  a 
left-handed  confession  that  present  conditions  are  so  bad  that  we 
have  "  supp'd  full  with  horrors,"  till  we  lack  the  courage  to  face  the 
calamitous  facts?  Surely  there  can  be  no  other  reason  why  truth 
must  now  be  sugar-coated  to  be  swallowed,  and  disagreeable  verities 
must  learn  to  put  on  the  lying  livery  of  a  smile. 

Some  are  bound  to  cry  "  pessimism ! "  at  any  attempt  to  show  con- 
ditions as  they  are  To  such  we  must  answer,  slightly  varying  the 
celebrated  retort  of  Patrick  Henry :  "  If  this  be  pessimism  make  the 
most  of  it." 

The  critical  reader,  of  course,  will  not  need  to  be  told  that  no 
work,  which  earnestly  and  honestly  submits  what  it  claims  to  be  a 

•5 


INTRODUCTORY 

remedy  for  all  the  ills  it  cites,  could  either  result  from,  or  lead  to,  a 
condition  of  hopelessness. 

The  social  skies  are  indeed  black  and  threatening;  the  sounds  of 
the  coming  storm  seem  unmistakable,  yet  is  there  hope  that  its  ter- 
rors may  be  averted  if  quick,  intelligent  and  concerted  action,  can 
be  secured. 

Looking  toward  this  end  let  us  strive,  first  of  all,  to  realize  our 
present  condition.  What  are  some  of  the  most  glaring  ills  of  the 
social  system  under  which  we  live? 

Let  us  bravely  face  the  shocking  conditions  which  confront  us  on 
every  side.  Though  our  hearts  sicken,  let  us  not  seek  to  conceal  one 
jot  of  the  awful  truth.  Let  us  approach  the  subject  in  the  attitude 
of  a  surgeon  about  to  remove  a  morbid  growth,  realizing  that  a  close 
investigation  of  the  noisome  affair  is  absolutely  necessary  to  its 
intelligent  removal.  Let  us  not  lose  courage  but  rather  press  on 
from  contemplation  of  each  new  inhumanity  of  man  to  man,  the 
more  determined  that  all  such  outrages  shall  cease  now  and  forever, 
for,  in  view  of  the  Gillette  plan  for  social  redemption,  the  humblest 
Eeader  has  good  cause  to  exclaim  with  Emerson :  "  My  hope  for 
the  human  race  is  bright  as  the  morning  star,  for  a  glory  is  coming 
to  man  such  as  the  most  inspired  tongue  of  prophets  and  of  poets 
has  never  been  able  to  describe.  "  The  gate  of  human  opportunity  is 
turning  on  its  hinges  and  the  light  is  breaking  through  its  chink; 
possibilities  are  opening  and  human  nature  is  pushing  forward 
toward  them." 

Since  Nature's  order  in  human  development  is  from  the  general 
to  the  particular,  suppose  we  follow  her  course  and  consider  (1) 
Racial  conditions  generally;  (2)  International  conditions;  (3) 
National;  (4)  State;  (5)  individual,  and  (6)  Miscellaneous  condi- 
tions overlapping  one  or  more  of  these  divisions. 


CHAPTEE  II 
RACIAL    CONDITIONS 


Like  children  unused  to  company  the  race  has  yet  to  learn  to  behave 
itself  in  society. 

The  ultimate  source  of  all  sin  -is  selfishness,  and  the  cure  for  this 
excessive  self-\ove  is  oMer-love, —  the  development  of  that  budding  attri- 
bute which  we  call  the  social  sense. 

The  sword  is  the  pen  wherewith  nations  write  themselves  down  bar- 
barians. 

Ez  fer  war,  I  call  it  murder, — 

There  you  hev  it  plain  an'  flat; 

I  don't  want  to  go  no  furder 

Than  my  Testyment  fer  that. 

The  Biglow  Papers. 

There  never  was  a  good  war  or  a  bad  peace. 

Benjamin  Franklin. 


t 


CHAPTER  II 
RACIAL    CONDITIONS 

AKING  a  broad  view  of  the  whole  human  race,  what 
characteristics  do  we  find  common  to  every  nation 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth? 

Can  a  single  one  be  pointed  out  in  which  war  is 
not  a  recent  memory,  a  living  issue,  or  a  dreaded 

and  more  or  less  imminent  possibility?     Who  can 

name  one  which  does  not  maintain  some  sort  of  military  activity? 
Those  small  principalities  which  lie  like  sheep  between  ravenous 
lions,  owing  their  independence  to  the  mutual  jealousy  of  the  large 
powers  surrounding  them,  may  at  any  moment  fall  the  victims  of 
a  disturbed  balance  of  nations  and  be  swallowed  at  a  single  gulp. 
In  order  that  they  may  not  appear  to  be  more  enticing  morsels  than 
is  absolutely  necessary  they  ostentatiously  rattle  their  armour  and 
cat-like  ruffle  their  defensive  fur  with  the  intention  of  making 
themselves  as  terrible  as  possible.  Nowhere  on  earth  has  the  uni- 
versal brotherhood  of  man  rendered  the  soldier  impossible,  and  yet 
the  soldier  at  his  best  is  a  loafer,  at  his  worst  a  murderer.  Never 
in  the  exercise  of  his  normal  functions  is  he  a  producer,  the  very 
essence  of  his  mission  being  destruction.  The  losses  of  war  are  not 
like  the  losses  of  business,  mere  displacements  of  wealth;  they  are 
for  the  most  part  annihilatory, —  the  wealth  disappears  forever  from 
the  face  of  the  earth.  The  cannons  of  some  of  our  warships  utterly 
destroy  the  value  of  a  fine  farm  at  every  shot.  In  many  sections  of 
Europe  every  peasant  may  be  said  to  carry  a  soldier  upon  his  back. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  this  world-wide  pugnacity?  Is  Mother 
Earth  too  small  or  too  poor  to  support  her  children?  Must  man 
kill  his  brother  in  order  that  he  himself  may  live?  Let  us  see.  We 
are  told  that  a  quarter  of  an  acre  of  ground  subjected  to  the  intensive 
farming  of  Holland  will  support  a  family  of  six.  Now  the  entire 
human  race,  divided  into  groups  of  six  persons  each,  can  be  set  down 
in  the  centre  of  Texas,  each  upon  its  own  quarter-acre  of  ground,  and 
there  will  then  be  an  unoccupied  fringe  of  land  surrounding  these 
farms  greater  in  area  than  the  combined  area  of  the  New  England 
States,  the  District  of  Columbia,  Delaware,  Maryland,  New  Jersey, 
England,  Wales  and  the  mainland  of  Scotland  (see  opposite  page). 

So  prevalent  among  those  who  do  not  critically  examine  it,  is  the 
idea  that  poverty  is  in  some  way  due  to  the  inability  of  Mother  Earth 
to  support  her  children  and  that  its  burdens  therefore  must  be  borne 
since  they  cannot  be  remedied,  that  it  has  been  thought  best  to  sub- 
mit a  diagram  which  graphically  represents  the  approximate  density 
of  population  per  square  mile  in  1890  of  the  various  countries 

9 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

named  Belgium,  with  its  535.81  persons  per  square  mile  leading  the 
entTre  world  in  the  matter  of  congested  population,  if  we  may  app  y 
such  a  term  to  a  country  which  averages  more  than  a  square  acre  I 
every  man,  woman  and  child  within  its  borders. 
'  It  will  readily  be  seen  that,  if  by  intensive  farming,  a  family  of 
six  can  at  least  maintain  itself  from  a  quarter  of  an  acre  of  ground, 
there  ought  to  be  no  difficulty  in  their  supporting  themselves  upon 
more  than  twenty-four  times  that  amount  which,  be  it  remembered 
is  the  smallest  average  area  obtaining  in  any  country  on  the  lace 

the  globe.  , , 

If  the  poverty,  misery  and  ignorance  now  apparent  all  over  the 
world  with  their  attendant  crime,  disease  and  debauchery,  resulted 
from  the  overcrowding  of  the  Earth  by  the  human  race,  these  evils 
should  vary  as  the  density  of  population  varies,  being  at  their 
maximum  in  Belgium  and  reaching  a  vanishing  quantity  in  Aus- 


A  glance  at  the  subjoined  chart  is  all  that  is  needed  to  refute  such 
an  assumption. 

Can  anyone  for  a  moment  believe  that  Belgium  has  more  thar 
eleven  times  as  much  poverty,  misery,  ignorance,  crime,  disease  and 
debauchery  as  would  be  found  in  Eussia?  The  average  intelligent 
child  knows  that  the  reverse  would  be  much  nearer  a  statement  of 
fact. 

The  rate  of  illiteracy  in  Great  Eussia  is  94  per  cent  among  adults 
while  the  illiteracy  in  Belgium  may  be  judged  from  the  following 
facts:  "According  to  the  decennial  censuses,  the  proportion  of 
young  people  from  15  up  to  20  years  of  age  knowing  at  least  how 
to  read  and  write  was  80.96  per  cent  in  1880,  85  per  cent  in  1890 
and  90.55  per  cent  in  1900. 

"  Among  the  young  men  of  age  for  the  militia,  that  is  to  say,  from 
19  to  20  years  old,  the  proportion  of  those  who  did  not  know  how 
to  read  and  write  was,  in  1870,  29.23  per  cent.  This  proportion 
decreased  to  21.66  per  cent  in  1880,  to  15.92  per  cent  in  1890,  to 
12.01  per  cent  in  1900  and  to  10.68  per  cent  in  1903." 

Will  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  be  able  to  believe  that  the 
aforementioned  ills  are  more  than  fourteen-fold  as  great  in  his 
country  as  just  across  its  northern  border  in  Canada  ?  Would  he  admit 
that  they  were  sensibly  the  same  in  the  United  States  as  in  Turkey 
in  Asia,  and  worse  than  in  Mexico?  To  be  sure  not.  Nothing  can 
be  clearer  than  that  the  intensity  of  poverty  and  its  allied  ills  cannot  be 
estimated  in  any  country  by  the  average  density  of  its  population, 
nor  can  anything  be  more  certain  than  that  the  world  is  big  enough 
to  support  in  affluence  more  than  twenty-five  times  its  present  popu- 
lation. 

All  this  must  not  be  understood  to  say  that  land  and  the  density 
of  its  population  have  no  bearing  upon  poverty,  misery  and  crime. 
Far  from  it !  All  wealth  is  taken  out  of  the  earth  by  labor.  *  A  man 
would  be  as  likely  to  starve  in  a  pantry  full  of  his  favorite  food  to 
which  he  had  full  right  and  free  access,  as  he  would  be  to  remain  in 
besotted  poverty  upon  land  containing  Nature's  bounties  and  needing 

10 


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-* 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

only  the  magic  touch  of  his  labor  to  transmute  them  into  wealth, 
provided  here,  too,  he  had  full  right  and  free  access. 

The  average  density  of  population  does  not  tell  the  story.  For 
example:  If  we  suppose  a  country  containing  a  hundred  square 
miles  to  have  a  population  of  a  thousand  people,  we  should  get  an 
average  density  of  population  of  only  ten  persons  to  the  square  mile, 
being  less  than  half  that  of  the  United  .States.  This  imaginary 
country  would  seem  very  roomy  to  us,  and  visions  of  the  long  per- 
spective of  "  broad  acres  "  owned  by  each  inhabitant  would  rise  be- 
fore our  inner  sight.  Suppose,  however,  that  investigation  should 
show  that  ninety-nine  and  nine-tenths  square  miles  were  fenced  off 
and  owned  and  held  out  of  use  by  one  person.  We  should  then 
witness  in  imagination  one  thousand  people  trying  to  subsist  upon 
the  yield  of  ten  square  acres  of  ground,  and  the  real  and  effective 
density  of  population  would  be  not  the  ten  persons  per  square  mile 
exhibited  in  the  country's  census  report,  but  rather  sixty-four  thou- 
sand persons  per  square  mile. 

Right  here  rests  one  of  the  gravest  social  difficulties  which  con- 
fronts the  human  race,  as  will  be  shown  more  fully  in  another  place. 
Suffice  it  now  to  make  clear  beyond  a  perad venture  that  humanity  is 
not  condemned  forever  by  Nature's  meagreness  to  the  awful  social 
and  economical  conditions  which  now  afflict  it. 

The  outlook  is  by  no  means  hopeless.  When  social  conditions  are 
so  altered  that  order  shall  replace  the  existing  chaos  and  justice  sup- 
plant injustice,  then  will  the  earth  blossom  like  a  rose  and  man,  ever 
responsive  to  his  environment,  will  grow  in  moral,  mental  and  phys- 
ical stature.  "  'Produce  great  people  —  the  rest  follows,"  says  Walt 
Whitman,  and  assuredly  he  is  right. 

To-day  throughout  the  human  race  broadly  considered  every  man's 
hand  is  upon  another  man's  throat.  Physical  competition, —  which  is 
war,  whether  between  nations  or  the  individuals  of  the  same  nation, 
whether  it  murders  upon  that  large  scale  which  "makes  ambition 
virtue"  to  the  minds  of  the  unthinking,  or  upon  that  petty  basis  of 
the  thug  and  highwayman  which  renders  it  despicable  to  the  same 
discerning  contingent, —  is  in  evidence  upon  every  hand.  Commer- 
cial competition,  a  warfare  more  rapacious  and  heartless  than  its 
physical  fellow,  is  at  work  in  every  quarter  of  the  civilised  world 
where  it  has  not  already  won  the  whole  issue,  in  which  latter  case  it 
is  busy  gathering  and  housing  the  spoils  of  conquest  for  use  as  the 
"  sinews  of  war  "  in  another  onslaught  upon  suffering  humanity. 

Look  where  we  will  do  we  not  find  superfluous  wealth  and  needless 
poverty?  Does  not  the  pampered  epicure  rub  shoulders  with  the 
starving  and  degraded  economic  slave?  The  house  of  Have  is  side 
by  side  with  the  house  of  Want.  The  more  advanced  the  so-called 
civilisation  of  the  area  considered,  the  sharper,  as  a  rule,  will  be 
found  the  contrast  between  the  social  light  and  shade,  the  glare  and 
the  gloom  of  existence. 

We  have  had  approximately  two  thousand  years  of  the  Christian 
Era,  and  in  no  country  in  the  world  is  the  life  of  Christ  imitated 
or  his  teachings  followed  either  by  the-  laity  or  the  clergy.  The 
author  of  "  Modern  Christianity  a  Civilised  Heathenism,"  writing 

1/c 


of  so-called  Christian  England,  says:  "We  accept  .  .  .  the 
philosophy  of  civilised  heathenism, —  as  the  guide  of  our  daily  life, 
and  keep  Christianity  for  our  acts  of  devotion,  for  periods  of 
solemnity  or  sentiment  and  for  times  when  we  think  we  are  going  to 
die.  This  is  somewhere  about  what  the  modern  Christian's  imita- 
tion of  Christ  is  worth;  and  I  ask  any  honest  man  to  say  whether 
such  a  contradiction  between  faith  and  practice  is  or  is  not,  a  bare- 
faced, transparent  absurdity." 

Says  Henry  George,  Jr.,  in  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege,"  " '  There 
was  a  time/  said  Dr.  Falkner,  rector-emeritus  of  Christ  Church, 
Germantown,  in  a  sermon  at  the  opening  session  of  the  convention 
of  the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  '  when  the  poor  came  to  the  Epis- 
copal churches  seeking  and  obtaining  aid  for  body  and  soul,  and 
felt  that  they  were  helped  through  its  ministers.  Is  this  so  to-day  ?  ' 
Dr.  Falkner  had  to  confess  that  there  are  churches  in  which  'the 
presence  of  the  poor  is  regarded  as  bad  form.  If  Christ  Himself 
were  to  enter  them,  the  pew  openers  would  ask:  What  is  that  car- 
penter doing  here  ? ' 

"  That  this  is  true  of  some  of  the  Episcopal  churches  '  in  practice 
if  not  in  theory/  says  The  Churchman,  '  and  not  in  Philadelphia 
alone,  the  observant  church-goer  will  find  himself  constrained  re- 
gretfully to  admit.  The  spirit  is  not  dead  yet  of  which  Bishop 
Potter  gave  the  other  day  a  curious  illustration  in  his  reminiscence 
of  an  old-time  sexton  of  Grace  Church,  who,  when  taken  to  task  for 
ordering  a  poorly  dressed  woman  from  one  of  the  pews,  replied, 
'  Why,  if  we  permit  that,  they'll  soon  be  praying  all  over  the  place ! ' : 
-  The  Churchman  thinks  that  if  that  spirit  is  not  dead,  "  it  is 
dying."  Yet  no  explanation  is  made  as  to  why  or  how  it  is  dying. 
The  Churchman  frankly  says  that  "  as  society  is  organised  to-day, 
there  cannot  but  be  distinctions  of  class.  These  arise  inevitably 
from  differences  in  education,  opportunity,  occupation,  race."  The 
word  "opportunity"  would  suffice  to  explain  class  distinctions. 

In  the  United  States  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  trust  magnates  and 
others  who  are  flagrantly  dishonest  six  days  in  the  week  piously  fold 
their  hands  and  sing  psalms  on  the  seventh.  It  is  no  uncommon 
experience  to  find  an  extortionate  rise  in  the  price  of  oil  during  a 
coal  famine  in  the  midst  of  a  rigourous  winter,  a  rise  meaning  untold 
suffering  to  the  poor,  followed  by  a  pretentious  and  duly  advertised 
gift  to  some  religious  institution,  both  flowing  from  the  same  source. 

The  brazenly  hypocritical  attitude  of  some  of  our  sacrosanct  (?) 
coal  barons  who  have  no  more  humour  than  to  seriously  pose  as  di- 
vinely appointed  agents  of  Providence  the  while  they  are  deliberately 
causing  wide-spread  crime,  misery  and,  in  many  instances,  even 
death,  is  another  case  in  point.  Nor  is  this  same  spirit  exclusively 
confined  to  trust  magnates;  it  is  merely  more  noticeable  where  spe- 
cial privilege  runs  riot,  that  is  all. 

No  one  would  look  for  the  general  observance  of  Christian  princi- 
ples in  Turkey,  but  is  Russia  any  better,  or  even  as  good,  in  this 
regard?  Nor  need  we  go  so  far  afield  for  illustrations.  The  out- 
rages inflicted  by  Spain  upon  suffering  Cuba,  the  United  States 
ably  matched  in  the  inquisitorial  atrocities  practised  in  the  Philip- 

13 


GILLETTE'S   SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

pines.  Everywhere  the  story  is  the  same.  Everywhere  strife,  warlike 
or  commercial  or  both,  makes  that  chaos  which  we  call  Civilisation 
groan  in  agony.  We  call  this  the  ego-altruistic  age,  and  yet  the 
human  race  is  still  following  the  methods  which  its  savage  ancestry 
used  in  the  jungle.  The  conception  of  the  whole  human  race  grow- 
ing rich  together  by  unified  brotherly  effort  has  not  yet  driven  out 
the  brutish  idea  that  the  acquisition  of  another's  wealth  is  as  good 
as  creation  of  wealth  of  our  own. 

The  lesson  has  yet  to  be  learned  that  the  whole  human  race  is 
bound  together  by  indissoluble  ties,  and  that  one  might  as  well  try 
to  raise  himself  by  pulling  upon  his  bootstraps  as  for  a  nation  to 
hope  to  climb  to  great  heights  of  moral  and  intellectual  attainment 
over  the  necks  of  other  nations.  The  noblest  and  most  advanced 
civilisation  in  the  world,  in  its  upward  struggle  toward  better  things, 
trails  after  it  as  a  drag  and  a  hindrance  all  lower  forms  of  society. 
They  are  none  the  less  fastened  to  it  because  they  drag  behind  it  at 
a  distance.  The  capital  of  civilisation  cannot  be  more  solidly  placed 
than  the  column  which  supports  it. 


14 


15 


War  is  usually  a  sort  of  national  highwaymanry, —  an  attempt  to  dis- 
place wealth.  There  is  no  war  between  a  man's  right  and  left  pocket. 
Rather  is  the  feud  between  his  pockets  and  all  other  pockets.  When  the 
final  peace-palace  is  triumphantly  built  it  will  be  found  to  be  but  an 
all  inclusive  commercial  ganglion, —  a  gigantic  central  station,  through 
which  pass  all  the  pocket-nerves  of  the  world. 

Free  trade,  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  which  a  government  can 
confer  on  a  people,  is  in  almost  every  country  unpopular. 

Macaulay. 

But  war's  a  game  which,  were  their  subjects  wise, 
Kings  would  not  play  at. 

Cowper. 

One  murder  made  a  villain, 
Millions   a   hero.     Princes   were   privileged 
To  kill,  and  numbers  sanctified  the  crime. 

Beilby  Porteus. 

It  hath  been  said  that  an  unjust  peace  is  to  be  preferred  before  a 
just  war. 

Samuel  Butler. 

And  raw  in  fields  the  rude  militia  swarms, 
Mouths  without  hands;  maintain'd  at  vast  expense, 
In  peace  a  charge,  in  war  a  weak  defence; 
Stout  once  a  month  they  march,  a  blustering  band, 
And  ever  but  in  times  of  need  at  hand. 

Of  seeming  arms  to  make  a  short  essay, 

Then  hasten  to  be  drunk, —  the  business  of  the  day. 

Dryden. 


UCH  relations  existing  between  nations  as  need  be 
mentioned  here  fall  chiefly  under  two  heads,  to  wit: 
(1)  Military  Eelations.  (2)  Trade  Eelations. 

Of  the  first  of  these  but  little  need  be  said.  The 
inauguration  of  a  Peace  Commission,  through  the 
initiative  of  Eussia's  Czar,  followed  almost  imme- 
diately by  such  a  policy  of  dishonesty,  falsehood  and  hypocrisy  on 
Eussia's  part  as  made  with  unerring  precision  straight  toward  one  of 
the  fiercest  and  bloodiest  wars  of  modern  history,  is  too  fresh  in  the 
public  mind  to  need  more  than  passing  mention.  The  Spanish- 
American,  Spanish-Cuban,  Philippine-American  and  Engilsh-Boer 
wars  are  also  too  green  in  our  memories  to  need  more  than  a  hint  to 
call  up  in  our  minds  the  long  retinue  of  horrors  attendant  upon  each 
of  them.  The  trouble  between  China  and  the  Allied  Powers  is  being 
recalled  at  present  writing  by  Chinese  conditions  threatening  another 
similar  outbreak. 

In  view  of  the  outrages  perpetrated  upon  that  former  occasion 
which  "The  Washington  Post"  declared  to  be  "The  Blackest 
Chapter  in  History  "  the  present  unsettled  state  is  big  with  foreboding. 

The  following  extract  from  this  paper,  by  showing  what  has  al- 
ready occurred,  shows  what  we  have  to  dread :  "  As  for  the  butchery, 
the  slaughter,  and  the  still  darker  infamies  with  which  the  history  of 
the  allied  occupation  reeks,  who  will  dream  of  questioning,  still  less 
contradicting,  the  unutterable  catalogues?  Waldersee's  latest  expe- 
dition showed  a  result  of  250  Chinese  killed  and  one  German 
wounded !  But  that  is  only  a  drop  in  the  bucket  of  the  horrors  that 
civilization  has  perpetrated  on  the  pagans.  NO  chapter  taken  from 
the  darkest  of  the  dark  ages  of  the  past  —  no  exploit  of  brutal 
savagery  in  any  period  of  human  ignorance  and  degradation  —  is 
more  appalling  than  the  notorious  facts  in  this  frightful  case." 

The  wanton  desecration  of  the  graves  of  a  people  practising  ances- 
tor worship  was  most  heartless,  as  heartless  as  would  be  England's 
yearly  importation  and  grinding  into  fertiliser  of  tons  of  African 
mummies,  were  the  children  of  those  mummies  living  and  privy  to 
the  horror. 

The  recent  intestine  tragedies  of  Eussia  with  their  wholesale  cold- 
blooded murders  on  the  part  of  the  authorities,  treading  as  they  did 
upon  the  heels  of  the  defeat  inflicted  by  Japan,  did  not  create  the 
same  sentiment  of  indignant  abhorrence  as  they  would  have  at  a 
more  peaceful  time.  The  Kishineff  massacres,  the  general  treatment 
of  the  Russian  Jews,  the  almost  unbelievable  Turkish-Armenian 

17 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

atrocities  and  the  thousands  upon  thousands  of  unspeakable  out- 
rages being  perpetrated  by  King  Leopold  and  his  minions  in  the 
Congo  Free  State,  impress  the  American  mind  with  a  sense  like 
unto  that  of  an  intermittent  nightmare  so  frequently  do  they  recur. 

The  internal  atrocities  of  Russia  partake  in  a  way  of  inter- 
national characteristics,  occurring  as  they  do  in  a  country  inhabited 
by  peoples  speaking  forty  different  languages  and  having  all  manner 
of  religious,  race  and  class  hatreds.  "Scratch  a  Russian,"  said 
Napoleon,  "and  you  will  find  a  Tartar."  A  half  century  later 
Tourgenieff,  one  of  Russia's  greatest  writers  remarked:  The 
trouble  with  us  Russians  is  that  the  Tartar  is  so  close  behind  us.  We 
are  a  semi-barbarous  people  still.  We  put  Parisian  kid  gloves  on 
our  hands  instead  of  washing  them.  At  one  moment  we  bow  and 
utter  polite  phrases,  and  then  go  home  and  flog  our  servants." 

The  strength  of  Russian  autocracy  has  ever  been  largely  due  to  the 
impossibility  of  fusing  together  its  heterogeneous  population  for  any 
concerted  movement  for  freedom.  They  have  been  in  a  great  measure 
like  so  many  different  nations  held  apart  by  that  prejudice  of  lo- 
cality or  of  interest  which  we  euphoniously  denominate  "  patriotism." 

It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  this  sentiment  acts  no  more  to 
bind  together  the  citizens  of  a  given  country  than  it  does  to  force 
away  from  it  .those  of  all  other  countries.  The  so-called  patriotic 
cry  of  "  America  for  Americans  "  could  just  as  well  be  phrased  with 
no  jot  of  violence  to  its  meaning,  "No  foreigners  need  to  apply," 
the  idea  being  that  the  bounties  of  our  country  are  for  ourselves  and 
are  not  to  be  shared  with  any  from  other  countries.  Indeed,  the 
dominant  thought  in  what  we  now  call  our  patriotism  is  dissociative 
rather  than  associative.  The  sentiment  is  not  at  all  consistent 
either  with  that  larger  philosophy  which  regards  the  human  race  as 
a  mutually  interested  and  reciprocally  related  brotherhood,  nor  with 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Coming  nearer  home,  the  demand  on  the  part  of  our  own  mili- 
tant countrymen  for  increased  army  appropriations  and  an  immense 
navy  is  indicative  of  the  same  underlying  spirit  of  chaotic  unrest 
which  is  so  patent  abroad.  The  speeches  of  Captain  Hobson  asking 
for  an  appropriation  of  a  thousand  millions  of  dollars  to  be  ex- 
pended upon  our  navy  are  only  illustrative  of  the  same  militant 
savagery  when  it  runs  amuck.  Attempts  are  made  to  make  Ameri- 
cans believe  that  all  this  is  purely  a  defensive  precaution,  but  the 
wise  know  better. 

American  ideals  so  dear  to  our  forefathers  that  they  wrote  them 
into  our  constitution  with  their  heart's  blood,  have  been  and  still  are 
being  in  rapid  succession  ruthlessly  torn  from  the  national  conscience. 

Everywhere  conditions  are  substantially  the  same,  in  that  nations 
find  it  desirable  to  arm  in  order  to  appropriate  the  goods  of  weaker 
powers,  on  the  one  hand,  while  on  the  other  hand  they  find  it  neces- 
sary in  order  to  prevent  stronger  powers  from  annexing  or  "  benevo- 
lently assimilating  "  their  own  chattels. 

The  intestine  intimidating  "white  terrorism"  of  the  Russian 
Government  and  the  "red  terrorism"  which  is  the  revolutionist's 
answer  thereto,  are  scarcely  more  productive  of  fear  and  unrest 

18 


INTERNATIONAL    CONDITIONS 

within  the  Czar's  Empire  than  are  the  various  foreign  "  perils " 
which  loom  so  large  upon  many  a  national  horizon  to  the  peoples 
they  menace.  The  Christian  nations  which  have  had  so  much  to  say 
in  the  past  of  the  "  Yellow  Peril "  are  now  busily  trying  to  figure  out 
what  may  happen  when  victorious  Japan,  now  one  of  the  most  up- 
to-date  nations  of  the  world,  shall  have  impressed  her  personality 
upon  the  uncounted  millions  of  China.  The  Russian  Peril,  which, 
until  recently,  looked  so  ominous  to  England,  Japan  has  set,  for 
the  time  being  at  least,  far  in  the  background,  so  that  now  England 
is  free  to  join  the  rest  of  Europe  and  the  United  States  in  the 
daily  increasing  fear  of  the  Asiatic  or  Yellow  Peril.  The  Filipinos 
have  good  cause  to  look  upon  Americans  as  the  Saxon  peril  and  we 
are  actually  referred  to  by  some  of  our  southern  neighbour  republics 
as  "  El  peligro  del  Norte"  meaning  "  the  northern  peril."  Far  too 
well  have  we  justified  this  fear.  The  American  coup  d'etat  effected 
at  Honolulu  by  the  aid  of  the  United  .States  war-ship  Boston  and 
ending  ultimately  in  our  gaining  possession  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
is  a  case  in  point.  Our  treatment  of  Santo  Domingo  under  the 
"protocol"  of  January  20,  1905,  is  another  cogent  reason  for  our 
being  distrusted. 

This  " protocol/'  though  in  diplomatic  language  merely  a  "first 
draft "  of  a  treaty,  became  through  President  Roosevelt's  acts  a 
treaty  in  fact  without  the  action  of  the  Senate,  despite  the-  fact  that 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States  expressly  provides  that  all 
treaties  shall  be  made  "by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate." 
The  action  of  our  chief  executive  in  committing  virtual  acts  of  war 
against  the  friendly  government  of  Colombia  is  still  another  illus- 
tration. Of  this  Mr.  Carl  .Schurtz  has  justly  said  that  the  Presi- 
dent "trampled  under  foot  the  principle  for  the  maintenance  of 
which  we  sacrificed  in  four  years  of  bloody  war  nearly  a  million 
human  lives,  and  many  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars  —  namely, 
that  principle  that  under  the  Federal  constitution  like  ours  —  and 
the  existing  constitution  of  Colombia  is  in  this  respect  very  much 
like  ours,  perhaps  even  a  little  stronger  —  a  State  has  no  right  to 
Becede  from  the  Union."  Another  has  said  regarding  our  acquisi- 
tions in  the  Panama^  canal  zone  growing  out  of  our  very  shady  trans- 
actions in  respect  to  Colombia :  "  We  gave  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence for  a  '  ditch. ' '  If  further  food  for  fear  be  needed 
by  our  weaker  neighbours  they  have  only  to  consider  our  Philippine 
Episode.  The  late  Senator  Hoar  said  that  for  the  Philippine  Islands 
we  have  had  to  repeal  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Neither  are  our  rubber-like  Artful-Dodger  tariff  rulings  in  regard 
to  Porto  Rico  at  all  reassuring  to  outside  nations.  We  have  solemnly 
concluded  that  Porto  Rico  is  neither  a  foreign  country  nor  yet 
strictly  a  part  of  the  United  States.  Can  any  one  wonder  that  our 
southern  neighbours  look  upon  us  as  "  the  northern  peril  ?  " 

The  movement  which  was  started  some  years  ago  looking  toward 
the  whole  or  partial  disarmament  of  the  powers  did  not  meet  with 
success.  The  great  national  highwaymen  did  not  dare  to  lay  by  their 
"shooting  irons"  lest  some  tricky  Dick  Turpin  among  them  should 

19 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

find  some  way  to  conceal  his  "gun"  and  thus  have  them  all  at  his 
mercy. 

What  a  commentary  upon  twentieth  century  civilisation ! 

What  think  you  would  happen  were  nations  so  bound  together  that 
when  they  attacked  each  other,  they  destroyed  only  property  in 
which  they  themselves  were  interested?  What,  let  us  ask,  does 
happen  when  one  nation  offends  another  to  which  it  is  heavily  in- 
debted? Does  the  offended  nation  gird  on  its  sword  and  hasten  to 
destroy  the  value  of  the  bonds  it  holds?  Eather  does  it  bend  all  its 
energies  to  a  peaceful  adjustment.  Were  only  lives  at  stake,  honour 
would  demand  summary  retribution,  but  gold  —  that  is  something 
different  from  human  blood  and  must  be  conserved  at  all  hazards. 

Reader,  does  not  all  this  suggest  a  way  by  which  "  grim-visaged 
war," — which  along  the  lines  of  Sherman's  definition  could  better 
be  described  as  hell  in  epaulets  and  buttons, —  may  be  forever  ban- 
ished from  the  face  of  this  planet? 

A  century  ago  Immanuel  Kant  prophesied  perpetual  peace,  basing 
his  prediction  upon  the  belief  that  commerce  would  end  in  the  ulti- 
mate suppression  of  war.  Can  there  be  any  doubt  of  the  soundness 
of  the  great  philosopher's  judgment  in  this  regard  ? 


CHAPTER  IV 
TRADE    RELATIONS 


21 


Ah,  when  shall  all  men's  good 
Be  each  man's  rule,  and  universal  peace 
Lie  like  a  shaft  of  light  across  the  land, 
And  like  a  lane  of  beams  athwart  the  sea, 
Thro'  all  the  circle  of  the  golden  year? 

Tennyson. 

Commercialism  can  only  be  saved  from  the  charge  of  dishonesty  on 
the  ground  that  each  party  to  barter  is  benefited  in  that  he  receives  in 
exchange  a  utility  greater  than  that  with  which  he  parts.  Anything, 
therefore,  which  hampers  the  free  flow  of  utilities  to  their  points  of 
maximum  service,  whether  it  be  tariff,  race  prejudice,  or  a  monopolised 
and  inefficient  system  of  transportation,  is  of  necessity  pernicious  and 
perversive  of  the  general  welfare. 

Unnecessary   taxation   is  unjust  taxation. 

Abraham  Hewitt. 

Unless  you  see  clearly  that  under  natural  conditions  the  demand  for 
labor  products  will  always  be  equal  to  the  supply,  you  will  not  see  the 
uselessness  of  a  tariff.  But  if  you  get  a  grip  on  the  principle  that 
all  demand  for  goods  is  demand  for  labor,  you  will  understand  that  under 
no  circumstances  can  laws  shutting  out  imports  give  more  opportunities 
for  the  workers.  They  may  set  some  men  to  work  making  blankets  or 
glass,  instead  of  growing  wheat  or  grain,  but  the  sum  earned  by  labor 
is  not  increased.  .  .  . 

Of  course  you  know  that  where  real  estate  owners  pay  a  tax  on  a 
building,  it  increases  the  cost  of  the  goods  made  or  sold  in  it,  and  they 
add  the  tax,  with  a  profit  for  collecting  it,  to  the  price  at  which  they 
sell  the  goods  or  to  the  rent.  In  the  same  way  when  merchants  pay  a 
personal  tax  or  an  internal  revenue  or  an  import  tax  on  goods  made  here 
or  coming  into  this  country,  they  add  the  tax  to  the  price  at  which  the 
goods  are  sold.  If  they  cannot  get  that  price,  importation  or  manufac- 
ture stops,  being  unprofitable. 

Bolton  Hall  —  Free  America. 


To  levy  a  tax  of  7  per  cent  Is  a  dangerous  experiment  in  a  free 
country,  and  may  excite  revolt;  but  there  is  a  method  by  which  you  can 
tax  the  last  rag  from  the  back  and  the  last  bite  from  the  mouth  without 
causing  a  murmur  against  high  taxes:  and  that  is  to  tax  a  great  many 
articles  of  daily  use  and  necessity  so  indirectly  that  the  people  will  pay 
them  and  not  know  it.  Their  grumbling  then  will  be  of  hard  times,  but 
they  will  not  know  that  the  hard  times  are  caused  by  taxation. 

William  Pitt. 

It  is  midwinter  madness  to  talk  of  reducing  the  average  wage  below 
a  dollar  a  day  for  competent,  skilled  operatives.  Yet  that  has  been 
done  in  the  cotton  mills  of  New  England  six  months  or  less  after  the 
passage  of  the  Dingley  act,  which  gives  increased  protection  to  the  manu- 
facturers of  the  finer  grades  of  goods  made  in  the  mills  of  the  Eastern 
States. 

Philadelphia  Public  Ledger. 

Free-trade  conceptions  in  their  usual  forms,  thanks  to  compromises 
brought  about  by  economical  stagnation  and  false  ideas  on  the  part  of 
the  State,  were  incapable,  as  proved  by  facts,  of  overcoming  national 
antagonism. 

When  the  question  is  set  on  a  wider  base,  then  the  symptoms  of  a 
better  future  will  appear.  No  single  effort,  not  even  the  initiative  of 
powerful  State  authority,  can  produce  observable  results.  Only  when 
all  Government  activity  in  legal  and  independent  kingdoms  is  full  of  the 
consciousness  of  the  necessity  of  free  and  energetic  co-operation,  uni- 
versal and  social,  then  only  will  war  disappear,  as  slavery  has  disap- 
peared. This  course  will  demand  many  sacrifices  and  many  efforts. 
History  teaches  that  prejudices  are  defended  more  firmly  than  are  actual 
interests. 

Michael  Anitchkow  —  War  und   Labor. 


CHAPTER  IV 
TRADE   RELATIONS 

ET  us  now  turn  to  a  consideration  of  Trade  Relations. 
Here,  too,  we  find  on  almost  every  hand  the  same 
chaotic  conditions  which  we  have  observed  in  other 
matters.  For  example,  Switzerland  is  practically 
a  free  trade  country  while  the  United  .States  has  a 

protective  tariff. 

Eussia  has  one  tariff  schedule,  Germany  another  and  Prance  still 
another.  Not  only  do  these  schedules  vary  in  different  countries  in 
a  manner  that  is  the  despair  of  any  one  who  seeks  to  master  the 
subject,  but  even  a  given  schedule  does  not  "  stay  put "  but  is  con- 
stantly being  changed.  In  free  trade  England,  for  example,  Mr. 
Chamberlain  and  his  followers  have  recently  been  attempting  to 
secure  the  adoption  of  a  protective  policy.  In  the  course  of  the 
debate  upon  this  subject  they  pointed  to  the  statistics  of  exports  from 
France,  Germany  and  the  United  States,  all  protection  countries,  to 
show  what  protection  has  done  for  these  countries,  and  what  it  could 
therefore  be  expected  to  do  for  free  trade  England,  should  she  adopt 
it.  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  however,  challenged  this  empty  boasting  by 
reminding  the  protectionist  faction  that  Great  Britain's  exports 
were  already  greater  than  those  of  France,  Germany  and  the  United 
States  combined.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  England  will 
undergo  any  radical  change  in  policy  during  the  near  future;  still 
no  one  can  have  any  absolute  assurance  of  this. 

A  glance  at  a  chart  showing  the  annual  average  ad  valorem  rate 
of  duty  collected  on  dutiable  imports  into  the  United  States  from 
1791  to  1896  well  illustrates  the  chaotic  condition  which  has  ob- 
tained within  our  own  borders.  For  example,  in  '1812  the  ad  valorem 
rate  was  thirteen  per  cent,  while  a  year  later  we  find  it  rising  to 
sixty-nine  per  cent  to  fall  again  declivitously  to  less  than  seven  per 
cent  in  1815  and  rise  again  to  28  per  cent  in  1816.  Similarly  we 
find  it  rising  from  19  per  cent  in  1861  to  36  per  cent  in  1862,  re- 
ceding to  33  per  cent  the  next  year  and  then  soaring  to  more  than 
47  per  cent  in  1865,  whence  it  runs  a  course  more  jagged  than  light- 
ning to  the  end  of  the  chart.  Could  anything  well  be  devised  better 
suited  to  render  abortive  any  and  all  attempts  upon  the  part  of  a 
people  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  economic  conditions  under  which 
they  must  live? 

It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  go  into  details,  but  rather  to  content 
ourselves  with  exhibiting  in  a  general  way  the  extremely  chaotic 
conditions  of  international  trade  relations.  We  complain  of  the 
paucity  of  our  commerce;  we  even  try  to  convince  ourselves  that  it 

24 


_rj 

r^     <D 


TRADE    RELATIONS 

is  due  to  lack  of  American  seamen;  yet  what  would  we  think  of  a 
ferryman  who  used  a  boat-landing  owned  by  a  man  who  imposed 
as  a  condition  that  he  should  carry  passengers  in  but  one  direction, 
when  he  could  just  as  well  have  used  another  landing  and  have  done 
business  in  both  directions?  When  men  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships 
do  they  do  so  for  the  purpose  of  sailing  about  in  ballast  ? 

Is  there  any  need  of  all  this  complication  in  international  trade 
relations?  What  is  the  alleged  principle  underlying  a  protective 
tariff?  In  its  last  analysis  is  it  not  thought  that  by  some  sort  of 
clever  tariff  hocus-pocus  we  shall  overreach  the  foreigner?  We 
know,  of  course,  that  in  most  cases  he  is  trying  to  do  precisely  the 
same  thing  by  us,  but  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  we  can  do  it 
without  his  detecting  our  real  purpose  on  the  one  hand  or  effectively 
retaliating  on  the  other.  Of  course  those  who  make  it  their  busi- 
ness to  secure  tariff  legislation  do  not  believe  any  such  transparencies. 
They  know  the  foreigner  does  not  pay  the  tax,  and,  what  is  of  far 
greater  interest  to  them,  that  they  don't  either.  In  the  meantime 
American  goods  are  sold  abroad  at  a  price  so  far  below  that  which  is 
charged  in  the  United  States  that  were  the  tariff  removed  it  would 
pay  to  buy  our  goods  abroad  and  then  import  them  back  again  into  the 
United  States. 

In  this  particular  we  are  by  no  means  alone. 

The  sad  experience  of  certain  capitalists  who  built  a  mill  at 
Kokomo,  Indiana,  at  the  cost  of  nearly  a  million  dollars  for  the 
manufacture  of  wire  nails,  illustrates  this,  as  well  as  one  or  two 
other  things  equally  worthy  of  note.  The  following  quotations  are 
extracted  from  an  article  by  Byron  W.  Holt,  in  "  The  Public  "  of  No- 
vember 1,  1902. 

The  owners  of  this  mill  discovered  that  "they  could  buy  steel  bil- 
lets in  Belgium  or  Germany,  pay  the  duty  and  freight  on  them,  and 
lay  them  down  at  their  mill  for  two  dollars  per  ton  less  than  the 

price  demanded  by  the  steel  trust They  bought  20,000  tons 

of  billets  at  $18.00  per  ton.  They  expected  to  pay  a  duty  of  $6.72 
per  ton,  or  $134,000  on  the  lot.  .  .  .  They  raised  $134,000  and 
had  it  ready  to  pay  the  duty  on  the  billets  when  they  reached  the 
custom  house  at  Philadelphia.  Alas,  it  was  not  enough.  They 
were  foiled  again  by  the  steel  trust.  The  collector  had  gotten  some 
tips  from  '  it ' —  that  is,  his  master  —  and  he  had  made  a  '  new  rul- 
ing/ He  said  that  the  rate  of  duty  on  steel  billets  valued  above 
one  cent,  per  pound  ($22.40  per  ton)  was  $8.96,  instead  of  $6.72." 

At  this  juncture  the  Kokomo  mill  owners  explained  that  they 
had  paid  only  $18.00  a  ton  for  these  billets,  "  Whereat  the  steel  trust 
customs  official  smiled  and  said :  '  Yes,  yes ;  but  the  law  permits  us  to 
fix  the  duty  on  the  actual  market  value  of  the  billets  in  the  markets 
of  the  country  from  which  the  same  have  been  imported.  The  Ger- 
man manufacturers,  who,  like  ours,  are  highly  protected,  have,  as  you 
should  have  known,  two  prices  for  their  billets  —  one  for  their  do- 
mestic customers  and  a  very  much  lower  price  for  export.  We  have 
been  told  to  disregard  the  export  price,  which  you  paid,  and  to  col- 
lect duty  on  the  German  domestic  price,  which  is  about  $24.00  per 
ton/" 

25 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

The  customs  officials  then  demanded  a  payment  of  $178,200  De- 
fore  delivery  of  billets.  . 

"The  would-be  manufacturers  of  Kokomo  were  dazed, 
vision  of  wealth  was  fast  vanishing.  ...  The  Iron  Age  of  Oc- 
tober 16th  tells  us  that  '  the  difficulties  over  the  duty  on  steel  billets 
have  stopped  all  negotiations  for  foreign  steel  for  the  present/ 
...  In  view  of  the  above  circumstances  some  steel  mill  property 
in  Kokomo  is  for  sale  cheap." 

Reader,  pause  a  moment  and  think  what  this  means.  American 
goods  sold  in  Germany  cheaper  than  in  the  United  States  and  Ger- 
man goods  sold  in  America  cheaper  than  in  Germany !  Do  you  be- 
lieve that  in  either  case  "the  foreigner  pays  the  tax?"  Is  it  not 
self-evident  that  the  whole  system  operates  to  make  the  suffering 
consumer  pay  a  fictitious  and  unnatural  price  by  cutting  him  off  by 
legal  enactments  from  those  who  could  and  would  furnish  what  he 
wants  at  a  just  figure?  Man  must  supply  his  imperative  needs  and 
he  ever  strives  to  do  so  with  the  minimum  expenditure  of  exertion, 
which  is  to  say  at  the  cheapest  available  price. 

A  few  years  ago  when  a  good  ship  took  fire  at  the  Hoboken  docks 
and  its  passengers  were  forced  to  leap  into  the  water,  it  was  reported 
that  certain  boats  available  for  rescue  withheld  their  succour  until 
they  had  exacted  exorbitant  rates  from  the  drowning  victims. 

To  those  whom  commercial  competition  has  not  reduced  to  the 
heartlessness  of  a  pirate  of  the  Spanish  Main,  such  an  experience 
would  seem  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  hopeless  selfishness.  It  might,  how- 
ever, have  been  worse  had  the  commercially-minded  rescuers  taken  a 
hint  from  tariff  methods. 

Suppose,  for  example,  the  captain  of  some  large  tug,  while  shout- 
ing through  his  megaphone,  "  A  thousand  dollars  apiece  or  I  let  you 
drown,"  had  observed  some  other  craft  picking  up  victims  at  just 
what  it  cost  them  to  do  the  work,  and  suppose  he  had  straightway 
complained  to  the  steamship  and  dock  authorities  and  they  had  forbid- 
den any  other  boats  to  rescue  for  less  than  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a 
head,  what  would  you  think  ?  Would  you  consider  that  the  drowning 
victims  were  "protected"  by  this  ukase?  Would  you  not  believe 
that  the  exorbitant  rate  fell  directly  upon  those  in  the  water?  Now, 
this  illustrates  precisely  what  the  tariff  has  done  again  and  again  and 
is  doing  every  day.  Shakespeare  gave  full  warranty  for  the  parallel 
here  drawn  when  he  said : 

"You  take  my  house  when  you  do  take  the  prop 
That  doth  sustain  my  house;  you  take  my  life, 
When  you  do  take  the  means  whereby  I  live." 

The  tariff-nurtured  trust,  corporation,  partnership  or  individual 
which  places  a  fictitiously  high  price  upon  any  commodity  necessary 
to  men  robs  those  men  of  their  lives.  This  is  not  figurative,  it  is 
literal.  He  who  demands  of  a  man  the  equivalent  of  two  days' 
labour  for  a  commodity  fairly  worth  but  one  robs  the  man  of  one  day's 
labour.  Is  there  any  difference  between  stealing  half  the  lives  of 
two  men  and  the  whole  of  the  life  of  one  man  ?  He  who  must  spend 

26 


TRADE    RELATIONS 

all  his  efforts  in  the  struggle  to  live  is  more  of  a  slave  than  the  ante- 
bellum Negro  or  the  present  peon  of  our  southern  states.  Just  as 
food  is  only  properly  taken  into  the  stomach  when  eaten  in  response 
to  appetite  —  just  as  acts  are  only  properly  performed  when  done  in 
response  to  desire  —  so  life  is  only  properly  life  when  it  consists  of  the 
free  activities  of  the  individual.  We  do  not  hold  a  man  accountable 
for  acts  which  he  is  forced  to  perform  in  spite  of  his  will, —  in  short 
we  do  not  even  consider  them  in  the  last  analysis  as  his  acts,  and 
so  must  hold  them  to  belong  to  the  environmental  rather  than  to  the 
personal  part  of  his  existence.  The  death  of  a  man  is,  so  far  as  this 
life  is  concerned,  but  the  passage  of  all  the  personal  into  the  en- 
vironmental. Is  it  not  plain,  therefore,  that  any  person  or  social 
regime  which  narrows  the  free  exercise  of  personality  decreases  in 
just  so  much  the  sum  total  of  what  properly  may  be  called  life? 

Be  assured  we  shall  one  day  evolve  out  of  our  present  crude  ideas 
in  these  matters.  We  already  recognise  that  a  man  lives  in  just  the 
ratio  of  the  action  and  reaction  between  his  own  ego  and  its  en- 
vironment. We  know  that  the  loss  of  any  of  his  senses  or  a  de- 
crease in  their  activities,  when  not  compensated  for  by  the  abnormal 
functioning  of  other  senses,  is  in  just  so  much  a  loss  of  life;  yet  a 
man  might  deliberately  cause  the  blindness,  deafness,  dumbness  and 
total  paralysis  of  a  hundred  persons  and  our  law  would  not  hold  him 
as  guilty  as  if  he  had  murdered  a  single  deaf,  dumb,  blind  and 
paralysed  maniac.  Can  anything  be  plainer  than  that  the  human 
race  as  a  whole  is  grievously  injured  by  the  tariff  relations  which 
now  obtain?  The  thoughtful  reader  will  need  no  further  proof  of 
this  than  to  be  shown  that  the  existing  regime  is  unjust  since  there  is 
in  all  well-ordered  intellects  a  strong  conviction  that  what  is  unjust 
must  in  the  end  be  harmful,  and  that,  were  it  otherwise,  evolution 
would  become  devolution  (degeneration)  and  would  make  toward  the 
destruction  of  the  whole  social  fabric. 

It  needs  no  abstruse  reasoning  to  show  that  where  two  prices  are 
charged  for  one  and  the  same  article  at  least  one  of  them  must  be  un- 
just. In  their  last  analysis  all  values  are  labour  values  and  these 
cannot  be  altered  by  anything  which  is  to  be  done  with  articles  after 
their  purchase.  It  is  nothing  to  the  German  producer  whether  his 
commodity  is  to  be  used  at  home  or  brought  to  the  United  States. 

If  his  export  price  is  fair,  then  by  just  so  much  as  the  home  price 
exceeds  it  is  that  price  unjust,  and  unjust,  moreover,  to  his  own 
countrymen  whom  he  hypocritically  pretends  to  be  protecting.  This 
phase  of  the  matter  is  self-evident  and  may  therefore  be  dismissed. 

Let  us  glance  a  moment  at  the  effect  of  these  artificial  trade  re- 
strictions upon  the  human  family  as  a  whole.  Space  does  not  permit 
of  considering  the  many  minor  ills  incident  to  the  present  chaotic 
system,  or  more  properly  lack  of  system;  but  we  cannot  forbear  call- 
ing attention  to  the  gravest  evil  of  them  all,  to  wit,  a  decrease  in 
productiveness  both  in  the  matter  of  quantity  and  quality,  inflicting 
a  double  poverty  upon  mankind  as  a  whole. 

The  arguments  professing  to  show  protection  to  be  good  as  between 
nations  show  just  as  conclusively  that  it  is  equally  good  between 
states,  cities,  towns,  families  and  even  the  individual  members  of  the 

27 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

same  family  To  observe  its  effect  let  us  take  a  concrete  case  show- 
ing how  these  artificial  barriers  would  act  to  decrease  productiveness 
if  reared  between  the  members  of  a  small  community. 

John  Smith  has  two  sons,  Henry  and  Arthur.  The  former  is  large, 
strong  and  athletic,  but,  as  is  so  often  the  case  under  such  con- 
ditions, he  is  not  up  to  the  average  mentally.  "  John  will  never  set 
the  North  River  afire  "  is  a  common  remark  among  his  acquaintances. 
Arthur,  on  the  contrary,  is  small,  weak,  deformed  and  sickly,  but 
Nature  has  richly  made  good  his  physical  deficiencies  in  his  mental 
endowments.  His  friends  often  pay  him  the  well-meaning  if  some- 
what doubtful  and  ambiguous  compliment  embodied  in  the  words, 
"Arthur  has  forgotten  more  than  all  the  other  Smiths  since  Adam 
ever  knew."  John,  the  father,  is  proud  of  both  his  boys,  but  is  par- 
ticularly sensitive  respecting  Arthur's  physical  weakness  and  anxious 
to  protect  him  in  the  battle  of  life.  Now  Henry  is  ideally  built  both 
physically  and  mentally  for  a  wood-chopper.  His  powerful  movements 
continually  suggest  the  swing  of  an  axe.  Left  to  himself  he  would 
gravitate  towards  the  woods  with  the  same  unerring  certainty  with 
which  the  river  seeks  the  sea.  Arthur,  however,  is  a  being  to  listen  to 
with  closed  eyes.  He  is  physically  uninformed  and  painful  to  look  up- 
on. Left  to  his  own  resources  he  would  inevitably  be  forced  into  some 
intellectual,  sedentary  pursuit,  probably  that  of  an  architect,  as  his 
tastes  incline  strongly  in  that  direction.  Henry  as  a  woodsman  and 
Arthur  as  an  architect  would  very  materially  raise  the  efficiency  of 
the  little  community  in  which  they  live,  besides  which  there  are  no 
others  who  can  take  their  places.  Upon  John  Smith,  the  father,  how- 
ever, rests  heavily  the  duties  of  paternalism  and  he  determines  that 
Henry  shall  not  take  all  the  wood-chopping  away  from  Arthur,  on 
the  one  hand,  nor  Arthur  design  all  the  houses  on  the  other  hand, 
and  he  finally  hits  upon  a  way  of  effecting  his  purpose.  He  charges 
for  Arthur's  services  as  wood-chopper  the  same  per  diem  price  Henry 
used  to  charge,  while  he  causes  Henry  to  raise  his  price  for  this 
class  of  work  to  such  an  exorbitant  figure  that  no  one  can  afford  to 
hire  him  to  cut  wood.  To  even  up  things,  however,  he  permits 
Henry  to  design  houses  at  Arthur's  former  reasonable  price  and  pro- 
tects him  against  Arthur's  competition  by  raising  Arthur's  price  for 
the  same  class  of  work  to  a  figure  so  exorbitant  as  to  be  prohibi- 
tive. Thus  is  Arthur  enabled  to  chop  wood,  a  week  of  such  work 
on  his  part  being  nearly  equal  to  what  Henry  would  do  in  a  day, 
while  Henry  plans  structures  which  are  architectural  nightmares 
and  which  require  a  week's  work  on  his  part  for  every  day  his 
brother  would  put  into  a  really  creditable  result.  And  the  neigh- 
bours ?  They  do  not  like  the  system.  They  say  the  boys  are  not  effi- 
cient any  more.  At  first  they  paid  the  price  asked  for  Henry  when 
they  wanted  wood  chopped,  at  which  the  father  doubled  the  charge 
so  quickly  that  they  have  never  repeated  the  indiscretion.  They  say 
that  the  net  result  of  this  paternalistic  protection  is  as  follows:  That 
while  each  of  the  boys  is  enabled  to  do  what  he  has  no  business,  by 
reason  of  his  natural  inefficiency,  ever  to  try  to  do,  and  is  prevented 
from  doing  just  what  he  is  naturally  best  fitted  to  do,  they  are  un- 
justly taxed  to  perpetuate  a  system  so  false  and  unnatural  that  it 

28 


TRADE    RELATIONS 

would  die  instanter  if  left  alone.  They  point  out  with  a  good  deal  of 
feeling  the  immense  decrease  in  their  community  output  by  reason 
of  this  interference  with  the  natural  order  of  things.  "  Why,"  they 
say,  "it's  like  putting  an  enormous  tax  upon  apples  grown  upon 
apple-trees  so  as  to  protect  and  stimulate  the  infant  industry  of 
raising  them  upon  rose-bushes,  or  like  a  Canadian  asking  for  a  tariff 
of  a  Jollar  apiece  on  bananas,  so  that  he  might  raise  them  under 
glass  in  Montreal  with  a  profit  to  himself."  When  John  Smith,  the 
father,  attempts  to  convince  them  that  even  in  the  imaginary  case 
they  cite  of  the  protected  Canadian  banana-grower,  the  Canadians 
would  not  be  hardshipped,  since  the  foreigner  who  imported  natu- 
rally-grown bananas  would  pay  all  the  tax,  most  of  them  get  angry 
and  those  who  retain  their  self-control  grow  sarcastic  and  retort, 
"  And  Canadians  who  learned  to  like  good  bananas  at  ten  cents  the 
dozen  are  at  perfect  liberty  either  to  buy  poor  ones  of  home  pro- 
duction at  a  dollar  apiece  or  the  better  foreign  article  at  two  hun- 
dred dollars  the  bunch !  They  have  their  choice,  so,  of  course,  their 
liberties  are  not  interfered  with." 

This  illustrates  the  grave  loss  to  the  human  family  when  natural 
laws  are  interfered  with.  There  are,  however,  many  who  would  not 
care  to  take  so  broad  a  view  of  the  matter,  who  would  insist  that  we, 
as  Americans,  for  example,  need  not  trouble  ourselves  about  what 
happens  to  other  nations  under  the  present  regime  provided  that  re- 
gime conduces  to  our  own  well-being.  They  look  upon  our  trade  walls 
as  clever  barriers  erected  against  the  foreigner,  as  toll-gates,  if  you 
please,  at  which  he  must  pay  roundly  for  the  privilege  of  traversing 
our  commercial  highways.  Some  believe  in  tariff  for  revenue  only, 
while  others  believe  also  in  tariff  for  protection.  The  protectionists 
insist  that  the  "  foreigner  pays  the  tax,"  with  apparently  no  thought  of 
the  moral  obliquity  which  such  an  assertion  postulates.  Why,  pray, 
should  a  foreigner  pay  for  the  expenses  of  running  our  government? 
Why  should  he  pay  to  "  protect "  us  commercially  any  more  than  he 
should  pay  for  a  navy  to  guard  us  against  military  aggression?  Let 
us  not  be  caught  by  the  potent  sophistry  of  an  alleged  self-interest. 
The  worth  of  any  producer's  output,  whether  fellow-citizen  or  for- 
eigner, is  fixed  by  the  labour  necessary  to  produce  it  and  its  natural 
value  in  the  circle  of  exchange,  and  any  man  or  any  nation  which 
takes  this  output  and  gives  therefor  a  net  return  less  than  its  nat- 
ural value  as  aforesaid,  is  dishonest,  no  matter  by  what  roseate 
euphemism  he  describes  his  act  or  to  what  legislative  sophistry 
he  points  in  justification.  Until  the  axiom  "  from  nothing  nothing 
comes"  be  shown  to  be  false,  the  mere  fact  that  they  claim  to  have 
gotten  something  of  great  value  without  giving  any  return  therefor 
must  tell  loudly  and  insistently  against  them.  The  Spanish  saying, 
"  They  are  all  honest  men,  but  my  cloak  is  not  to  be  found,"  would 
represent  a  very  mild  and  charitable  view  of  their  case. 

Either  the  foreigner  pays  the  tax  or  he  does  not.  If  he  does, 
we  are  not  Christians  but  pirates.  If  he  does  not,  then  the  con- 
sumer does,  and  since  this  tax  goes  to  the  support  of  the  nation  this 
distributes  the  burden  of  such  support  unequally  and  inequitably 
and  is  therefore  discriminative  and  unjust.  Looked  at  from  any 

29 


GILLETTE'S,  SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

view  point  does  not  the  present  regime  exhibit  a  perfect  chaos  of  con- 
flicting interests,  inequities,  iniquities,  petty  jealousies  and  national  ha- 
treds ?  There  is  absolutely  nothing  Christ-like,  logical  or  sane  about 
it.  What  a  travesty  upon  civilisation ! 

Brown  raises  a  peck  of  potatoes,  honestly  worth,  say,  twenty  cents. 
Jones  wants  to  buy  them,  and  passing  Brown  the  money  reaches 
for  them,  when  suddenly  it  is  discovered  that  his  arm  reaches  across 
an  imaginary  geographical  line.  Alas,  he  must  now  pay  twenty- 
five  cents  for  the  potatoes.  Why?  Are  they  really  worth  more  than 
before?  No.  Are  they  honestly  worth  a  quarter?  No.  Why  then 
must  Jones  pay  it?  Because  Jones  is  standing  in  the  United  States 
and  Brown  in  Canada.  Had  they  not  noticed  just  where  they  stood, 
had  they  temporarily  forgotten  their  addresses,  they  might  easily 
have  committed  the  awful  crime  of  smuggling. 

In  1902  the  domestic  potato  crop  was  insufficient,  and  even  the 
farmers  of  New  England  were  compelled  to  buy  potatoes  and  pay 
the  tax.  Over  7,000,000  bushels  of  potatoes  were  imported  that  year, 
the  tax  on  them  amounting  to  nearly  $1,500,000. 

"  This,  "  says  Dun's  Eeview  of  January  4,  1902,  "  was  but  a  part 
of  the  customary  tax  of  about  $9,000,000  a  year  now  imposed  on 
fish,  potatoes,  cabbage,  eggs,  oats  and  other  necessary  articles  of 
food.  Who  paid  the  tax?  Mainly  the  wage  earners  of  New  Eng- 
land. Who  gained?  It  would  be  difficult  to  prove  that  any  one 
did.  These  taxes  have  no  justification."  In  concluding  this  subject 
we  submit  that  artificial  trade  barriers  are  without  justification  upon 
any  grounds  of  Christianity,  of  morality,  of  justice,  of  expediency 
or  even  of  enlightened  self-interest.  Their  effect  is  most  mischiev- 
ous in  that  they  decrease  the  volume  of  production;  continually  dis- 
turb, and  therefore  render  insecure,  commercial  calculations;  that 
they  result  in  a  most  inequitable  distribution  of  life's  burdens  and 
rewards;  that  they  foster  petty  rivalries  and  national  hatreds;  that 
they  cause  wars,  undermine  the  morality  not  only  of  individuals  but 
of  nations  and  tend  generally  to  dissociate  rather  than  unify  the 
human  race ;  in  short,  that  they  are  socially  disorganising  rather  than 
organising. 

Reader,  if  order  could  be  brought  out  of  this  chaos  and  all  the 
peoples  of  the  human  race  be  given  such  a  community  of  interest 
that  an  injustice  to  any  one  would  be  left  as  an  inquiry  to  all,  till 
war  should  cease  utterly  and  forever;  and  if  all  human  effort  could 
be  made  to  flow  unhindered  by  artificial  restrictions  into  that  chan- 
nel where  it  would  most  enrich  the  human  race,  until  all  civilisation 
should  be  lost  in  the  one  great  civilisation  —  the  Universal  Brother- 
hood of  Man, —  would  it  not  be  "a  consummation  devoutly  to  be 
wished  ?"  J 


30 


CHAPTER  V 
NATIONAL    CONDITIONS 


Differences  of  race  are  less  marked  than  those  of  education.  All  men 
approach  each  other  in  the  ratio  that  they  become  enlightened.  It  is 
all  a  matter  of  brain  convolutions.  The  highly  educated  Ethiopian  is 
closer  to  the  cultured  Anglo-Saxon  than  this  cultured  Anglo-Saxon  is 
to  his  ignorant  brother  of  the  same  race.  Conversely  the  difference  be- 
tween the  highly  educated  and  the  ignorant  African  transcends  all  racial 
distinctions.  The  real  bonds  of  brotherhood  are  forged  in  the  human 
brain. 

The  business  of  government  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury is  much  like  the  business  of  trade.  It  is  brutally  selfish  business 
all  the  way  through.  Every  government  has  its  own  interests  to  serve, 
precisely  as  every  trader's  end  is  to  look  upon  a  fair  balance  sheet  at 
the  end  of  the  year.  The  proprietor  of  a  great  department  store  does  not 
necessarily  have  to  drive  his  competitor  into  bankruptcy  -to  succeed. 
However,  if  competition  becomes  so  keen  that  a  competitor  goes  under, 
that  is  unfortunate,  but  one  of  the  incidents  of  trade.  Government  is 
business,  and  it  is  the  business  of  government  to  make  its  people  rich 
and  strong  and  prosperous.  To  enable  them  to  win  success  it  must 
command  respect  and  fear. 

A.  Maurice  Low. 


CHAPTER  V,       . 
NATIONAL    CONDITIONS 


NASMUCH  as  the  limits  of  this  work  will  not  permit 
even  so  much  as  a  casual  survey  of  each  and  every 
country  of  the  globe,  we  shall  endeavour  to  convey  as 
just  a  picture  of  general  national  conditions  as  pos- 
sible by  confining  our  remarks  chiefly  to  typical  na- 
tions. 

Of  those  countries  which  are  neither  peopled  by  Christians  nor 
governed  by  rulers  professing  some  sort  of  Christian  belief  but  little 
need  be  said,  since,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Japan,  we  be- 
lieve they  are  already  known  to  offer  few,  if  any,  allurements  to  the 
average  Anglo-.Saxon.  This  is  not  to  say  that  they  are  debased  by 
their  religion,  for  that  would  probably  be  a  sheer  inversion  of  cause 
and  effect.  The  fact  remains,  however,  that  the  oriental  peoples 
who  form  the  overwhelming  mass  of  the  non-Christian  world  have 
for  the  most  part  social  ideals  and  conditions,  which  awaken  little  or 
no  enthusiasm  in  the  western  breast.  The  Japanese,  rightly  called  the 
"  French  of  the  Orient,"  are  only  an  exception  to  this  rule  by  virtue 
of  their  adoption  of  Anglo-Saxon  ideals,  manners  and  methods. 
Indeed,  they  seem  to  have  copied  our  unhallowed  Philippine  methods 
far  too  well,  and  are  already  showing  the  brutalising  effects  which 
inevitably  follow  war.  Apropos  of  this  we  quote  the  following  from 
a  Boston  paper  under  date  of  Saturday,  February  24,  1906. 
"Japanese  Cruelties  in  Korea.  Told  by  Clergyman."  Archdeacon 
W.  W.  Jeffries,  an  Episcopalian  who  has  just  returned  from  the 
Orient,  says  that  the  Koreans  are  greatly  oppressed  by  the  Japanese. 

"When  a  Korean  objects  to  the  confiscation  of  his  property,"  Jef- 
fries says,  "he  is  falsely  charged  with  being  a  spy,  and  is  probably 
shot  or  hanged  the  same  day." 

"  The  executions  in  some  cases,"  Mr.  Jeffries  says,  "  are  of  a  hor- 
rible nature,"  and  he  has  brought  with  him  a  number  of  photographs 
to  prove  the  truth  of  his  assertions.  He  says  that  even  women  are 
not  immune  and  that  it  is  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  them  suspended 
by  the  neck  in  one  of  the  streets  of  a  Korean  city.  The  bodies,  he 
says,  are  allowed  to  hang  in  the  streets  for  days  as  a  warning  to  the 
inhabitants. 

"  The  Koreans,"  says  the  Archdeacon,  "  are  reduced  to  a  state  of 
abject  slavery,  and  have  been  robbed  of  everything  they  possessed. 
The  Korean  Emperor  lives  in  terror  of  the  Japanese  and  he  has  fre- 
quently called  upon  our  legation  guard  to  watch  over  him  during  the 
night." 

Since  the  visit  of  Commodore  Perry  to  Japan  on  March  31,  1854, 
»  33 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

resulting  in  a  treaty  with  the  Shogun  by  which  the  ports  of  Shimoda 
and  Hakodate  were  opened  as  harbors  of  refuge,  supply,  trade  and 
consular  residence,  the  march  of  Japan  has  been  steadily  and  with 
ever-increasing  pace  toward  western  civilisation,  until  to-day  the 
flower  of  her  youth  is  represented  in  all  the  great  universities  of  the 
world.  Indeed  it  now  looks  to  many  an  American  as  if  Japan  would 
repay  the  United  States  for  giving  her  to  the  world  by  taking  from 
us  a  large  part  of  our  foreign  trade.  Her  star  is  in  the  ascendency ; 
ours  has  perhaps  in  many  respects  already  passed  its  zenith.  The 
new  Japan  is  young,  ambitious,  and  has  her  ideals  before  her.  We 
on  the  contrary  have  many  of  our  grandest  ideals  behind  us  and  seem 
at  the  moment  determined  to  repudiate  or  forget  them.  Our  boast- 
ful self-sufficiency,  pitiable  purblindness,  smug  complacency  and 
overweening  assurance  of  our  grand  "destiny"  have  all  the  hall- 
marks of  those  divine  engines  by  which  throughout  all  history  the 
gods  have  made  mad  those  whom  they  would  destroy.  Yet  poten- 
tially the  United  States  is  the  grandest  nation  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  properly  guided  she  may  lead  the  human  race  to  grander 
heights  than  any  heretofore  attained. 

The  conditions  which  obtain  in  Australasia  are  much  too  far  ahead 
of  those  under  which  the  remainder  of  Christendom  lives  to  be  avail- 
able for  any  presentation  aiming  at  the  portrayal  of  typical  condi- 
tions. 

Even  our  own  country  is  a  good  bit  upon  the  pleasant  side  of  the 
average,  and  a  mere  glance  at  the  following  parallel  which  we  copy 
from  that  most  excellent  work,  "The  Story  of  New  Zealand,"  by 
Prof.  Frank  Parsons,  will  serve  to  show  the  doubting  that,  in  many 
respects,  we  are  politically  and  socially  a  good  half-century  behind 
New  Zealand. 

"  A  few  important  contrasts  are  reduced  to  their  lowest  terms  and 
brought  into  strong  relief  in  the  following  crisp  analysis : 

UNITED  STATES.          NEW  ZEALAND. 

Nominations  by  machine.  Nominations  by  popular  petition. 

Government  by  party.  Government  by  the  people. 

Spoils  system.  Merit  system. 

Political  corruption.  No  political  corruption. 

Monopoly    pressure    to    control  Government     pressure     to     break 

Government.  down  monopoly. 

Concentration  of  wealth.  Diffusion  of  wealth 

Dollar  the  king.  Manhood  the  king 

Government  loans  to  banks.  Government  loans  to  farmers 

Unjust  discrimination  in  freight  No  discrimination  in  freight  rates 

rates. 

Railroads  and  telegraphs  for  pri-  Railroads  and  telegraphs  for  pub- 

vate  profit.  ljc  service. 

Drgamzation  of  capital  in  the     Organization  of  men  in  the  lead. 

Frequent  and  costly  strikes  and     No  strikes  or  lockouts 
lockouts. 

34 


NATIONAL   CONDITIONS 

Industrial  conflict;  disputes  of  Industrial  peace;  disputes  of  la- 
labor  and  capital  settled  by  bor  and  capital  settled  by  judi- 
battle.  cial  decision. 

10-hour  day.  6-hour  day. 

Contractor     system     in     public  Direct  employment  and  co-opera- 

works.  tive  methods. 

Taxation  for  revenue.  Taxation  for  the  public  good. 

Farmers    and    workingmen    di-  Farmers   and   workingmen  united 

vided  at  the  ballot  box.  at  the  ballot  box. 

Monopolists   and   politicians   in  The  common  people  in  control, 
control. 

As  matters  stand  with  us  to-day  not  only  Australia  and  New  Zea- 
land but  also  England  and  Switzerland  enjoy  a  wider  range  of  free- 
dom than  is  vouchsafed  the  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

If  the  Reader  is  not  already  aware  of  this  we  believe  he  will  per- 
ceive the  truth  of  the  statement  as  we  proceed. 

Our  sole  object  at  this  juncture  is  to  furnish  a  typical  picture  of 
human  conditions  to  the  end  that  the  Reader  may  determine  in  his 
own  mind  if  any  improvement  be  possible,  and  if  its  need  be  suffi- 
ciently urgent  to  warrant  him  in  investigating  the  plan  devised  by 
Mr.  Gillette  for  the  social  redemption  of  the  race. 

Suppose,  then,  since  it  is  clearly  impossible  to  consider  every  na- 
tion separately,  we  confine  our  attention  chiefly  to  Russia  and  to  the 
Congo  Free  State,  countries  under  Christian  domination  exemplify- 
ing the  deepest  shadows  of  the  racial  picture,  and  to  the  United 
States,  a  nation  as  illustrating,  in  -the  popular  mind,  its  highest 
lights.  For  pagan  conditions  a  glance  at  Asiatic  Turkey  will  be 
all-sufficient.  There  may  be  little  flecks  of  blackness  elsewhere 
deeper  than  the  great,  flat,  inky,  social  areas  represented  by  Russia, 
Turkey,  or  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  there  are  certainly  small  glints 
of  freedom's  light  whiter  and  more  sun-like  than  any  found  in  that 
part  of  the  picture  illustrated  by  our  own  country;  but  since  we  are 
after  the  broad,  typical  masses  we  cannot  "search"  the  subject  in 
too  finicking  a  spirit. 


35 


BOOK   II 

CHAPTER      I.    RUSSIA 

CHAPTER    II.     THE  WARNING  OF  RUSSIAN  BRUTALITY 

CHAPTER  III.     AGRARIAN  AND  OTHER  RUSSIAN  CONDITIONS 


37 


Russia  was  on  the  high  road  to  emancipation  from  an  insane  and 
intolerable  slavery. 

I  was  hoping  there  would  be  no  peace  until  Russian  liberty  was  safe. 
I  think  that  this  was  a  holy  war  in  the  best  and  noblest  sense  of  that 
abused  term,  and  that  no  war  was  ever  charged  with  a  higher  mission. 
I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  that  mission  is  now  defeated  and 
Russia's  chains  riveted  this  time  to  stay.  I  think  the  czar  will  now 
withdraw  the  small  humanities  that  have  been  forced  from  him,  and 
resume  his  medieval  barbarisms  with  a  relieved  spirit  and  an  immeasur- 
able joy.  I  think  Russian  liberty  has  had  its  last  chance  and  has  lost  it. 
I  think  nothing  has  been  gained  by  the  peace  that  is  remotely  comparable 
to  what  has  been  sacrificed  by  it.  One  more  battle  would  have  abolished 
the  waiting  chains  of  billions  upon  billions  of  unborn  Russians,  and  I 
wish  it  could  have  been  fought.  I  hope  I  am  mistaken,  yet  in  all  sin- 
cerity I  believe  that  this  peace  is  entitled  to  rank  as  the  most  conspicu- 
ous disaster  in  political  history. 

Samuel  M.  Clemens. 
(Mark  Twain.) 

The  Niobe  of  nations!    there  she  stands. 

Byron  —  Childe  Harold. 


38 


CHAPTER    I 

RUSSIA 

H"  a'rea  comprising  one-sixth  of  the  land  surface  of  the 
globe,  greater  in  extent  than  North  America,  France 
and  Germany  combined  and  populated  by  fully  one- 
thirteenth  of  the  human  race,  that  is  the  Russian 
Empire  with  its  8,660,395  square  miles  of  territory 
and  its  129,004,514  souls  and  its  forty  different  lan- 
guages and  dialects. 

Says  a  recent  writer  on  Russia :  "  The  Empire  of  Rome  would  have 
had  to  multiply  itself  four  times  to  fill  it.  It  could  receive  within 
its  limits  two  such  republics  as  the  United  States,  including  the 
mighty  area  of  Alaska  and  even  then  have  room  for  Mexico,  Great 
Britain,  Germany  and  France." 

European  Russia  has  over  2,000,000  square  miles  and  Asiatic  Rus- 
sia over  6,500,000  square  miles.  The  Empire  embraces  considerably 
more  than  a  third  of  Asia  and  nearly  two-thirds  of  Europe. 

Among  all  the  nations  of  Europe  belonging  to  the  Aryan  face  the 
Russian  Empire  stands  alone  as  a  pure  despotism. 

Serfdom  began  in  Russia  in  the  sixteenth  century,  was  legalised  in 
1609  and  abolished  in  1861,  emancipating  about  42,000,000  persons. 
The  nobles  were  bitterly  opposed  to  this  emancipation  and  the  loss 
of  land  and  labor  it  entailed.  To  them,  or  to  those  whom  they 
could  easily  influence,  was  largely  committed  the  carrying  out  of 
the  provisions  of  the  law  in  the  matter  of  land  allotments,  and  they 
took  care  that  these  should  be  so  small  and  the  redemption  price  so 
high  that  the  peasants  would  be  forced  to  borrow  and  so  fall,  as  so 
many  of  them  have,  into  the  clutches  of  the  rural  money  lenders  who 
have  reduced  them  to  utter  destitution.  To  make  matters  still  worse 
the  peasants,  not  being  given  any  grazing  land,  were  forced  to  rent 
it  of  their  former  masters. 

One-quarter  of  them  have  received  allotments  of  only  2.9  acres 
per  male,  while  one-half  of  them  received  areas  ranging  approxi- 
mately from  8.5  to  11.4  acres. 

The  nature  of  the  soil,  the  scarcity  of  fertiliser  and  often  of  seed, 
the  great  ignorance  of  the  peasantry  regarding  agriculture  and  every- 
thing else  for  that  matter,  the  lack  of  tools  and  beasts  of  burden,  all 
make  toward  such  a  condition  of  low  efficiency  that  it  is  estimated 
that  the  normal  size  of  the  allotment  necessary  for  the  subsistence 
of  a  family  is  from  28  to  42  acres.  It  will  be  seen  therefore  that, 
despite  the  allotments,  land  must  still  be  rented  from  the  landlords, 
and  for  this  fabulous  prices  are  charged.  As  an  example  of  Rus- 
sian methods,  observe  that  the  smaller  the  allotment  the  higher  the 

39 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

payment  required.  Kussia  sells  at  the  short  wholesale  price  to  those 
who  have  money  enough  to  buy  a  relatively  large  tract  of  land,  while 
she  charges  the  long  retail  price  to  him  whose  beggary  most  needs 
leniency.  The  first  dessiatina  (2.86  acres)  costs  twice  as  much  as 
the  second  and  four  times  as  much  as  the  third.  Note  how  this 
works.  Suppose  a  dessiatina  to  cost  100  rubles :  then  three  beggared 
peasants,  each  buying  that  amount,  would  pay  in  the  aggregate  300 
rubles,  while  the  single  peasant  who  had  money  enough  to  buy  the 
three  lots  would  get  them  for  175  rubles!  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
under  such  a  system  the  peasant's  arrears  increase  every  year?  They 
are  like  men  caught  in  a  quagmire ;  every  effort  they  make  to  extricate 
themselves  but  sinks  them  the  more  deeply,  bringing  them  ever  and 
ever  nearer  to  their  awful  doom.  One-fifth  of  the  inhabitants  have 
left  their  houses,  and  every  year  more  than  half  the  adult  males, — 
indeed,  in  some  districts,  as  many  as  three-fourths  of  the  men  and  one- 
third  of  the  women  —  leave  the  wretched  abodes  they  call  their 
homes  and  wander  throughout  Eussia  in  search  of  labor. 

The  peasant  class,  upon  which  the  burden  of  taxation  falls,  is 
allowed  the  smallest  voice  in  home  government,  and  woe  to  any  pro- 
vincial assembly  which  even  hints  at  the  desirability  of  the  most 
necessary  reform !  In  such  case  it  is  quickly  broken  up  and  its  mem- 
bers summarily  disciplined,  they  being  sent  to  Siberia  for  imaginary 
"  offenses  "  which,  were  they  actually  committed,  would  be  well  with- 
in the  inherent  moral  rights  of  citizens  of  any  civilised  country. 

This  is  the  condition  of  the  agricultural  classes  in  the  twelve  cen- 
tral governments  of  European  Eussia  of  whom  it  has  been  said: 
"  The  peasants,  on  an  average,  have  their  own  rye  bread  for  only  200 
days  per  year  —  often  for  only  180  and  100  days."  Says  another  au- 
thority :  "  As  over  80  per  cent  of  the  population  of  European  Eussia 
belongs  to  the  peasant  classes,  among  whom  the  inhabitants  of  Cen- 
tral Eussia  should  be  the  most  prosperous,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  con- 
dition of  the  vast  proportion  of  the  people  must  be  one  of  much 
suffering."  So  has  it  been  for  centuries, —  so  will  it  be  so  long  as  the 
present  outrageous  social  and  political  conditions  obtain. 

Says  Ganz  in  his  "The  Land  of  Biddies,"  "Eussia  is  an  empire 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty  million  prisoners  and  one  million  jailers." 

The  dominant  spirit  of  the  autocracy  has  not  undergone  any  es 
sential  change  since  the  days  of  Peter  the  Great. 

Of  the  nature  of  this  sentiment,  St.  Petersburg,  Eussia's  Capital, 
is  an  eloquent  and  lasting  memorial.  Of  all  places  in  the  empire 
in  which  to  found  a  capital  this  was  about  the  least  suitable  and 
attractive.  Why  was  this  miserable  marsh,  half  under  water  and 
without  wood,  clay,  stones  or  building  material  of  any  kind,  selected 
as  the  site  for  a  mighty  capital?  The  fact  that  the  majestic  river 
Neva  here  empties  its  blue  waters  into  the  Gulf  of  Finland  is  more 
than  compensated  for  by  the  hopelessly  unattractive  nature  of  the 
shore.  Why  was  it  chosen?  "  Its  very  name,"  says  a  recent  writer, 
suggests  the  answer,  for  it  is  named  after  its  creator  —  Peter  the 
-  who,  bursting  through  the  barriers  that  bound  him  to  the 
Orient,  selected  this  strange  site  that  he  might  possess  a  window  as  he 
called  it,  through  which  to  look  out  upon  civilised  Europe  "  What 

40 


RUSSIA 

to  this  pitiless  despot,  this  typical  Kussian  Autocrat,  the  awful  suf- 
fering that  stood  between  him  and  the  execution  of  his  whim?  Its 
appreciation  seemed  to  have  no  other  effect  than  to  render  him,  if 
possible,  more  determined. 

The  place  was  so  little  known  as  to  be  nameless,  and  was  inhabited 
by  only  a  few  fishermen  struggling  to  eke  out  a  bare  subsistence. 
One  of  these  pointed  out  to  Peter  an  old  tree,  a  mark  upon  which 
showed  the  perilous  height  to  which  the  waves  occasionally  rose. 
Peter's  reply  was  an  order  to  cut  the  tree  down.  The  obstacles  in 
his  way  might  well  have  seemed  insurmountable  to  any  man  capable 
of  counting  cost  in  terms  of  human  agony  and  death,  but  Peter  alas ! 
was  not  such  a  man. 

Says  the  author  last  quoted :  "  He  summoned  hither  multitudes  of 
Russians,  Tartars,  Cossacks,  Finns,  and  even  two  thousand  criminals 
destined  for  Siberia,  and  ordered  them  to  go  to  work.  Was  he  in 
jest?  They  had  no  tools.  It  mattered  not.  The  iron  task-master 
said  'Work/  and  work  they  must.  They,  therefore,  dug  the  soil 
with  sticks  or  with  their  hands,  and  carried  the  earth  away  in  their 
caps  and  aprons. 

"  As  a  result  of  this  terrible  energy,  within  the  space  of  one  short 
year  there  had  arisen  on  these  freezing  marshes  thirty  thousand 
nouses.  Yet  at  what  a  cost?  Beneath  these  buildings  were  the 
bones  of  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  wretched  laborers,  who,  in  those 
first  twelve  months  from  hunger  and  exposure,  had  perished  in  an- 
guish and  despair.  But  that  was  nothing  to  the  reckless  Tsar. 
*  One  must  break  eggs/  he  said,  '  to  make  an  omelet/  Nevertheless, 
the  inquiry  is  natural,  '  How  did  the  Tsar  persuade  his  subjects  to 
reside  in  .St.  Petersburg,  after  the  town  was  built?'  Persuade! 
Peter  used  not  persuasions,  but  commands.  Were  citizens  needed? 
A  word  from  him,  and  they  came  fast  enough ;  for  even  this  place  was 
preferable  to  Siberia.  Hundreds  of  merchants  were  forcibly  trans- 
ported here  and  ordered  '  to  take  root/  Mechanics  and  artisans  were 
gathered  together  from  the  farthest  corners  of  the  vast  empire,  and 
brought  here  by  thousands  to  swell  the  population  and  develop  the 
industries  of  the  new  imperial  city.  Many  wealthy  families  were 
required  by  an  edict  of  the  Tsar  to  take  up  their  residence  here,  and 
to  stay  here  in  winter  as  well  as  summer.  Even  the  building  of 
stone  houses  elsewhere  in  Russia  was  forbidden,  for  stone  houses  and 
masons  were  wanted  on  the  Neva.  They  told  him  there  were  no 
stones  with  which  to  build.  No  matter !  Another  edict  from  the 
Tsar  was  issued,  and  thenceforth  every  boat  that  entered  this  harbor 
had  to  bring  a  quantity  of  unhewn  stones.  St.  Petersburg  is,  there- 
fore, like  the  Pyramids,  a  most  astounding  specimen  of  autocratic 
power." 

The  testimony  of  the  historian,  Abbott,  in  his  life  of  this  inhuman 
monster  is  substantially  the  same.  He  relates  that  there  were  not 
less  than  three  hundred  thousand  collected  on  the  spot  in  the  course 
of  the  summer.  The  supplies  were  insufficient,  and  the  men  half  fed. 
They  worked  all  day  in  the  mud  and  rain  and  then  slept  at  night 
without  shelter.  This  brought  on  fevers,  dysenteries  and  other  simi- 

41 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

lar  diseases  so  prevalent  in  camp  life,  resulting  in  the  death  of  not 
less  than  one  hundred  thousand  in  a  single  year ! 

Of  all  this  Peter  was  a  personal  witness,  being  on  the  ground  the 
greater  part  of  the  time. 

Continuing  Abbott  says :  "  If  Peter  had  been  willing  to  exercise 
a  little  patience  and  moderation  in  carrying  out  his  plans,  it  is  very 
probable  that  most  of  this  suffering  might  have  been  saved.  .  .  . 
But  the  qualities  of  patience  and  moderation  formed  no  part  of 
Peter's  character.  What  he  conceived  of  and  determined  to  do 
must  be  done  at  once,  at  whatever  cost;  and  the  cost  of  human 
life  seems  to  have  been  the  one  that  he  thought  less  of  than  any 
other.  He  rushed  headlong  on,  notwithstanding  the  suffering  which 
his  impetuosity  occasioned,  and  thus  the  hymn  which  solemnised 
the  entrance  into  being  of  the  new-born  city  was  composed  of  the 
groans  of  a  hundred  thousand  men,  dying  in  agony,  of  want,  misery, 
and  despair." 

Now,  as  formerly,  political  corruption  reigns  supreme  in  the  Czar's 
domain.  Graft  and  dishonesty  are  everywhere.  The  charge  for 
brooms  for  sweeping  the  palace  of  Alexander  II.  was  fifteen  hun- 
dred rubles  per  year,  which,  if  honest,  means  that  fifty  brooms  must 
have  been  worn  out  every  day  during  his  reign !  To  such  an  extent 
did  this  sort  of  thing  obtain  during  the  time  of  Nicholas  that  he 
exclaimed  on  one  occasion,  "My  son  and  I  are  the  only  men  in 
Russia  who  do  not  steal/'  When  we  reflect  that  the  present  presi- 
dent of  Russia's  Council,  L.  M.  Witte,  began  life  as  a  clerk  in  a 
railway  traffic  manager's  office  and  that  he  is  now  a  multi-million- 
aire, and  when  we  duly  consider  the  aversion  with  which  he  is 
regarded  by  intelligent  Russians  who  assert  that  the  "Financial 
corruption  of  officials  under  his  regime  has  grown  more  shame- 
less than  ever,"  we  see  plainly  that  the  Czar's  servants  have  not 
grown  honest  since  the  days  of  the  first  Nicholas. 

The  government  of  Russia  is  an  immense  bureaucratic  machine, 
invented  by  Peter  the  Great,  which  has  more  than  justified  the 
following  assertion  made  by  Bagehot  in  his  "  English  Constitution  " : 
"  A  bureaucracy  is  sure  to  think  that  its  duty  is  to  augment  official 
power,  official  business  or  official  numbers  rather  than  to  leave  free 
the  energies  of  mankind." 

Says  Beveridge  in  his  "  Russian  Advance " :  "  Everything  in 
Russia  must  be  referred  to  an  official,  and  this  official  refers  it  to 
the  next  higher,  and  this  official  refers  it  to  his  bureau,  and  then 
it  runs  the  gauntlet  of  still  other  officials.  .  .  .  It  is  said  that 
the  result  is  that  there  is  not  a  department  of  the  Russian  govern- 
ment to-day  which  is  not  behindhand  with  its  work." 

This  calls  to  mind  the  incident  related  by  an  Italian  traveler 
in  Algeria,  He  requested  a  native  to  perform  some  slight  service, 
but  the  man,  instead  of  doing  it  himself,  commanded  an  inferior 
to  do  it,  and  this  inferior  in  turn  passed  on  the  order  to  one  still 
lower  in  the  social  scale,  and  so  on  till  it  finally  reached  a  street, 
urchin  who,  unable  to  pass  it  farther,  uttered  an  oath,  kicked  a  dog, 
and  slowly  and  sullenly  executed  the  command. 

There  is  no  nation  in  Europe  so  opposed  to  change  as  the  Rus- 

42 


RUSSIA 

sians.  For  generations  they  cherished  an  utter  contempt  for  for- 
eigners. "  Novelty  brings  calamity,"  is  one  of  their  proverbs. 
They  are  at  the  opposite  pole  from  France  in  this  regard. 

The  results  of  Peter's  efforts  in  behalf  of  Kussian  civilisation  are 
well  summed  up  in  the  rough  words  of  Diderot,  who  said,  "  The 
Russians,  as  fashioned  by  Peter,  were  rotten  before  they  were  ripe ! " 
That  Peter  was  aware  of  his  limitations  is  instanced  by  his  own 
confession :  "  I  wish  to  reform  my  empire,  but  I  cannot  reform 
myself/' 

Up  to  his  time  wife-beating  was  a  universal  custom.  The  priests 
contented  themselves  with  advising  the  men  not  to  use  too  thick  a 
club.  A  Russian  proverb  makes  a  husband  say  to  his  wife,  "  I  love 
thee  like  my  soul,  but  I  dust  thee  like  my  jacket."  If  any  believe 
that  wife-beating  is  a  thing  of  the  past  in  Russia  or  that  masculine 
brutes  refrain  from  the  use  of  "too  thick  a  club,"  let  him  read 
the  works  of  Maxim  Gorky,  notably  his  "Vyvod,"  of  which  he 
says :  "  I  have  written  this  sketch  not  as  an  allegorical  account  of 
the  persecution  and  scourging  of  a  prophet  who  found  no  recognition 
in  the  country  of  his  birth, —  no,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  it  is  not  to  be 
construed  as  such.  It  may  be  called  ' An  Exposure/  and  it  is  thus 
that  husbands  chastise  erring  wives.  It  is  a  picture  of  popular 
manners,  of  a  local  custom.  I  witnessed  it  myself  in  the  year  1891, 
on  July  15th,  in  the  village  of  Kandybovka,  in  the  government  of 
Kherson." 

This  sketch  which  has  been  published  under  the  title  "The  Road 
of  Shame,"  is  translated  from  the  Russian  by  E.  J.  Dillon  and  is 
reproduced  here  by  kind  permission  of  Messrs.  McClure,  Phillips  & 
Company,  owners  of  the  copyright  for  the  translation. 

THE  ROAD  OF  SHAME, 

by 

MAXIM  GORKY. 
Translated  from  the  Russian  by  E.  J.  Dillon. 

"  It  is  a  strange  procession  that  is  now  wending  along  the  village 
street  between  two  rows  of  white-plastered  mud  huts  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  a  long-drawn,  unearthly  howl. 

"  A  crowd  of  peasants  is  marching  forward,  a  dense  throng  moving 
like  a  huge  wave,  and  in  front  ambles  a  sorry  little  horse,  comically 
rugged,  its  head  hanging  down  dismally.  Whenever  it  lifts  one  of 
its  forefeet  it  shakes  its  head  at  the  same  time  in  an  odd  way,  as 
if  endeavoring  to  thrust  its  shaggy  muzzle  into  the  dust  of  the 
road,  and  when  it  displaces  its  hind  foot,  the  haunch  and  thigh  sink 
down  toward  the  earth  and  seem  on  the  point  of  collapsing. " 

"Bound  with  a  thong  to  the  front  of  the  cart  is  a  woman,  small 
and  almost  wholly  naked,  a  woman  who  might  still  be  taken  for  a 
mere  girl.  She  is  limping  along  in  a  strange  fashion,  sideways, 
her  head,  covered  with  dense  tresses  of  disheveled  chestnut-colored 
hair,  held  aloft  and  thrust  a  little  backward,  her  eyes  starting  out 

43 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

of  their  sockets,  and  fixed,  as  it  were,  on  some  invisible  point  in 
the  distance  with  a  dull,  insensate  gaze  wherein  is  naught  of  the 
human  being.  Her  whole  body  is  one  continuous  tissue  of  dark 
blue  and  purple  spots,  oval  or  round;  the  left  breast,  plastic  and 
virginal,  is  slashed  open  and  welling  blood  is  trickling  down  it.  The 
gore  forms  a  dark  purple  streak  along  the  belly,  and  farther  down 
along  the  left  leg  as  far  as  the  knee,  where  it  loses  itself  in  a  brown 
coating  of  dust.  From  the  woman's  body  there  has  seemingly  been 
torn  a  long  narrow  strip  of  skin,  and  her  abdomen  looks  as  if  it 
had  been  beaten  with  a  log  of  wood;  it  has  swollen  to  monstrous 
dimensions,  and  its  hue  is  uniformly,  horribly,  livid. 

"  The  woman's  legs,  well  turned  and  small,  move  forward  with 
difficulty  through  the  thick  layer  of  dust;  her  entire  body  is  fear- 
fully twisted,  and  she  totters  as  she  walks,  and  one  wonders  how 
she  still  succeeds  in  keeping  on  those  legs,  which,  like  her  body,  are 
a  mass  of  livid  bruises;  one  wonders  how  it  happens  that  she  does 
not  drop  to  the  earth',  and,  hanging  on  by  her  pinioned  hands,  is 
not  dragged  by  the  cart  along  the  warm,  dusty  ground. 

"On  the  cart  stands  a  tall  peasant  in  a  white  blouse 'and  a  black 
sheepskin  cap,  from  under  which,  cleaving  his  forehead,  hangs  a 
tuft  of  red  hair.  In  one  hand  he  holds  the  reins,  in  the  other  his 
whip,  and  he  methodically  administers  a  cut  with  it,  now  across 
the  back  of  his  horse,  and  now  across  the  body  of  the  slender  woman, 
who  is  already  disabled  and  disfigured  out  of  all  semblance  to  the 
human  image.  The  red-haired  peasant's  eyes  are  blood-shot  and 
glisten  with  malignant  triumph.  The  sleeves  of  his  blouse,  turned 
up  to  the  shoulders,  lay  bare  his  strong  sinewy  arms  thickly  covered 
with  reddish  hair;  his  mouth  is  open,  showing  two  rows  of  sharp 
white  teeth,  and  now  and  again  he  shouts  in  hoarse  accents:  'Well 
now,  hag!  Ha!  ha!  That's  one!  ha!  Isn't  that  right,  brothers?' 

"  Behind  the  cart  and  the  woman  tied  to  it,  the  dense  throng  sweeps 
on  shouting,  howling,  whistling,  crying  Tally-ho!  and  egging  on. 
Little  street  boys  scamper  about.  .Sometimes  one  of  them  runs 
ahead  of  the  rest  and  yells  vile  words  into  the  woman's  ears.  Then 
a  peal  of  laughter  drowns  all  other  sounds  and  with  them  the  sharp 
whiz  of  the  whip  in  the  air.  Women,  too,  march  with  the  pro- 
cession, women  with  flushed  faces  and  eyes  glittering  with  pleas- 
ure. Men  walk  by  and  shout  disgusting  remarks  to  the  Thing  that 
stands  in  the  cart.  He  turns  round  to  them  and  bursts  into  laugh- 
ter, opening  wide  his  mouth.  Another  cut  of  the  whip  across  the 
body  of  the  woman.  The  whip,  long  and  thin,  curls  itself  round 
her  shoulders  and  gets  entangled  under  her  armpits.  Then  the 
lash-giving  peasant  pulls  the  whip  towards  himself  with  a  violent 
jerk.  The  woman  utters  a  piercing  cry,  and,  throwing  her  body 
backward,  drops  heavily  in  the  dust.  Many  from  the  crowd  run 
across  to  where  she  has  fallen,  and  bending  over  shut  her  out  from 
sight. 

:'The  horse  stops,  but  a  moment  later  starts  onward  again,  and 
the  woman,  her  body  beaten  all  over,  follows  the  cart  as  before. 
And  the  wretched  beast  of  burden,  trudging  slowly  along  the  road, 
keeps  ever  tossing  his  shaggy  head,  as  if  he  would  say: 

44 


THE  RUSSIAN  FEAR 


Copyright,  1905,  by  the  S.  S.  McClure  Co. 
From  the  Painting  by  Sigismond  de  Ivanowski 


RUSSIA 

'  See  what  a  vile  thing  it  is  to  be  a  brute.  One  can  be  forced  to 
take  part  in  any  abomination.' 

"  Meanwhile,  the  sky,  the  soft  southern  sky,  is  unspeakably  clear, 
no  cloudlet  anywhere  to  be  seen,  and  the  summer  sun  deluges  all 
things  .with  its  scorching  rays." 

Sickening  as  is  this  recital,  its  besotted  brutality  pales  into  rela- 
tive insignificance  beside  the  unutterable  cruelty  inflicted  upon  the 
Jews,  upon  many  of  the  Russians  sent  to  Siberia,  and  upon  those 
who  are  given  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  vodka-drunk  Cos- 
sack. The  massacre  of  the  Jews  in  Kishineff,  the  capital  of  Bes- 
sarabia, which  was  formerly  a  Turkish  province,  is  typical  of  Russian 
brutality.  This  massacre,  let  it  be  remembered,  was  deliberately 
permitted  to  gather  full  headway  and  to  spend  its  force,  during  three 
days  of  awful  atrocities,  though  the  police  and  military  present 
were  amply  able  to  suppress  it.  M.  Plehve  of  the  Czar's  cabinet 
is  reported  to  have  issued  a  secret  circular  directed  to  the  governor 
of  Bessarabia,  dated  March  25,  1903,  which,  according  to  a  trans- 
lation published  by  the  "  London  Times,"  confesses  knowledge  of  the 
impending  outbreak  on  Plehve's  part,  and  ends  by  forbidding  the 
governor  to  resort  to  the  use  of  arms  to  quell  the  disorders.  Ac- 
cordingly throughout  April  19th,  20th  and  21st,  Kishineff  was  a 
veritable  hell.  Police  ostensibly  sent  out  to  protect  the  Jews  joined 
in  the  horrible  massacre.  From  the  news  column  of  "  The  Public  " 
of  May  23,  1903,  we  extract  the  following:  "Other  reports  describe 
the  horrors  more  in  detail.  A  Jewess  named  Sura  Fonarschi  was 
brought  to  the  hospital  with  two  nails,  seven  inches  long,  driven  into 
her  brain  through  her  nose.  One  Jew  was  brought  in  with  one 
hip,  both  ankles  and  wrists  broken,  and  his  severed  hands  and  feet 
dangling  by  the  skin.  A  Jew  named  Chanifon  was  minus  his  under 
lip,  which  had  been  cut  away  with  a  kitchen  knife,  after  which  his 
tongue  and  windpipe  had  been  pulled  out  through  his  mouth  with 
pincers.  A  Jew  named  Selzers  had  had  his  ears  cut  away  and  his 
head  battered  in  twelve  places.  He  was  a  raving  maniac.  At  the 
corner  of  Spischoj  and  Gostinnj  streets  a  woman  about  to  become  a 
mother  was  dragged  from  her  house,  seated  in  a  chair  within  a  circle 
of  her  tormentors,  and  thrashed  about  the  abdomen  until  the  child 
appeared,  which  was  wrenched  ^out  and  cut  into  two  pieces.  A 
carpenter  was  surprised  at  his  work  and  both  of  his  hands  were 
sawed  off  with  his  own  saw.  A  Jewish  girl  was  assaulted  by  several 
brutes,  who  cut  her  eyes  out  with  a  pocket-knife.  One  woman  after 
trying  to  defend  her  children,  was  thrown  on  the  pavement,  disem- 
boweled, and  feathers  and  horsehair  from  her  bed  were  stuffed  into 
her  body.  All  the  half-grown  girls  were  assaulted  until  they  died. 
Small  children  were  flung  out  of  windows  and  trampled  on  by  the 
crowd." 

Referring  to  the  attitude  of  the  bureaucracy  upon  the  matter 
"  The  Public "  further  says :  "  The  ultra-patriotic  papers,  more- 
over, do  not  hesitate  to  propagate  the  doctrine  that  whosoever  kills 
a  Jew  is  a  good  Russian  patriot;  and  with  this  sort  of  journalism 
the  Russian  censors  neglect  to  interfere,  although  they  have  sup- 

45 


GILLETTE'S   SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

pressed  the  Woschod,  of  St.  Petersburg,  for  printing  the  facts  about 

the  massacre." 

And  while  all  this  is  happening  in  his  domain,  what  does  the  in- 
vertebrate Czar?  Nothing,— nothing  to  the  purpose.  Ihe  follow- 
ing poem  by  B.  H.  Nodal  is  characteristic  of,,  if  not  complimentary 
to,  the  Czar. 

"A  pasteboard  autocrat;  a  despot  out  of  date; 
A  fading  planet  in  the  glare  of  day; 
A  flickering  candle  in  the  bright  sun's  ray, 
Burnt  to  the  socket;  fruit  left  too  late, 
High  on  a  blighted  bough,  ripe  till  it's  rotten. 

By  God  forsaken  and  by  time  forgotten, 
Watching  the  crumbling  edges  of  his  lands, 
A  spineless  god  to  whom  dumb  millions  pray, 
From  Finland  in  the  west  to  far  Cathay, 
Lord  of  a  frost-bound  continent  he  stands, 

Her  seeming  ruin  his  dim  mind  appalls, 
And  in  the  frozen  stupor  of  his  sleep 

He  hears  dull  thunders,  pealing  as  she  falls, 
And  mighty  fragments  dropping  in  the  deep." 

Eeader,  do  not  for  a  moment  think  that  the  foregoing  horrors  are 
narrated  simply  for  your  entertainment  ?  There  is  a  deeper  purpose, 
be  sure,  in  putting  before  you  such  unpalatable  facts.  The  surgeon 
must  know  the  extent  of  the  cancer  he  is  to  cut  out  before  he  begins 
his  work. 

It  is  by  an  appreciation,  upon  the  part  of  our  Headers,  of  condi- 
tions as  they  are,  of  the  wrongs  to  be  righted,  the  darkness  to  be 
illumined  and  the  misery  to  be  abated,  that  we  hope  to  cause  them 
to  realise  the  magnificent  possibilities  of  the  Gillette  plan  for  the 
amelioration  of  society,  a  plan  which,  once  fully  adopted,  will  make 
these  and  kindred  atrocities  mere  historical  nightmares  growing  ever 
fainter  in  the  memory  of  a  rejuvenated  race. 

We  crave  your  indulgence  therefore  in  laying  in  a  few  more  of 
the  broad  shadows  necessary  to  the  truth  of  the  social  picture. 

It  is  a  common  error  on  the  part  of  English-speaking  peoples  to 
suppose  that  the  chief  penal  use  which  Russia  makes  of  Siberia  is 
for  the  punishment  of  Anarchists,  Nihilists,  and  other  revolutionists 
actively  inimical  to  the  safety  of  the  present  rulers.  Such  is  far 
from  being  the  case. 

Says  George  Kennan  in  "Siberia  and  The  Exile  System,"  vol.  2, 
p.  459 :  "  For  more  than  half  a  century  the  people  of  Siberia  have 
been  groaning  under  the  heavy  burden  of  common  criminal  exile. 
More  than  two-thirds  of  all  the  crimes  committed  in  the  colony  are 
committed  by  common  felons  who  have  been  transported  thither  and 
then  set  at  liberty;  and  the  peasants,  everywhere,  are  becoming  de- 
moralised by  enforced  association  with  thieves,  burglars,  counter- 
feiters, and  embezzlers  from  the  cities  of  European  Eussia.  The 
honest  and  prosperous  inhabitant  of  the  country  protest,  of  course, 
against  the  injustice  of  a  system  that  liberates  every  year,  at  their 
very  doors,  an  army  of  from  seven  to  ten  thousand  worthless  char- 
acters and  felons.  They  do  not  object  to  the  hard  labor  convicts. 

46 


RUSSIA 

because  the  latter  are  shut  up  in  prisons.  They  do  not  object  to 
the  political  and  religious  exiles,  because  such  offenders  make  the 
best  of  citizens.  Their  protests  are  aimed  particularly  at  the  crim- 
inal exiles  and  the  forced  colonists." 

The  awful  conditions  of  affairs  in  Siberia  may  be  imagined  from 
the  following  quotation  taken  from  the  same  authority :  "  At  ce^ 
tain  seasons  of  the  year  murders,  in  Siberian  towns,  are  the  com- 
monest of  occurrences,  and  you  can  hardly  take  up  a  Siberian  news- 
paper without  finding  in  it  a  record  of  one  or  more. 

"  There  were  four  murders,  for  example,  in  the  little  town  of  Min- 
usinsk on  the  same  night,  without  an  arrest,  and  from  the  still 
smaller  town  of  Marinsk  eleven  murders  were  reported  to  the  Si- 
berian Gazette  in  a  single  letter.  .  .  .  The  small  town  of  Bala- 
gansk,  in  the  province  of  Irkutsk  has  a  total  population  of  less  than 
5,000,  but  there  were  sixty-one  cases  of  murder  there  in  1887, — 
considerably  more  than  one  a  week, —  to  say  nothing  of  an  immense 
amount  of  other  crime." 

In  the  days  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  it  was  a  crime  even  to  be 
suspected  of  lack  of  faith. 

The  same  condition  obtains  in  Russia  to-day. 

The  term  "  NEBAGONADYESHNY,"  which  signifies  untrust- 
worthy, has  become  classical  in  Russian  police  affairs,  and  has  a 
•'  conveniently  vague "  signification.  Literally  it  means  of  whom 
nothing  good  can  be  expected,  and  is  the  Russian  equivalent  of  what 
in  Torquemada's  day  was  embraced  in  the  term  "  suspect." 

This  term  nebagonadyesliny  aptly  illustrates  that  unpronounce- 
ableness  of  Russian  names  which  is  almost  as  effective  as  the  Czar's 
censors  in  keeping  the  world  in  ignorance  of  the  all  but  unbeliev- 
able atrocities  perpetrated  in  his  Empire,  and  recalls  the  story  told 
by  John  L.  Stoddard  of  the  three  Americans  traveling  in  Russia, 
who,  in  order  that  they  might  appear  as  nobles  traveling  incognito, 
adopted  Russian  names.  "  These  proved  so  difficult  to  remember 
and  pronounce,  that  finally  they  invented  some  far  easier  to  recall, 
since  they  were  based  on  their  respective  looks  or  occupations.  Thus, 
one  who  practised  dentistry,  called  himself  '  Count  Pull-a-Tusky ' ; 
the  second,  who  was  a  distiller,  took  the  title  of  '  Prince  Cask-0'- 
Whisky ' ;  while  the  third,  who  had  the  misfortune  to  be  bald,  was 
styled  by  his  companions,  *  General  Hair-all-oftV  " 

Apropos  of  this  "administrative  method,"  as  it  is  called,  Leo 
Deutsch,  says,  in  "  Sixteen  years  in  Siberia,"  "  A  young  man  or  girl 
is  suspected  of  reading  such  and  such  books.  This  awakens  suspi- 
cion and  they  are  untrustworthy.  The  police  visit  them,  find  a  letter 
or  prohibited  book.  Then  the  course  of  events  is  certain, —  arrest, 
imprisonment,  Siberia." 

Two  visits  to  a  secret  printing-house,  on  the  part  of  Athanasius 
Spandoni,  resulted  in  fifteen  years'  penal  servitude.  Lazarev,  from 
Count  Tolstoi's  district,  was  sentenced  to  Eastern  Siberia  for  a  term 
of  three  years,  simply  because  he,  being  a  lawyer  and  a  peasant  by 
birth,  had  defended  his  poorer  neighbours  against  official  exaction. 
One  man,  who  innocently  bought  a  stolen  horse,  was  sent  to  Siberia, 
and,  through  some  official  blundering,  was  assigned  to  the  mines 

47 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

where  he  worked  for  twenty-three  years  underground.  Muishkin, 
wh  le  a  prisoner  in  Siberia,  delivered  a  short  funeral  address  over 
?he  dead  body  of  a  comrade,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said: 
o  the  ashes  of  this  heroic  man,  and  of  other  men  like  him,  will 
grow  the  tree  of  liberty  for  Russia/'  At  this  point  the  chief  of 
police  stopped  him  and  he  was  at  once  taken  back  to  his  cell.  Fif- 
tC  vears  more  of  penal  servitude  were  added  to  his  sentence  for 
making  this  "revolutionary  speech  within  the  sacred  precincts  of  a 
church  and  in  the  presence  of  the  'images  of  the  Holy  Saints  of 
the  Lord,'"  from  which  -it  will  be  seen  that  the  Siberian  officials 
are  punctilious  in  the  matter  of  religion. 

Every  rear  Russia  banishes  to  Siberia,  to  be  placed  under  police 
surveillance,  ten  thousand  of  her  best  and  most  public-spirited  citi- 


zens. 


Cases  almost  without  number  could  be  cited  to  show  that  men 
and  women  are  condemned  to  the  awful  horrors  of  Siberian  prisons, 
not  only  for  the  slightest  offenses  but  even  for  no  offense  at  all  m 

many  cases. 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  Russia  has  its  prison  horrors  as 
well  as  Siberia.  The  fortress  of  Peter  and  Paul,  in  St.  Petersburg, 
is  used  entirely  for  political  offenders.  It  is  "  a  place  never  spoken 
of  in  Russia  without  a  shudder."  We  cannot  better  -give  an  idea  of 
the  treatment  meted  out  to  the  Siberian  prisoner  than  by  citing 
actual  cases.  The  following  are  extracts  from  a  story  of  the  per- 
sonal experiences  told  by  Madam  Catherine  Bereshkovsky  and  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Outlook"  for  Jan.  7,  1905. 

"  In  jail  I  was  led  down  to  the  '  Black  Hole/  I  was  pushed  in, 
the  heavy  doors  slammed,  and  bolts  rattled  in  total  darkness.  At 
once  I  was  sickened  by  the  odor.  I  took  a  step  forward  and  slipped, 
for  the  floor  was  soft  with  filth.  I  stood  still,  until,  deadly  sick, 
I  sank  on  a  pile  of  straw  and  rags.  A  minute  later  I  was  stung 
sharply  back  to  consciousness,  and  sprang  up  covered  with  vermin. 
I  leaned  against  the  walls  and  found  them  damp.  I  stood  up  all 
night  in  the  middle  of  the  hole.  And  this  was  the  beginning  of 
Siberia/' 

She  then  relates  how  she  and  her  companions  were  tried  and  how 
for  protesting  against  the  trial  as  a  farce  she  was  given  the  punish- 
ment of  a  murderer,  five  years'  hard  labour  in  the  mines.  The  follow- 
ing is  a  description  of  her  journey  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Siberia : 

"  Secretly,  at  night,  to  avoid  demonstration,  ten  of  us  were  led 
out.  Other  tens  followed  on  successive  nights.  In  the  street  were 
eleven  telegas  —  heavy-loaded  vehicles  with  three  horses  each.  Into 
one  of  these  I  was  placed.  A  stout  gendarme  squeezed  in  on  each  side, 
to  remain  there  two  months.  Just  before  my  knees  sat  the  driver. 
Our  five  thousand  mile  journey  had  begun.  The  great  Siberian  Road 
has  been  described  by  Mr.  Kennan.  .  .  .  Our  guards  never  left 
us.  ...  Our  horses  continually  galloped,  for  they  were  changed 
every  few  hours.  We  bounced  often  a  whole  week  without  stopping 
over  ten  minutes  day  or  night.  We  suffered  agony  for  lack  of  sleep. 
.  .  .  We  were  dressed  in  convicts'  clothes.  .  .  .  For  sleep  we 
were  placed  in  the  etapes,  (way-side  prisons).  Mr.  Kennan  has  well 

48 


RUSSIA 

described  them,  reeking,  crawling,  infected  with  scurvy,  consump- 
tion and  typhoid.  The  air  was  invariably  noisome.  The  long  bench 
on  which  we  slept  had  no  bedclothes.  Through  the  wall  came  the 
rattling  of  chains,  the  moaning  of  women  and  the  cries  of  sick 
babies.  On  the  walls  were  inscriptions,  names  of  friends,  news  of 
death  and  insanity.  .  .  .  Along  this  great  Siberian  Road  over 
one  million  men,  women  and  children  have  dragged,  two  hundred 
fifty  thousand  since  1875,  people  of  every  social  class,  murderers 
and  degenerates  side  by  side  with  tender  girls  who  were  exiles 
through  the  jealous  wife  of  some  petty  town  official." 

Continuing,  she  relates  how  eight  politicals  escaped,  traveled  a 
thousand  miles  to  Vladivostok,  saw  the  longed-for  American  vessels 
and  were  retaken  upon  their  decks  and  brought  back  to  Kara.  For 
this  escape  on  the  part  of  the  men  all,  including  the  women,  were 
punished.  Describing  this  the  madame  says :  "  One  morning  the 
guards  entered  our  cells,  seised  us,  tore  off  our  clothes,  and  dressed 
us  in  convicts'  suits  alive  with  vermin.  That  scene  can  not  be  de- 
scribed. One  of  us  attempted  suicide.  Taken  to  an  old  prison, 
we  were  thrown  into  the  '  Black  Holes,'  foul  little  stalls  off  a  low 
grimy  hall  which  contained  two  big  stoves  and  two  little  windows. 
Each  had  a  stall  six  by  five.  On  winter  nights  the  stall  doors  were 
left  open  for  warmth,  in  summer  we  were  locked  in.  For  three 
months  we  did  not  use  our  bunks,  but  fought  with  candles  and  pails 
of  scalding  water  until  at  last  the  vermin  were  all  killed.  We  had 
been  put  on  the  '  Black  Hole  diet '  of  black  bread  and  water.  For 
three  years  we  never  breathed  the  outside  air.  We  struggled  con- 
stantly against  the  outrages  inflicted  on  us.  After  one  outrage  we 
lay  like  a  row  of  dead  women  for  nine  days  without  touching  food, 
until  certain  promises  were  finally  exacted  from  the  warden.  This 
'  hunger  strike '  was  used  repeatedly.  To  thwart  it  we  were  often 
bound  hand  and  foot,  while  Cossacks  tried  to  force  food  down  our 
throats/' 

She  then  relates  the  awful  experience  of  a  friend.  "  Kara  grew 
worse  after  I  left.  To  hint  at  what  happened,  I  will  tell  something 
of  what  happened  to  my  dear  friend  Maria,  a  woman  of  education 
and  deep  refinement.  Shortly  after  my  going  Maria  saw  Madame 
Sigida  strike  an  official  who  had  repeatedly  insulted  the  woman. 
Two  days  later  she  watched  Sigida  die  bleeding  from  the  lash;  that 
night  she  saw  three  women  commit  suicide  as  a  protest  to  the  world ; 
she  knew  that  twenty  men  attempted  suicide  on  the  night  following, 
and  she  determined  to  double  the  protest  by  assassinating  the  Gover- 
nor of  Trans  Baikal  who  had  ordered  Sigida's  flogging.  At  this 
time  Maria  was  pregnant.  Her  prison  term  over,  she  left  her  hus- 
band, and  walked  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  Governor's  house  and 
shot  him.  She  spent  three  months  in  a  cold,  dirty,  *  secret  cell,' 
not  long  enough  to  lie  down  in  or  high  enough  to  stand  up  in,  wear- 
ing the  cast-off  suit  of  a  convict,  sleeping  on  the  bare  floor  and  tor- 
mented by  vermin.  Then  she  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  She 
hesitated  now  whether  to  save  the  life  of  her  child.  .  .  .  She 
decided  to  keep  silent  and  sacrifice  her  child,  that,  when  the  execu- 
tion was  over  and  her  condition  discovered  the  effect  on  Russia 
*  49 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

might  be  still  greater.  Her  condition,  however,  became  apparent, 
and  she  was  started  off  to  the  Irkutsk  prison.  It  was  midwinter, 
forty  below  zero.  She  walked.  She  was  given  no  overcoat,  no 
boots  until  some  common  criminals  in  the  column  gave  her  theirs. 
Her  child  was  born  dead  in  the  prison,  and  soon  after  she  too  died. 
Her  last  words  were,  "  Mr.  Kennan,  we  may  die  in  exile,  and  our 
children  may  die  in  exile  and  our  children's  children  may  die  in 
exile,  but  something  must  come  of  it  at  last/' 


50 


CHAPTEE  II 
THE    WARNING    OF    RUSSIAN    BRUTALITY 


All  cruelty  results  from  lack  of  sympathy,  and  this  dearth  of  sym- 
pathy comes  from  a  deficient  sense  of  unity.  Class  distinctions  are  per- 
nicious in  that  they  create  imaginary,  and  accentuate  into  importance 
real  differences  of  no  account,  while  they  deny  and  obscure  those  great 
vital  and  essential  resemblances  which  form  the  very  bed-rock  of  broad 
humanitarian  love.  Thus  is  it  that  caste  is  the  blue-book  of  hell. 

But  during  the  growth  of  that  civilisation  which  has  been  made  pos- 
sible by  these  ego-altruistic  sentiments,  there  have  been  slowly  evolving 
the  altruistic  sentiments.  Development  of  these  has  gone  on  only  as 
fast  as  society  has  advanced  to  a  state  in  which  the  activities  are  mainly 
peaceful.  The  root  of  all  the  altruistic  sentiments  is  sympathy;  and 
sympathy  could  become  dominant  only  when  the  mode  of  life,  instead 
of  being  one  that  habitually  inflicted  direct  pain,  became  one  which 
conferred  direct  and  indirect  benefits;  the  pains  inflicted  being  mainly 
incidental  and  indirect. 

Herbert  Spencer. 

Whose  game  was  empires,  and  whose  stakes  were  thrones; 
Whose  table  earth,  whose  dice  were  human  bones. 

Byron— The  Age  of  Bronze. 

That  to  live  by  one  man's  will  became  the  cause  of  all  men's  misery. 

Richard   Hooker  —  Ecclesiastical   Polity. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE    WARNING    OF    RUSSIAN    BRUTALITY 


HE  incidents  narrated  in  the  last  chapter  are  but 
typical  of  the  prison  horrors  of  Sib.eria.  Books 
upon  the  subject  teem  with  other  cases,  until  the 
reader,  according  to  his  temperament,  grows  either 
too  sick  or  too  angry  to  read  further. 

Apropos  of  a  reply  to  a  critic  who  asserted  that 
Count  Tolstoi's  description  of  prison  life  in  his  novel  "  Resurrec- 
tion  "  was  untrue  we  find  the  following  in  "  The  Eussian  Revolu- 
tionary Movement,"  by  Konni  Zilliacus :  "  The  reply  was  signed  by 
'A  Doctor  from  Saghalien'  (at  present  the  vilest  place  of  deporta- 
tion for  convicts),  and  declared  deliberately  that  Tolstoi  was  not 
only  not  exaggerating  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  not  painted  things 
so  badly  as  they  really  were.  In  proof  of  this,  the  *  Doctor  from 
Saghalien'  stated,  among  other  things,  that  prisoners,  whether  po- 
litical or  not,  were  as  recently  as  the  year  1901  compelled  to  sleep 
in  the  same  room,  and,  even  worse,  on  the  floor  alongside  the  '  ac- 
commodation utensils'  (called  parascha  in  prisoner's  slang),  which 
were  placed  in  the  prisons  for  the  night,  and  which  as  a  rule,  re- 
mained there  during  the  day.  He  also  stated,  from  his  own  ex- 
perience in  Saghalien,  that  even  a  pregnant  woman  had  been 
whipped  in  the  prison,  and  that  other  women  in  the  same  condition 
had  been  sent  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  island,  where  it  was 
absolutely  impossible  for  them  to  obtain  medical  or  other  assistance." 
After  the  issuance  of  the  order  that  all  criminals  should  be  treated 
alike,  two  political  convicts  were  flogged  on  the  island  of  Saghalien 
because  one  of  them  failed  to  take  off  his  cap  to  a  petty  official 
whom  he  had  happened  to  meet. 

It  would  be  hard  to  say  whether  the  Siberian  prisoner  suffers 
most  from  the  unsanitary  conditions  which  are  forced  upon  him,  or 
from  the  brutality  of  his  keepers  expressed  in  other  ways. 

Referring  to  the  prison  at  the  mine  of  Algachi  Mr.  Kennan  says: 
"  There  was  no  provision  for  ventilation,  and  the  air  was  almost,  if 
not  quite,  as  bad  as  the  worst  cells  of  the  prisons  at  Ust  Kara.  I 
could  breathe  enough  of  it  to  sustain  life  and  that  was  all.  The 
first  thing  that  particularly  attracted  my  attention,  after  I  entered  the 
Kamera,  was  a  broad  band  of  dull  red  which  extended  around  the 
dingy,  whitewashed  walls,  just  above  the  sleeping  platform,  like  a 
spotty  dado  of  iron  rust. 

"  Noticing  that  I  was  looking  at  it  with  curiosity,  Lieutenant  Col- 
onel .Saltstein  remarked,  with  half  a  humorous,  half  cynical  smile, 
that  the  prisoners  had  been  *  trying  to  paint  their  walls  red/  '  What 

53 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

„  „,  „?<  •  I  inquired,  ^ff  ^"d^red^d 


oe  'trying  to  paint 

their  wal  L  re?  by  crushing  bedbugs  with  their  hands,  as  high  up 


. 

Siberia  myself  from  vermin  fully  to  understand  and  appreciate  the 
the  flintiest  pretexts,  and  no  man  is  safe  from 


Qnco,  waa  exiled  because  he  took  a  fictitious  name. 
Another  was  exiled  merely  because  he  was  the  friend  of  a  man  who 
was  awaiting  trial  on  the  charge  of  political  conspiracy.  The  man 
was  found  to  be  innocent  and  was  acquitted,  but  in  the  meantime 
the  friend  had  gone  to  Siberia  by  administrative  process. 

Two  girls,  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  of  age,  who  looked  as  it  they 
ought  to  .be  pursuing  their  studies  in  a  High  School,  were  exiled, 
and  no  reason  given.  .  . 

Think  of  the  government  of  a  country  of  Russia's  sise  believing  its 
stability  menaced  by  two  young  women  ! 

Mr.  Staniukovich  was  sent  to  Siberia  for  three  years  for  holding 
a  purely  business  correspondence  with  a  revolutionist  living  in  Swit- 

zerland. 

Mr.  'Borodin  was  exiled  because  a  copy  of  an  article  which  he  had 
written  upon  the  economic  condition  of  the  province  of  Viatka  was 
found  in  his  possession,  the  article  subsequently  being  published 
word  for  word,  the  Censorship  Committee  having  certified  to  its 
harmlessness. 

In  1902  Kalayey  was  arrested  in  Mysolowitz  without  any  warrant 
and  handed  over  to  the  Russian  Gendarmerie,  since  which  he  has 
not  been  heard  of. 

We  might  continue  almost  indefinitely  to  cite  cases  showing  how 
this  Russian  despotism  treats  its  noblest  and  most  unselfish  sons  and 
daughters,  but  let  the  following  suffice. 

Between  the  years  1901  and  1904,  twenty  or  thirty  authors,  edi- 
tors and  publishers,  were  banished  from  St.  Petersburg,  alone. 
Among  them  were  Vorontsof,  the  political  economist;  Panteleief 
and  Kalmikova,  both  well-known  publishers;  Annenski,  the  statisti- 
cian; Peter  Struve,  grandson  of  the  famous  astronomer;  Lessevitch, 
the  philosopher;  Philipof,  editor  of  "The  Scientific  Review";  two 
editors  and  secretary  of  the  suppressed  periodical,  "Zhizn";  four 
members  of  the  "  Russian  Free  Economic  Society."  The  Minister  of 
the  Interior  in  every  case  pronounced  the  decree  of  banishment  "  with- 
out any  form  of  judicial  procedure,  and  in  most  cases  without  the 
assignment  of  any  reason." 

54 


THE    WARNING    OF    RUSSIAN    BRUTALITY 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  received  by  Mr.  N.  H.  Dole, 
of  Jamaica  Plain,  Mass.,  from  the  wife  of  a  man  connected  with 
St.  Petersburg  institutions  of  learning  anent  the  massacres  in  that 
city  in  the  early  part  of  1905,  tells  the  usual  awful  story.  The 
letter  was  sent  out  by  the  "'Press  Committee  of  the  Friends  of  Rus- 
sian  Freedom,"  and  the  following  extract  appeared  in  "  The  Public  " 
of  March  11,  1905 : 

"  I  can  write  you  only  a  few  words.  I  am  suffering  too  much 
over  what  is  going  on  here.  You  surely  know  about  it  from  your 
papers.  All  Europe  is  horror-stricken  at  the  cruelty  of  our  govern- 
ment. The  soldiers  fired  volleys  into  a  peaceful  crowd,  which  in- 
cluded children,  women  and  old  men,  and  whose  only  crime  was 
presenting  a  petition.  There  were  even  cannon  shots  in  the  even- 
ing. We  could  hear  them  distinctly. 

"The  number  of  killed  and  wounded  must  have  been  very  great. 
They  are  trying  to  make  out  that  there  were  only  a  few,  relying 
upon  the  registers  of  the  hospitals;  but  only  those  who  showed  signs 
of  life  were  sent  to  the  hospitals  (and  in  what  a  condition,  great 
God !) .  The  dead  were  piled  in  a  heap,  to  be  buried  all  together  with- 
out being  counted.  They  had  the  cruelty  to  deny  the  parents  the 
bodies  of  their  sons.  We  were  fortunate  enough  to  get  the  dead 
body  of  one  of  our  students,  who  had  received  six  wounds.  Our 
whole  community  buried  him  with  the  greatest  consideration  and 
love.  To  see  the  despair  and  grief  of  his  unhappy  mother  was  very 
trying. 

"  One  can  never  be  .sure  of  returning  home  in  safety.  I  am  al- 
ways in  the  greatest  anxiety  when  my  sons  and  husband  are  away. 
All  Russia  is  an  inferno;  there  is  not  a  place  where  people  do  not 
suffer,  and  the  sufferings  are  of  every  imaginable  kind.  I  think 
even  those  scoundrels  who  arranged  the  slaughter  cannot  be  happy." 

Still  more  recently  might  be  mentioned  scores  of  brutalities  in- 
cident to  the  "pacification"  of  the  revolutionary  movement.  For 
example  we  quote  the  following  from  Carl  Joubert's  "  The  Fall  of 
Tsardom":  "Pavlovitch  Lalaef,  whose  card  lies  before  me  as  I 
write,  attempted  to  leave  Baku  with  his  family  and  to  seek  safety 
in  Batoun.  He  with  his  whole  family  were  robbed  and  murdered 
on  the  way.  A  police  official,  Guerbel  by  name,  when  questioned 
concerning  the  massacre  of  this  whole  family  said  that  they  had  no 
need  of  protection  as  they  were  enemies  of  the  Government/' 

Notwithstanding  the  awful  punishments  inflicted  upon  prisoners, 
and  upon  politicals  in  particular,  there  are  not  a  few  who,  after 
suffering  the  torments  of  the  damned  for  years  and  finally  escaping, 
have  returned  forthwith  to  their  unselfish  work  of  liberation. 

One  such,  having  escaped,  was  retaken,  again  escaped,  and  is  now 
again  hazarding  everything  for  the  great  love  that  is  in  him. 

We  respectfully  recommend  such  heroes  to  the  President  of  Har- 
vard College  as  a  very  great  improvement  upon  the  "scab"  brand 
of  article  which  has  on  more  than  one  occasion  called  forth  his 
encomiums. 

Does  not  the  love  of  fatherland,  on  the  part  of  these  Russian 
heroes  voluntarily  facing  tortures  inexpressibly  worse  than  those  in- 

55 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

flicted  upon  the  Saviour  and  with  a  self-renunciation  equally  great, 
make  the  latter-day  American  "  patriotism  "  seem  like  a  flag-waving, 
song-singing  toy,  devised  to  distract  the  attention  of  weaklings  while 
they  are  being  shorn  of  their  liberties?  Does  it  not  in  comparison 
reduce  to  vanishing  littleness  that  brand  of  the  article  which  seeks 
to  celebrate  and  extend  its  own  glory  by  crying  "  Alarmist !  "  "  Pessi- 
mist! "  "Calamity-Howler!  "  at  all  who  have  the  clearness  of  vision 
to  see,  and  the  courage  to  make  known,  the  awful  menace  of  the 
present  trend  of  affairs  ?  We  are  sacrificing,  one  after  another,  those 
great  principles  for  which  our  forefathers  poured  out  their  sacred 
blood,  and  which  we  have  seemingly  come  to  regard  as  burdens  the 
loss  of  which  will  but  lighten  our  load.  As  the  Church  is  wont  to 
cling  the  more  desperately  to  its  creed  the  more  the  religion  is  squeezed 
out  of  it,  so  we  are  madly  hugging  a  word  from  which  every  syllable 
of  real  meaning  is  all  but  stricken  out.  How  long  shall  we  con- 
tinue to  worship  the  shadow  and  not  detect  that  the  substance  has 
fled? 

And  at  this  point  it  seems  fitting  to  consider  for  a  moment  the 
cause  of  Eussia's  uncivilised  and  unchristian  barbarities,  and  to  see 
if  the  same  forces  operating  elsewhere  do  not  produce  the  same  re- 
sults. What  is  the  first  great  fact  that  challenges  our  attention? 
Is  it  not  that  men  who  are  tender  in  some  of  their  activities  are 
grossly  brutal  in  others?  Do  we  not  know  that  a  Plehve  planning 
to  give  full  rein  to  the  murderers  of  Jews  at  Kishineff,  a  Weyler 
adopting  a  military  policy  in  Cuba  which  he  knows  will  bring  un- 
utterable privation,  misery,  and  death  upon  thousands  of  innocent 
non-combatants,  or  a  coal  baron  scheming  to  line  his  purse  by  an 
advance  in  price  which  he  knows  full  well  will -bring  agony,  desola- 
tion and  death  into  countless  homes, —  do  we  not  know  that  any  one 
of  these  men  would  sacrifice  much  to  save  his  wife  or  his  child  from 
suffering  far  less  than  that  he  so  readily  metes  out  to  others  ?  Are 
the  minions  of  King  Leopold  II.,  who  in  a  single  half-year  killed 
and  mutilated  more  than  six  thousand  men,  women  and  children  in 
the  Mambogo  River  Concession,  killers  of  their  own  wives,  brothers, 
sisters,  sons  or  daughters?  By  no  means!  Find  twenty-five  men 
who  are  all  tenderness  itself  to  all  human  beings  and  twenty-four 
of  them  will  exhibit  no  objection,  from  the  standpoint  of  inflicting 
pain,  to  sticking  a  pig,  shooting  a  troublesome  dog,  or  drowning 
a  superfluous  cat.  Ask  them  why  they  have  no  objection  to  taking 
this  kind  of  life  when  they  are  so  considerate  of  human  life,  and 
they  will  tell  you,  when  they  recover  sufficiently  from  the  astonish- 
ment created  by  your  question,  that,  in  the  first  place,  animals  are 
very  different  things  from  men  and  women  and  in  the  second  place 
that  these  creatures  they  have  killed  are  theirs  to  do  with  as  they 
please. 

Here,  then,  are  the  two  factors,  which  more  than  all  others  put 
together,  are  responsible  for  man's  inhumanity  to  man.  First: 
Real,  fancied,  or  conveniently  assumed  unlikeness.  Second:  Arro- 
gated superiority  to,  and  possession  of,  the  victims  of  their  brutality. 
The  first,  making  against  that  community  of  interests,  thoughts, 
feelings  and  emotions  which  forms  the  substratum  of  the  kind  of  ' 

56 


THE    WARNING    OF    RUSSIAN    BRUTALITY 

sympathy  which  feels  with  another,  destroys  immediately  that  other 
kind  of  sympathy  which  feels  for  another  and  ends  in  an  assertion  of 
inferiority.  Various  names  have  been  chosen  to  express  this  de- 
plorable condition,  but  there  seems  to  be  none  of  them  better  than 
the  socialistic  term,  "  class-consciousness." 

The  second  factor,  arrogating  superiority  as  its  very  major  premise 
makes  directly  away  from  all  sympathy  of  any  kind  and  toward  a 
brutally  selfish  doctrine  of  utility.  In  this  wise  human  hearts  get 
into  the  category  of  property  and  become  in  the  minds  of  the  self- 
styled  superior  class  subject  to  whatever  can  be  read  into  that  awful 
twentieth  century  fetich, —  Rights  of  Property.  "  Shall  a  man  not 
beat  or  kill  his  own  slave  if  he  wish  ?  "  "  May  not  a  monarch  work 
his  will  upon  his  subjects  ?  "  Out  on  you !  When  Gentili  Bellini, 
the  artist,  showed  the  Sultan  his  head  of  John  the  Baptist  on  a 
charger,  the  Turk  exclaimed  contemptuously,  "  A  man's  head  doesn't 
look  like  that  when  it  is  cut  off !  " 

"  Perhaps  the  Light  of  the  Sun  knows  more  about  painting  than  I 
do,"  retorted  the  artist. 

"  I  may  not  know  much  about  painting,  but  I'm  no  fool  in  some 
other  things  I  might  name ; "  and  the  Sultan  clapped  his  hands 
thrice.  Two  slaves  entered.  With  a  single  swing  of  his  scimitar  he 
beheaded  the  foremost,  that  he  might  prove  to  Bellini  that  he  was 
no  idle  boaster.  Was  not  the  Sublime  Turk  within  his  rights?  May 
not  a  man  do  as  he  lists  with  his  own  property?  If  he  choose  to 
pay  an  Ellilik  for  a  tube  of  the  wonderful  attar  of  roses  they  make 
so  well  in  Bulgaria  or  to  spend  a  slave  to  show  an  ignorant  artist 
how  to  paint  a  severed  head,  who  shall  gainsay  him  ?  —  Certainly, 
not  the  slave.  Are  we  to  consider  life  as  sacred  as  a  property  right? 

Wherever  in  the  history  of  the  world  humanity  has  divided  into 
masses  and  classes,  cruelty,  gross  selfishness,  political  degeneracy  and 
social  disruption  have  invariably  followed.  Wherever  one  class  comes 
to  regard  itself  as  above  and  apart  from  another,  the  accentuation 
of  this  arrogated  superiority  up  to  the  point  where  the  alleged  dif- 
ferences originally  regarded  as  matters  of  degree  became  to  be  held 
radical  differences  in  kind,  is  only  a  matter  of  time.  Thus  the  privi- 
leged class  comes  by  successive,  easy  stages  to  regard  itself  as  the 
elect  for  whom  all  things,  including  what  it  considers  the  vulgar 
herd,  the  mudsills,  bog-trotters,  riffraff  and  hoi  polloi,  were  carefully 
and  lovingly  made.  Thus  such  a  class-made  prince  of  privilege  hav- 
ing in  this  manner  come  to  regard  himself  as  the  natural  ruler  and 
owner  of  his  fellow  creatures,  and  at  the  same  time  duly  impressed 
himself  with  the  utter  unlikeness  existing  between  his  own  godlike 
estate  and  the  low,  vulgar,  brute-like  existence  of  these  work-a-day 
clods,  he  feels  that  he  is  rather  more  than  necessarily  considerate  if 
he  holds  them  "  Something  better  than  his  dog,  a  little  dearer  than 
his  horse,"  and  treats  them  accordingly. 

Whether  this  condition  be  arrived  at  along  the  lines  of  remarks 
accredited  to  President  George  F.  Baer  of  the  Anthracite  Coal  Trust, 
or  of  the  somewhat  different,  though  equally  modest  and  refreshing, 
American-Beauty-Rose  parable  of  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  does  not 
matter.  The  result  is  the  same. 

57 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

We  find  that  this  is  no  new  tendency.  It  appears  in  every  decay- 
ine  civilisation.  Varro  referred  to  certain  of  his  fellow  countrymen 
ufwsirumentum  vocale,  meaning  "the  talking  kind  of  agricultural 
implements,"  while  Aristotle  spoke  of  the  lower  stratum  of  Greek 
society  as  "the  living  machines  which  a  man  possesses.  Flato 
called  those  who  toiled  in  poverty  and  those  who  lived  on  the  toil  of 
others,  the  "  hares  and  lions  "  respectively. 

Rousseau  indicated  the  attitude  of  the  classes  toward  the  masses 
in  these  words :  "  I  make  an  agreement  with  you  wholly  at  your 
expense,  and  to  my  advantage,  which  I  shall  respect  as  long  as  I 
please,  and  which  you  shall  respect  as  long  as  it  pleases  me." 

Mr.  Baer's  formula,  according  to  press  reports,  is  as  follows :  "  The 
rights  and  interests  of  the  laboring  man  will  be  protected  by  the 
Christian  men  to  whom  God  in  His  infinite  wisdom  has  given  the 
property  interests  of  the  country." 

The  formula  of  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  while  not  so  empty  of 
humor  and  so  full  of  hypocrisy,  replacing  as  it  does  a  partnership 
with  Deity  by  an  established  entente  with  Nature,  is  still  beautiful 
and  fragrant  withal. 

Presumably  for  the  purpose  of  justifying  the  conditions  leading 
to  the  enrichment  of  his  own  family  by  the  impoverishment  of  thou- 
sands of  others,  he  gave  his  Bible  Class  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist 
Church  in  New  York,  this  parable: 

"  The  American  Beauty  Rose  can  be  produced  in  all  its  glory  only 
by  sacrificing  the  early  buds  that  grow  up  around  it." 

He  might  have  said  that  it  takes  a  quarter  of  a  million  rose-blos- 
soms to  make  one  rupee's  weight  of  attar-of-roses,  which  is  worth  at 
wholesale  more  than  one  hundred  rupees  and  then  have  added  the 
pregnant  thought  that  those  by  whose  labour  this  expensive  distilla- 
tion is  made  loathe  its  scent  above  all  other  odours. 

The  recent  treatment  of  the  Negro  in  our  Southern  States  has  been 
defended  by  clergymen  on  the  ground  that  "  niggers  "  are  not  men 
but  beasts.  In  the  famous  Dred-Scott  case  Chief  Justice  Taney  said 
that  for  more  than  a  century  before  the  Declaration  of.  Independence 
and  the  framing  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  Negroes 
"had  been  regarded  as  beings  of  an  inferior  order,  and  altogether 
unfit  to  associate  with  the  white  race,  either  in  social  or  political 
relations;  and  so  far  inferior,  that  they  had  no  rights  which  the 
white  man  was  bound  to  respect;  and  that  the  Negro  might  justly 
and  lawfully  be  reduced  to  slavery  for  his  benefit.  He  was  bought 
and  sold  and  treated  as  an  ordinary  article  of  merchandise  and 
traffic,  whenever  a  profit  could  be  made  of  it.  This  opinion  was  at 
that  time  fixed  and  universal  in  the  civilized  portion  of  the  white 
race." 

Observe  the  seductive  hypocrisy  of  the  words,  "for  his  benefit," 
and  note  the  same  thought  in  the  recently  quoted  words  ascribed  to 
Mr.  Baer. 

The  assumption  that  the  Negro  "had  no  rights  which  the  white 
man  was  bound  to  respect"  was  responsible  for  an  almost  infinite 
amount  of  ante-bellum  cruelty,  and  to-day  the  same  thought,  though 
few  have  the  arrogant  effrontery  publicly  to  voice  it.  is  mainly  re- 

58 


THE    WARNING    OF    RUSSIAN    BRUTALITY 

sponsible  for  the  disgraceful  lynchings  of  Negroes  which  have  sullied 
the  statehood  of  every  state  in  the  Union,  with  the  meagre  exception 
of  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Ehode  Island  and  Utah. 

The  brutal  treatment  of  the  East  Indians  by  Europeans  has  its 
rise  in  the  same  class-consciousness,  and  he  who  runs  may  see  that 
this  sentiment  bestialises  both  sides  of  its  equation,  the  self-styled 
superior  more,  if  possible,  than  his  despised  fellow  creature. 

Apropos  of  this  we  quote  the  following  from  Stoddard's  "  India  " : 
"  Can  we,  then,  wonder  that  this  system  of  caste  has  broken  the 
spirit  of  the  people?  The  servile  class  will  often  ask  a  Brahmin  to 
wash  his  feet  in  the  water  of  the  street,  that  they  may  then  drink  it. 
They  take  the  ofttimes  brutal  treatment  of  Europeans  without  re- 
sentment; and  instances  are  known  of  natives  coming  to  their  Eng- 
lish masters,  when  they  had  a  special  favor  to  ask,  with  grass  in 
their  mouths,  saying  that  they  were  their  beasts/' 

The  people  of  Eussia  are  often  referred  to  by  their  rulers  as.  a 
"  beast "  to  be  governed,  and  the  government  treats  the  masses  upon 
this  assumption  that  they  are  a  sort  of  cattle  or  even  vermin,  having 
no  rights  which  it  is  bound  to  respect.  This  is  aptly  illustrated  by 
the  retort  of  the  Czar's  uncle,  the  Grand  Duke  Sergius.  When 
some  one  said  to  him  that  Russia  existed  for  the  sake  of  its  people, 
he  replied,  "  You  might  as  well  say  that  a  dog  exists  for  the  sake  of 
its  fleas ! " 

From  this  we  may  see  that  the  Grand  Duke  regarded  the  gap  exist- 
ing between  the  classes  and  the  masses  as  equivalent  to  that  existing 
between  a  dog  and  its  vermin. 

It  is  this  class-consciousness, —  now  so  rapidly  becoming  the  rule 
rather  than  the  exception  in  America,  which  is  so  largely  responsible 
for  the  awful  conditions  which  are  general  throughout  the  entire 
Russian  Empire.  In  good  sooth  is  it  written ;  "  All  Russia  is  an 
inferno;  there  is  not  a  place  where  people  do  not  suffer,  and  the 
sufferings  are  of  every  imaginable  kind." 

In  "  The  Fall  of  Tsardom  "  Carl  Joubert  thus  speaks  of  Russian 
conditions  in  1905 :  "  If  the  present  state  of  affairs  in  Russia  were  to 
continue  for  a  decade  there  would  be  no  living  soul.  The  country 
would  be  one  vast  grave-yard  with  none  to  bury  the  dead.  The 
scenes  of  horror  which  accompanied  the  outbreak  'of  the  Indian 
Mutiny  are  being  enacted  to-day  in  Russia,  but  on  a  vaster  scale. 
Now,  as  then,  race  has  risen  against  race,  religion  against  religion. 
There  is  no  mercy  and  no  decency  observed  in  the  slaughter.  The 
corpses  lie  about  the  streets  of  Baku  with  gaping  throats  and  muti- 
lated limbs,  stripped  and  robbed  and  violated.  Neither  age  nor  sex 
appeals  to  the  clemency  of  the  combatants.  It  is  an  orgie  of  wanton 
homicide  and  unrestrained  lust,  and  there  is  none  to  stay  the  carni- 
val." 


59 


CHAPTEE  III 

AGRARIAN  AND  OTHER  RUSSIAN 
CONDITIONS 


61 


The  hearts  of  the  people  are  the  only  legitimate  foundations  of  empire. 

Chinese  Proverb. 

In  a  change  of  government,  the  poor  seldom  change  anything  except 
the  name  of  their  master. 

Phaedrus  —  Fabulae. 

Injustice  swift,  erect  and  unconfln'd, 

Sweeps  the  wide  earth,  and  tramples  o'er  mankind. 

Homer  —  Iliad. 

Tyranny 

Absolves  all   faith;    and  who   invades  our  right, 
Howe'er  his  own  commence,  can  never  be 
But  an  usurper. 

Henry  Brooke  —  Gustavus  Vasa. 


CHAPTER  III 


AGRARIAN  AND  OTHER  RUSSIAN  CON- 
DITIONS 


Russia,"  says  "  The  Outlook  "  of  January  30,  1904, 
"nothing  is  permitted,  everything  is  either  ordered 
or  forbidden.  The  government  compels  peasants 
whose  houses  have  been  burned  down  to  wait  months 
for  permission  to  rebuild;  it  reprimands  citizens  who 
unite  in  a  joint  telegram  to  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction  on  the  ground  that  collective  action  of  that  kind  is 
strictly  forbidden;  it  will  not  allow  school-teachers  to  give  to  the 
press  any  information  with  regard  to  schools,  education,  or  the 
economic  condition  of  the  peasants;  it  prohibits  everywhere  public 
celebration  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  emancipation  of 
the  serfs;  it  will  not  permit  university  students  to  celebrate  any- 
thing, nor  to  participate  in  public  testimonials  to  esteemed  persons; 
it  draws  up  the  program  for  and  superintends  the  proceedings  of 
every  convention  of  business  men  who  meet  to  consider  and  discuss 
their  own  interests;  it  forbids  town  councils  to  give  the  name  of 
Gogol,  Pushkin  or  Turgenieff  to  any  of  their  newly  established 
municipal  schools;  it  arbitrarily  closes  the  statistical  bureaus  of  the 
Zemstvos  and  burns  their  statistics;  it  suppresses,  without  process  of 
Law,  such  organizations  as  the  Russian  Free  Economic  Society,  the 
Moscow  Judicial  Society,  the  St.  Petersburg  Society  for  Furnishing 
Reading  to  the  Poor  and  Sick,  and  the  Elizavebgvad  Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  Literary  and  Technical  Knowledge;  it  forbids  the 
giving  of  an  entertainment  called  '  a  Turgenieff  Evening '  on  the 
novelist's  birthday  in  his  native  town;  it  will  not  permit  the  execu- 
tive boards  of  the  Zemstvos  to  consult  one  another,  nor  to  establish 
a  periodical  devoted  to  their  collective  interests,  it  has  taken  away 
from  these  organisations  the  right  to  care  for  people  in  time  of 
famine,  and  it  has  just  stopped  all  statistical  work  of  the  Zemstvos 
in  twelve  provinces  and  given  governors  discretionary  power  to  stop 
them  in  twenty-two  more." 

In  addition  to  this  the  government  arrogates  to  itself  the  right  to 
search  the  houses  and  belongings  of  any  of  its  citizens  at  any  time 
and  without  any  legal  warrant  or  previous  notice.  As  many  as  six 
hundred  such  searches  have  been  made  in  St.  Petersburg  in  a  single 
night. 

These  elaborate  means,  adopted  to  keep  the  populace  in  the  darkness 
of  ignorance,  the  abjection  of  slavery,  and  to  prevent  the  leaking 
out  of  facts  likely  to  show  the  true  condition  of  affairs,  are  all  but 
wholly  successful.  No  alleged  statistics  coming  from  governmental 
sources  are  to  be  trusted,  for  a  moment,  as  was  illustrated  again  and 

63 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

again  during  the  war  with  Japan.  Kepeatedly  was  a  crushing  defeat 
of  the  Eussian  forces  given  out  as  a  triumphant  victory.  Truth  is 
something  which  Russian  bureaucracy  seems  entirely  to  have  out- 
grown. The  question  is  not,  What  are  the  facts?  but  rather;  What 
do  we  wish  the  people  to  believe  them  to  be  ? 

Says  a  recent  writer :  "  The  censorship  in  Eussia  is  exercised  over 
all  printed  matter  whether  published  in  the  country  or  not.  The 
daily  newspapers  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  are  not  actually  sub- 
jected to  censorship.  The  censor,  however,  reads  the  printed  sheet 
before  any  one  else,  and  if  it  contains  anything  forbidden  the  edition 
is  suppressed.  Editors  may  criticise  the  local  administration,  but 
not  say  anything  which  can  be  construed  as  reflecting  upon  Church 
or  higher  authorities.  .  .  .  The  provincial  newspapers  must  sub- 
ject their  proof-sheets  of  every  article  before  they  are  published/* 
We  are  told  that  of  late  years,  twenty-five  or  twenty-six  newspapers 
and  magazines  have  been  suppressed  in  Eussia. 

In  the  meantime  there  have  been  inflicted  on  other  periodicals 
five  hundred  and  eighty-one  punishments  less  severe  than  absolute 
suppression,  including  suspensions  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to 
forty-nine  years  and  four  months. 

Nor  is  the  government  contented  with  thus  throttling  the  press. 
It  not  only  blots  out  the  printed  word  but  stifles  the  utterance  of  the 
spoken  word.  For  example,  some  physicians  of  the  Zemstvo,  after 
the  cholera  disturbances  of  1891  and  again  after  the  plague  of  1900, 
asked  permission  to  read  lectures  to  the  people  instructing  them  in 
regard  to  contagious  and  infectious  disease  with  a  view  to  the  pre- 
vention of  similar  epidemics.  This  permission  was  emphatically- 
refused.  Commenting  on  these  incidents  a  recent  writer  says :  "  Per- 
secution of  everybody  and  everything  capable  of  bringing  a  ray  of 
light  into  the  million  headed  peasantry  constitutes  the  main  concern 
and  occupation  of  the  Imperial  Government/' 

It  is  hard  to  conceive  how  even  an  autocracy  can  be  so  lost  to 
all  sense  of  human  suffering  as  to  make  it  an  offense  to  heal  the  sick 
or  to  alleviate  in  any  way  the  agony  of  its  subjects,  yet  such  is 
undeniably  the  case  in  this  despotism  of  the  Czar.  Says  Catherine 
Breschkovsky  in  "  The  Independent "  of  January  5,  1905 :  "  Those 
who  tried  to  relieve  the  poor  in  famine  times  were  forbidden.  Socie- 
ties that  had  existed  from  the  time  of  Catherine  II.  proved  too  liberal 
and  were  dissolved.  When  the  philanthropic  rich  tried  to  allay  the 
sufferings  of  the  starving  they  were  stopped.  The  government  was 
afraid  that  the  poor  people  would  learn  they  were  oppressed.  So 
Nicholas  ordered  all  private  free  restaurants  and  relief  stations  shut 
down,  decreeing  that  all  moneys  donated  for  the  needy  be  handed 
over  to  the  several  governors.  By  the  ukases  of  1890  and  1900  all 
private  initiative  in  organising  aid  to  the  poor  was  declared  a  crime. 
The  glaring  dishonesty  of  the  Czar's  functionaries  from  the  minis- 
ters down  to  the  meanest  policemen  is  notorious,  and  the  donations 
were  stopped  and  the  people  were  left  in  the  throes  of  famine  and 
disease." 

Here  in  America  we  think  it  heartless  for  an  Oil  King  and  Coal 
Barons  to  freeze  the  poor  by  an  outrageous  advance  in  the  prices  oi 

64 


AGRARIAN    CONDITIONS 

kerosene  and  coal  in  the  midst  of  a  hard  winter.  Suppose  now  in 
addition  to  this  the  said  King  and  Barons  had  punished  all  who  in 
the  tenderness  of  their  hearts  had  given  fuel  to  those  dying  of  cold ! 

As  might  be  expected  from  the  foregoing,  the  government  of 
Russia  does  as  little  as  possible  for  the  education  of  the  people.  In 
his  "  Russian  Affairs,"  Geoffrey  Drage  says  that  there  are  but  few 
schools,  and  that  these  are  so  widely  scattered  as  materially  to  re- 
strict their  utility.  They  are  open  only  in  winter  and  supplied  with 
teachers  whose  yearly  salary  is  upon  the  average  but  the  pittance  of 
six  pounds,  and  who  consequently  are  often  dependent  upon  the 
charity  of  their  pupils'  parents.  In  1898,  the  latest  year  for  which 
he  was  able  to  secure  statistics,  only  a  quarter  of  the  population  of 
school  age  received  instruction  of  any  kind. 

In  1885  the  ratio  of  illiteracy  among  adults  was  as  great  as  seventy- 
three  per  cent,  while  a  few  years  later  in  Great  Russia  it  reached  as 
high  as  ninety-four  per  cent.  He  further  says :  "  Every  sort  of 
device  is  employed  to  prevent  Jews  from  obtaining  the  education 
which  they  are  so  anxious  to  acquire.  If  they  are  willing  to  establish 
and  maintain  schools  of  •  their  own,  permission  is  seldom  granted 
without  a  struggle." 

In  Siberia  the  story  is  even  worse.  For  example,  when  Catherine 
Breschkovsky  proposed  a  school  the  police  forbade  its  establishment, 
for  there,  as  she  says,  "even  an  exiled  doctor  cannot  heal  the  sick 
nor  a  minister  comfort  the  dying." 

The  general  governmental  animus  in  this  matter  of  the  education 
of  the  people  is  aptly  illustrated  by  the  Czar's  action  when  he  dis- 
covered that  through  the  establishment  of  schools  in  certain  locali- 
ties, local  illiteracy  was  on  the  decrease.  He  expressed  his  displeas- 
ure at  this  condition  of  affairs,  and  made  this  note  in  his  own  hand- 
writing on  the  report  of  a  southern  Zemstvo :  "  Less  zeal  in  this 
direction."  In  short,  as  has  been  written :  "  Autocracy  endeavors 
to  crush  everything  capable  of  raising  a  hand  in  self-defense." 

Referring  to  the  ignorance  of  the  peasantry,  resulting  from  such 
methods,  Drage  says : 

"  The  peasants  are  so  ignorant  that  they  cannot  care  for  their 
children,  and  forty  to  fifty  per  cent  of  them  die.  The  mothers  re- 
turn to  their  work  in  the  fields  within  a  few  days  of  the  birth  of 
their  infants. 

"  Two  hundred  years  ago  there  was  not  one  scientifically  educated 
doctor  in  Russia,  and  at  the  present  day  doctors  are  practically  in- 
accessible to  the  great  majority  of  the  population.  According  to 
calculation  in  1899  the  average  number  of  inhabitants  in  rural  dis- 
tricts to  one  doctor  was  thirty-five  thousand." 

While  this  ignorance  was  being  deliberately  fostered,  Russia  in 
1904  was  spending  on  her  armed  forces  more  than  ten  times  as  much 
as  she  was  applying  to  public  instruction. 

According  to  the  "  Budget "  for  1904  Russia  spent  on  War  affairs 
three  hundred  sixty  million,  seven  hundred  fifty-eight  thousand, 
ninety-two  roubles;  on  the  navy  one  hundred  thirteen  million,  six 
hundred  twenty-two  thousand,  four  hundred  and  twenty-six  roubles; 

*  65 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

on  public  instruction  forty-three  million,  six  hundred  seventy-seven 
thousand,  four  hundred  fifty-one  roubles. 

"The  Fortnightly  Keview"  for  1905  states  that  Russia  lavishes 
on  her  armed  forces  three-fifths  of  the  entire  resources  of  the  state. 

What  wonder  that  she  is  a  degenerate  among  nations ! 

Regarding  the  life  of  factory  operatives  Drage  says :  '(  The  work- 
ers sleep  in  summer  in  the  open  air,  in  winter  in  the  work-shops  or 
in  sheds  hastily  put  together  to  serve  for  the  occasion.  There  are  no 
set  times  or  proper  places  for  meals,  and  the  workers  go  home  on 
Sundays  and  bring  back  a  sufficient  supply  of  food  for  the  week. 
Blackbread. 

"  When  the  demand  for  labor  is  great  the  people  come  in  from  the 
country.  Then  the  factory  owners  have  to  furnish  accommodations. 
They  are  herded  together  even  when  women  and  men  are  both  pres- 
ent, for  families  are  not  in  the  question.  Large  dormitories  with 
wooden  bedsteads  are  provided  where  the  workers  crowd  together 
under  their  sheep-skin,  as  closely  as  possible  for  the  sake  of  warmth. 

"  When  a  double  shift  is  worked  the  beds  never  grow  cold/* 

Says  a  much-traveled  Eussian  authority  in  "The  Independent" 
of  Feb.  2,  1905 : .  "My  experience  in  Nikolayev  may  be  regarded  as 
typical  of  working  class  conditions  in  the  larger  industrial  cities 
throughout  Russia.  .  .  .  The  skilled  workmen  receive  from  ten 
to  twelve  kopeks  (5  to  6  cents)  per  hour,  thus  earning  six  or  seven 
roubles  ($3  to  $3.50)  a  week,  while  unskilled  ones  earn  hardly  more 
than  half  the  sum.  The  hours  of  work  reach  up  to  eleven,  the  legal 
maximum,  or  even  more.  The  conditions  of  work  are  bad.  Though 
there  is  a  factory  inspector  for  the  town,  yet  I  have  never  seen  him, 
and  those  who  work  there  for  some  time  told  me  that  he  comes  to 
the  factory  but  once  a  year,  and  even  then  he  does  not  inspect. 

"  There  is  no  provision  against  accidents,  and  accidents  resulting  in 
crippling  or  killing  workmen  are  very  frequent.  Every  accident  is 
reported  to  the  company's  lawyers,  who  after  much  quibbling  pay  the 
families  of  the  victims  some  trifling  sum,  like  twenty-five  roubles  for 
the  loss  of  a  finger,  one  hundred  roubles  for  a  hand  or  a  leg,  three 
hundred  roubles  for  death. 

"  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  trade  union,  and  all  efforts  to  organize 
such  prove  unsuccessful.  One  attempt  during  my  stay  resulted  in 
twenty  arrests,  for  many  of  the  workmen  are  employed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment as  spies,  and  mistrust  is  general. 

"How  do  the  unskilled  workmen  live  on  three  or  four  roubles 
($1.50  to  $2.00)  a  week?  They  simply  have  to  do  it.  As  the 
proverb  goes,  '  Need  dances,  need  hops,  need  sings  all  sorts  of  songs.' 

"The  married  workmen  pay  from  four  to  six  roubles  ($2  to  $3) 
rent  a  month  for  two  rooms  somewhere  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city. 
Their  food  is  the  cheapest  black  bread  known  as  ' soldiers  bread' 
which  is  three  kopeks  (iy2  cts.)  a  lb.,  and  pork  at  twenty  kopeks 
(10  cts.)  a  lb.  Good  fresh  pork  is  sold  at  forty  kopeks  (20  cts.)  a 
lb.,  but  that  is  a  luxury  not  for  working  people.  The  clothing  they 
wear  is  of  the  cheapest  kind,  mostly  second-hand.  They  wear  no 
stockings,  using  rags  instead. 

"  The  unmarried  hire  a  corner  in  some  of  the  two-room  houses,,  for 

66 


AGRARIAN    CONDITIONS 

which  they  pay  two  to  three  roubles  ($1  to  $1.50)  a  month.  There 
are  cheap  lodging  houses,  but  these  are  frequented  by  the  tramps 
who  are  called  '  Barefoot  Brigade/  and  who  number  ten  thousand 
in  Nikolayev. 

"  The  misery  caused,  by  drink  is  intense.  The  workmen  are  paid 
fortnightly,  and  they  go  to  the  dramshops  direct  from  the  factories. 
Then  they  borrow  from  the  factory  management  and  are  never  able 
to  clear  themselves  from  debt.  About  one  half  of  the  working  peo- 
ple are  illiterate,  and  there  are  no  free  schools  and  the  children  grow 
up  in  the  same  ignorance.  There  are  two  theatres,  but  they  are  not 
for  the  working  people.  The  circus  comes  at  Easter,  and  that  is 
their  only  amusement,  except  getting  drunk  and  attacking  the  Jews, 
particularly  about  Easter-time,  when  drink  and  fanatical  exhortation 
stir  up  their  animal  passions.  Such  are  the  conditions  of  Nikolayev 
and  every  other  industrial  city  I  have  visited,  and  I  have  visited 
many,  for  I  have  traveled  much  as  the  representative  of  my  father, 
whose  business  interests  are  quite  extensive.  Dire  poverty  reigns  in 
almost  every  worker's  home,  yet  no  one  dares  openly  express  any 
demands  or  even  dissatisfaction/' 

The  testimony  of  a  workman  in  Kovno,  which  appears  in  the  same 
article,  is  as  follows :  "  Tailors  work  fourteen  hours  a  day  and  five 
roubles  ($2.50)  a  week  is  good  pay.  The  most  terrible  conditions 
prevail  in  the  three  match  factories  there.  Some  three  thousand 
small  girls,  from  neighboring  villages,  work  there  for  twenty  to 
twenty-five  kopeks  (10  to  12l/2  cts.)  a  day.  The  work  is  very  dan- 
gerous, and  most  of  the  girls  employed  there  for  some  time  lose 
their  teeth  and  even  their  gums  begin  to  rot.  No  precautions  are 
taken.  As  most  of  the  girls  do  not  live  near  the  factories  they  fre- 
quently stay  there  over  night,  sleeping  in  the  same  boxes  that  are 
used  for  shipping  matches." 

Coming  now  to  agrarian  difficulties  we  touch  the  source  of  the  most 
widely  felt,  the  most  generally  diffused  misery  of  Russia.  Look 
where  you  will  among  the  peasantry  the  plaint  is  the  same, —  too  lit- 
tle land,  too  high  rents. 

We  extract  the  following  from  an  article  by  Alice  Stone  Black- 
well  in  "  The  Public  "  for  February  4,  1905,  giving  information  sent 
out  by  the  press  committee  of  the  "  Friends  of  Russian  Freedom." 

"  According  to  Mrs.  Katherine  Breshkovskaya,  „  .  .  the  great- 
est single  source  of  distress  is  the  agrarian  situation.  The  workmen 
in  the  cities  have  been  driven  to  insurrection  by  starvation  wages, 
and  below  them  is  the  seething  mass  of  misery  and  discontent  among 
the  peasants  —  a  volcano  beneath  a  volcano. 

"  More  than  80  per  cent  of  the  Russian  people  are  peasant  farmers, 
living  by  agriculture  and  having  no  other  means  of  support.  When 
the  serfs  were  emancipated  they  were  not  given  enough  land  to  get 
a  living  on  —  not  half  the  amount  of  ground  which  every  peasant 
had  been  allowed  to  cultivate  for  his  own  support  during  serfdom." 

In  the  words  of  Madame  Breshkovskaya,  "  The  peasant  was  free. 
No  longer  bound  to  the  soil,  his  landlord  ordered  him  off.  He  was 
shown  a  little  strip  of  the  poorest  soil,  there  to  be  free  and  starve. 
He  was  bewildered;  he  could  not  imagine  himself  without  his  old 

67 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

plot  of  land,  which  he  and  his  ancestors  had  cultivated  for  cen- 
turies He  refused  to  leave  his  plot  for  the  wretched  stnp.  Mas- 
ter '  he  cried  '  how  can  I  nourish  my  little  ones  through  a  Kussian 
winter?  Such  land  means  death/-  This  cry  arose  all  over  Russia. 
"Then  troops  were  quartered  in  the  peasants'  huts,  old  people 
were  beaten  daughters  were  violated.  The  peasants  grew  more  wild, 
and  then  began  the  flogging.  In  a  village  near  ours,  where  they 
refused  to  leave  their  plots,  they  were  driven  into  line  on  the  village 
street;  every  tenth  man  was  called  out  and  flogged  with  the  knout; 
some  died.  Two  weeks  later,  as  they  still  held  out,  every  fifth  man 
was  flogged.  The  poor  ignorant  creatures  still  held  desperately  to 
what  they  thought  their  rights.  Again  the  line,  and  now  every  man 
was  dragged  to  the  flogging.  This  process  lasted  for  five  years  all 
over  Russia,  until  at  last,  bleeding  and  exhausted,  the  peasants 

gave  in." 

From  that  day  to  this  the  bulk  of  the  land  has  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  nobility,  the  monasteries  and  the  crown.  The  peasants 
have  been  chronically  on  the  verge  of  starvation.  They  suffer  from 
frequent  famines,  in  which  they  die  off  like  flies.  Even  the  small 
quantity  of  poor  land  given  to  them  they  do  not  enjoy  free;  the 
decree  of  emancipation  provided  that  they  were  to  buy  it  gradually 
from  their  former  masters  by  annual  payments,  at  a  rate  much 
above  its  real  value. 

Prof.  Paul  Milyoukoff,  formerly  of  the  University  of  Moscow,  one 
of  the  most  learned  men  in  Russia,  is  now  lecturing  in  America. 
He  shows  by  statistics  that,  owing  to  the  increase  of  the  peasant 
population  since  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  the  average  amount  .of 
land  per  peasant  has  now  been  reduced  to  about  half  of  the  original 
"  wretched  strip." 

The  article  then  continues:  "Utterly  unable  to  meet  the  annual 
payments,  and  crushed  by  heavy  additional  taxation,  millions  of  the 
peasants  have  become  completely  bankrupt.  When  their  goods  are 
sold  for  taxes,  the  government  strips  them  even  of  their  outer  cloth- 
ing ;  it  takes  everything  but  the  walls  of  the  hut. 

"  To  an  American,  the  obvious  remedy  would  seem  to  be  to  put  an 
end  to  the  concentration  of  almost  all  the  land  of  the  vast  empire 
in  the  hands  of  a  few  nobles.  But  to  this  the  nobles  will  not  con- 
sent. The  Czar  himself  is  an  immense  land-owner,  with  great  estates 
in  every  part  of  Russia.  All  the  richest  mines,  the  most  valuable 
forests,  and  the  most  fertile  corn-lands  belong  to  the  crown.  There 
are  also  about  a  hundred  of  the  Czar's  family,  uncles,  aunts  and 
cousins,  all  of  them  great  land-owners,  all  unwilling  to  give  up  any 
of  their  property,  and  all  advising  him  not  to  make  any  concession. 

"  Meanwhile  the  people  are  growing  desperate.  Bread  riots  and 
agrarian  disturbances  have  become  more  and  more  common,  and 
have  been  put  down  with  merciless  brutality.  After  the  agrarian 
troubles  in  Volkhi  in  1902,  Col.  Ziegler  had  his  Cossacks  flog  the 
peasants,  and  then  said  to  them  in  the  presence  of  the  soldiers : 
'  We  are  through  with  you ;  now  we  want  your  women.'  Their  wives 
and  daughters  were  given  over  to  the  soldiery.  One  .woman  tried  to 
protect  herself  by  holding  her  young  child  in  front  of  her;  The 

68 


AGRARIAN    CONDITIONS 

child  was  torn  from  her,  and  its  brains  were  dashed  out  before  the 
mother's  eyes.  A  number  of  the  peasant  women  committed  suicide 
in  consequence  of  their  treatment  by  the  soldiers,  but  no  one  was 
punished  for  it. 

"  In  southern  Siberia  there  are  vast  tracts  of  good  land  not  yet 
settled.  Many  peasants,  unable  to  make  a  living  in  Eussia,  emi- 
grated to  .Siberia,  and  began  farming  in  comfort.  So  many  went 
that  in  some  districts  the  nobility  complained  that  there  was  no 
longer  enough  cheap  labor  to  work  their  estates.  Thereupon  the 
government  issued  a  decree  that  any  nobleman  wishing  to  take  up 
land  in  Siberia  might  have  6,000  acres,  but  that  no  peasant  might 
take  up  more  than  30  acres,  and  that  no  peasant  might  emigrate 
to  Siberia  till  after  all  his  debts  in  Kussia  were  paid." 

From  all  authorities  comes  the  same  awful  story.  In  one  of  his 
able  articles  published  in  "  The  Outlook "  Ernest  Poole  writes  as 
follows :  " '  Poorer  every  year ! '  cried  one  white,  stooping  old  peas- 
ant, his  sturdy  voice  shaking.  ( I  was  a  serf  before  the  emancipation 
in  '64.  Our  owner  took  from  my  father  every  year  one  cow,  eight 
swine,  twelve  chickens  (to  feed  to  his  hunting  falcons),  one  pig, 
and  ten  poods  of  gomee  (rice).  He  could  strap  us  in  his  stocks  or 
beat  us  as  he  pleased,  and  when  he  punished  a  man  he  beat  the  man's 
parents,  too,  for  giving  birth  to  such  a  devil,  (an  old  Persian  cus- 
tom). In  '64  we  were  freed.  But  then  our  old  owner  shouted: 
'  You  don't  own  this  land.  Get  off ! '  And  we  had  to  take  the  very 
worst  land,  and  so  we  starved.  My  father  shouted:  'This  is  a 
devil's  trick ! '  So  they  grabbed  him  at  night  away  to  .Siberia,  and 
we  never  saw  him  again.  The  new  land  got  so  bad  we  rented  our 
old  land,  and  so  we  were  slaves  again.  They  kept  raising  the  rent, 
and,  besides,  the  police  and  priests  and  judges  of  the  Czar  made 
us  pay,  or  they  would  beat  us  or  curse  our  souls.  So  three  years 
ago  we  just  stopped  plowing.  Then  the  owners  grew  angry  because 
their  fields  were  idle;  they  took  our  cattle.  We  went  and  took  our 
own  cattle  back.  And  the  police  and  judges  shouted :  *  This  is  a 
revolution ! '  • 

The  following  extracts  from  an  article  by  the  great  Eussian  novel- 
ist, Count  Leo  Tolstoy,  which  first  appeared  in  the  "  London  Times  " 
of  August  1,  1905,  tell  the  same  sad  story. 

"  This  evil  —  the  fundamental  evil  from  which  the  Eussian  people, 
as  well  as  the  peoples  of  Europe  and  America,  are  suffering  —  is  the 
fact  that  the  majority  of  the  people  are  deprived  of  the  indisputable 
natural  right  of  every  man  to  use  a  portion  of  the  land  on  which  he 
was  born.  It  is  sufficient  to  understand  all  the  criminality,  the 
sinfulness  of  the  situation  in  this  respect,  in  order  to  understand  that 
until  this  atrocity,  continually  being  committed  by  the  owners  of 
the  land,  shall  cease,  no  political  reforms  will  give  freedom  and  wel- 
fare to  the  people,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  only  the  emancipation 
of  the  majority  of  the  people  from  that  land-slavery  in  which  they 
are  now  held  can  render  political  reforms,  not  a  plaything  and  a  tool 
for  personal  aims  in  the  hands  of  politicians,  but  the  real  expression 
of  the  will  of  the  people.  .  .  . 

"  The  other  day  I  was  walking  along  the  high-road  to  Tula.     It 

69 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

was  on  the  Saturday  of  Holy  Week;  the  people  were  driving  to 
market  in  lines  of  carts,  with  calves,  hens,  horses,  cows  (some  of  the 
cows  were  being  conveyed  in  the  carts,  so  starved  were  they).  A 
wrinkled  old  woman  was  leading  a  lean,  sickly  cow.  I  knew  the  old 
woman,  and  asked  her  why  she  was  leading  the  cow. 

'  She  is  without  milk/  said  the  woman.  '  I  ought  to  sell  her  and 
buy  one  with  milk.  Likely  I'll  have  to  add  ten  roubles,  but  I  have 
only  five.  Where  shall  I  take  it?  During  the  winter  we  have  had 
to  spend  18  roubles  on  flour,  and  we've  only  got  one  bread-winner. 
I  live  alone  with  my  daughter-in-law  and  four  grand-children;  my 
son  is  house-porter  in  town/ 

'  Why  doesn't  your  son  live  at  home? '  I  asked. 

'He's  nothing  to  work  on.  What's  our  land?  Just  enough  for 
Kvas/ 

"  A  peasant  went  tramping  along,  thin  and  pale,  his  trousers  be- 
spattered with  mine  clay. 

'  What  business  in  town  ? '  I  asked. 

'  To  buy  a  horse ;  it's  time  to  plow,  and  I  haven't  got  one.  But 
they  say  horses  are  dear/ 

'What  price  do  you  want  to  give?' 

( Well,  according  to  what  I  have/ 

'  How  much  have  you  ? ' 

'I've  scraped  together  fifteen  roubles.  But  what  can  you  buy  at 
the  present  time  for. fifteen  roubles?' 

'  A  knacker's  beast/  put  in  another  peasant.  '  In  whose  mine  do 
you  work  ? '  he  asked,  glancing  at  his  trousers  stretched  at  the  knee 
and  colored  with  red  clay. 

'  In  KomarofFs,  Ivan  Komaroff's/ 

'  Why  have  you  made  so  little  ? ' 

'  Oh,  I  was  working  for  half -profit/ 

'  How  much  did  you  earn  ? '  I  asked. 

'Two  roubles  a  week,  or  even  less.  What  can  one  do?  Bread 
didn't  last  till  Christmas.  We  can't  buy  enough/ 

"  A  little  further,  a  young  peasant  was  leading  a  sleek,  well-fed 
horse  to  sell. 

'  Nice  horse/  said  I. 

'  Couldn't  be  better/  said  he,  thinking  me  a  buyer.  '  Good  for 
ploughing  and  driving/ 

'  Then  why  do  you  sell  it  ? ' 

'  I  can't  use  it.  I've  only  two  allotments.  I  can  manage  them 
with  one  horse.  I've  kept  them  both  over  the  winter,  and  I'm  sorry 
enough  for  it.  The  cattle  have  eaten  everything  up,  and  we  want 
money  to  pay  the  rent/ 

'  From  whom  do  you  rent  ? ' 

'From  Maria  Ivanovna;  thanks  be  to  her  she  let  us  have  it. 
Otherwise  it  would  have  been  the  end  of  us/ 

'  What  are  the  terms  ? ' 

'  She  fleeces  us  of  fourteen  roubles.  But  where  else  can  we  go  ? 
So  we  take  it/ 

"  A  woman  passed  driving  along  with  a  boy  wearing  a  little  cap. 

70 


AGRARIAN    CONDITIONS 

She  knew  me,  clambered  out,  and  offered  me  her  boy  for  service. 
The  boy  is  quite  a  tiny  fellow  with  quick,  intelligent  eyes. 

'  He  looks  small,  but  he  can  do  everything/  she  says. 

'  But  why  do  you  hire  out  such  a  little  one  ? ' 

'Well,  sir,  at  least  it'll  be  one  mouth  less  to  feed.  I  have  four 
besides  myself,  and  only  one  allotment.  God  knows,  we've  nothing 
to  eat.  They  ask  for  bread  and  I've  none  to  give  them/ 

"  With  whomsoever  one  talks,  all  compkin  of  their  want  and  all 
similarly  from  one  side  to  another  come  back  to  the  sole  reason. 
There  is  insufficient  bread,  and  bread  is  insufficient  because  there  is 
no  land. 

"  These  may  be  mere  casual  meetings  on  the  road ;  but  cross  all 
Eussia,  all  its  peasant  world,  and  one  may  observe  all  the  dreadful 
calamities  and  sufferings  which  proceed  from  the  obvious  cause  that 
the  agricultural  masses  are  deprived  of  land.  Half  the  Kussian 
peasantry  live  so  that  for  them  the  question  is  not  how  to  improve 
their  position,  but  only  how  not  to  die  of  hunger,  they  and  their 
families,  and  this  only  because  they  have  no  land. 

"  Traverse  all  Eussia  and  ask  all  the  working  people  why  their 
life  is  hard,  what  they  want;  and  all  of  them  with  one  voice  will 
say  one  and  the  same  thing,  that  which  they  unceasingly  desire  and 
expect,  and  for  which  they  unceasingly  hope,  of  which  they  un- 
ceasingly think. 

"  And  they  cannot  help  thinking  and  feeling  this,  for,  apart  from 
the  chief  thing,  the  insufficiency  of  land  for  the  maintenance  of  most 
of  them,  they  cannot  but  feel  themselves  the  slaves  of  the  landed  gen- 
try, and  merchants,  and  land-owners  whose  estates  have  surrounded 
their  small  insufficient  allotments;  and  they  cannot  but  think  and 
feel  this,  for  every  minute,  for  a  bag  of  grass,  for  a  handful  of  fuel, 
without  which  they  cannot  live,  for  a  horse  gone  astray  from  their 
land  on  to  the  landlord's,  they  perpetually  suffer  fines,  blows,-  humilia- 
tion. 

"  Once,  as  I  was  going  along  the  road,  I  entered  into  conversation 
with  a  blind  peasant  beggar.  Eecognizing  in  me  from  my  conversa- 
tion a  literate  man  who  read  the  papers,  but  not  taking  me  for  a 
gentlemen,  he  suddenly  stopped  and  gravely  asked:  'Well,  and  is 
there  any  rumor  ? ' 

"I  asked:    'About  what?' 

'  Why,  about  the  gentry's  land/ 

"  I  said  I  had  heard  nothing.  The  blind  man  shook  his  head  and 
didn't  ask  me  anything  more. 

'  Well,  what  do  they  say  about  the  land  ? '  I  asked  a  short  time  ago 
a  former  pupil  of  mine,  a  rich,  steady,  and  intelligent  literate  peas- 
ant. 

'  It  is  true  the  people  prattle/ 

'  And  you  yourself,  what  do  you  think  ? ' 

'  Well,  it'll  probably  come  over  to  us/  he  said. 

"  Of  all  events  which  are  taking  place,  this  alone  is  important  and 
interesting  to  the  whole  people.  And  they  believe,  and  cannot  but 
believe,  that  it  will  '  Come  over/ 

"  They  cannot  but  believe  this,  because  it  is  clear  to  them  that  a 

71 


GILLETTE'S   SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

multiplying  people  living  by  agriculture  cannot  continue  to  exist 
when  only  a  small  portion  of  the  land  is  left  them  from  which  they 
must  feed  themselves  and  all  the  parasites  who  have  fastened  on  to 
them  and  are  crawling  about  them." 

The  land  difficulties  pressing  upon  the  peasantry  with  unendurable 
power  drive  many  to  deeds  of  desperation  which  the  government 
punishes  without  one  throb  of  pity  for  the  offender  it  has  itself  made 
with  such  studied  care. 

After  the  agrarian  disorder  in  the  early  part  of  1902,  Governor 
Belgardt  caused  the  brutal  flogging  of  more  than  four  hundred  peas- 
ants, each  unfortunate  receiving  from  one  hundred  and  twenty  to 
one  hundred  and  seventy  blows, —  and  all  this  without  a  judicial 
hearing. 

"The  Great  Black  Earth  Belt,"  as  it  is  called,  is  the  very  heart 
of  Russia,  consisting  of  625,000  square  miles  of  naturally  rich  agri- 
cultural land.  Forty-five  millions,  of  people,  or  approximately  two- 
fifths  of  the  entire  population  of  Russia,  depend  upon  this  land  for 
subsistence. 

Properly  cultivated  this  belt  would  abundantly  nourish  its  present 
population  and  export  millions  of  bushels  of  grain.  Until  recently 
this  land  was  the  most  fertile  in  Europe,  but  having  for  many  years 
received  no  fertilizer,  but  one  crop  —  wheat  —  can  now  be  seen  for 
hundreds  of  miles.  According  to  the  best  authorities,  including 
Engelmann  and  Golovine,  this  famous  Black  Belt,  this  very  heart  or 
core  of  Russia,  is  exhausted.  It  is  stated  that  within  the  last 
twenty  years  there  has  been  a  falling  off  in  the  average  yield  of 
thirty  per  cent,  while  in  the  cases  of  special  crops  like  barley  and 
spring  wheat,  the  decrease  rises  as  high  as  forty  per  cent.  Crop 
failures  follow  each  other  in  pitiless  succession,  and  M.  De  Witte, 
unwilling  to  admit  that  the  land  is  played  out,  blames  the  climate, 
asserting  that  in  one  case  it  was  too  wet,  in  another  too  dry, —  in 
still  another  too  cold,  etc.,  anything,  in  fact,  rather  than  the  truth. 

Nor  is  this  decadence  confined  to  the  "  Great  Black  Belt " ;  the 
same  is  true  of  the  rest  of  Russia.  In  Southern  Russia  there  are 
hundreds  of  farms  without  a  cow  or  a  horse.  The  owners  have  to 
do  the  work  of  cattle  in  plowing  their  own  land.  A  great  many 
farmers  are  compelled  to  appeal  to  the  government  to  aid  them  in 
their  annual  sowing.  Novikoff  says  there  are  "  vast  districts  where 
there  is  no  communication  with  markets;  fat  soil  which  does  not 
return  what  is  put  into  it;  half  starved  animals  on  arid  meadows; 
pious  farmers  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  holidays  in  the  year;  an 
all-pervading  sentiment  of  nameless  terror." 

It  is  difficult  for  the  strongest  imagination  to  picture  the  awful 
condition  of  the  great  Russian  Empire.  To  be  adequately  realised  it 
must  be  actually  seen  and  lived.  Millions  of  the  inhabitants  are 
reduced  to  conditions  in  comfort  far  below  those  of  American  dogs  or 
cattle.  The  decline  of  agriculture  is  said  to  be  the  real  key  to  the 
present  Russian  condition.  The  gross  ignorance  of  the  peasantry, 
the  wasteful  farming  methods  they  adopt,  and  the  constant  repeti- 
tion of  the  same  crop  year  after  year,  have  exhausted  the  soil  to 
such  a  degree  that  famines  seem  almost  to  be  the  rule  rather  than 

72 


AGRARIAN    CONDITIONS 

the  exception.  In  the  meantime,  to  make  bad  matters  worse,  taxa- 
tion has  increased  at  a  destructive  ratio.  Says  a  recent  writer: 
"  Cattle  and  horses  have  decreased  so  greatly  that  fertilizers  are  lack- 
ing and  animal  power  for  cultivation.  We  have  left,  then,  a  vast 
population  of  starving  farmers  of  30  to  40  millions,  and  the  condi- 
tion .of  affairs  growing  worse  every  day.  When  the  peasant  fails  al- 
together as  a  land-owner  his  wages  as  a  day  laborer  average  ten 
cents  per  day.  Even  at  this  wage  his  condition  is  not  so  hopeless  as 
his  employees." 

The  decrease  in  the  average  yield  of  "  The  Great  Black  Belt "  of 
from  30  to  40  per  cent  during  the  last  twenty  years  has  caused  the 
richest  district  in  Russia,  lying  along  the  Volga,  to  become  the  centre 
of  a  condition  of  affairs  not  exceeded  in  its  horrors  by  the  famine 
stricken  districts  of  India. 

"  The  people/'  says  the  writer  last  quoted,  "  have  been  so  with- 
out food  that  during  the  winters  they  have  undertaken  to  establish  a 
system  of  hibernating,  hiding  themselves  in  their  huts,  where  they 
lie  in  a  stupor,  moving  as  little  as  possible  either  by  night  or  day. 
This  is  the  condition  of  over  one-third  of  the  entire  population." 

And  this  is  Russia!  Think  of  it!  On  the  one  hand  millions  of 
men,  women  and  children  forced  to  lie  in  a  half-frozen  or  half-stifled 
torpor  in  order  that  their  unfed  bodies  may  not  consume  themselves 
beyond  the  point  where  life  is  possible, —  on  the  other  hand  thou- 
sands of  the  so  called  "better  classes"  warmed  by  costly  furs,  be- 
dizened with  jewelry  crystallised  from  the  heart-tears  of  the  agonised 
poor,  lazily  lolling  in  rich  cafes  or  sipping  costly  wines  of  ancient 
vintage  at  private  banquets,  wines  distilled  drop  by  drop  from  the 
shrunken  veins  of  the  suffering  toilers,  and  ever  and  anon  performing 
what  they  are  pleased  to  regard  acts  of  worship  in  magnificent  tem- 
ples erected  in  the  name  of  One  whose  love  was  always  with  the 
poor  and  needy  and  who  ever  preached  the  gospel  of  equality! 

Reader,  we  ask  you  if  in  the  light  of  what  we  have  submitted, 
Russian  conditions  are  not  susceptible  of  great  improvement.  Were 
it  possible  to  end  all  this  suffering,  and  to  make  what  is  now  an 
inferno  of  sin,  crime,  disease,  poverty,  debauchery,  agony  and  death 
a  great  human  garden  where  all  should  be  sunlight  and  flowers, — 
and  all  this  without  the  shedding  of  a  drop  of  blood,  would  you  not 
"  rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad  ?  "  That  is  precisely  what  Gillette's 
Social  Redemption  aims  to  do,  not  only  as  regards  Russia,  but  also 
with  reference  to  every  inch  of  this  earth's  surface  pressed  by  the 
foot  of  man. 

If  the  picture  we  have  drawn  is  as  gloomy  to  look  upon  as  the 
struggles  of  souls  eternally  damned,  do  not  lose  heart,  for  it  is  told 
with  the  conviction  that  under  and  through  it  all  is  the  promise  of 
a  new  dawn  ushered  in  by  a  social  sun  brighter  than  any  which  has 
ever  before  risen  upon  the  children  of  men. 


73 


BOOK   III 

CHAPTER      I.    ASIATIC  TURKEY 
CHAPTER    II.    THE  CONGO  FREE  STATE 
CHAPTER  III.    THE  DEVIL'S   STERN  CHASE 


75 


I  hate  the  murderer,  love  him  murdered. 
The  guilt  of  conscience  take  thou  for  thy  labour, 
But  neither  my  good  word  nor  princely  favour: 
With  Cain  go  wander  through  shades  of  night, 
And  never  show  thy  head  by  day  nor  light. 

Richard  II. 

This,  this  is  misery!  the  last,  the  worst, 
That  man  can  feel. 

Homer  —  Iliad. 

The  time  has  been 

That,  when  the  brains  were  out,  the  man  would  die, 
And  there  an  end;  but  now  they  rise  again, 
With  twenty   mortal  murders   on   their  crowns, 
And  push  us  from  our  stools. 

Macbeth. 

Beyond  the  infinite  and  boundless  reach 
Of  mercy,  if  thou  didst  this  deed  of  death, 
Art  thou  damn'd,  Hubert. 

King  John. 

Inhumanity  is  caught  from  man, 
From  smiling  man. 

Young  —  Night    Thoughts. 

Nor  all  that  heralds  rake  from  comn'd  clay, 
Nor  florid  prose,  nor  honied  lies  of  rhyme, 
Can  blazen  evil  deeds,  or  consecrate  a  crime. 

Byron  —  Childe  Harold. 

Man's  inhumanity  to  man 

Makes  countless  thousands  mourn! 

Burns  —  Man  was  Made  to  Mourn. 


76 


HE  Asiatic  portion  of  tfce  Ottoman  Empire  has  an 
area  of  six  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  square 
miles,  including  Asia  Minor,  Armenia  and  Kurdi- 
stan, Mesopotamia,  Syria,  portions  of  Arabia  on  the 
Eed  Sea  and  numerous  islands  of  the  Archipelago. 
The  population  of  Turkey  in  Asia  for  1905  is  esti- 
mated at  sixteen  million,  eight  hundred  ninety-eight  thousand,  seven 
hundred.  Of  this  Armenia  and  Kurdistan,  having  an  area  of 
eighty-nine  thousand,  two  hundred  and  sixty-four  square  miles,  have 
approximately  two  million,  four  hundred  fifty-seven  thousand  inhab- 
itants. There  are  few  countries  in  the  world  where  so  many  nation- 
alities come  together,  and  yet  remain  so  distinct,  as  in  Turkey  in 
Asia.  As  we  are  chiefly  interested  with  the  Armenians  who  belong 
to  the  Aryan  family  we  need  bestow  no  further  attention  upon  other 
races  than  to  state  in  passing  that  the  Greeks  form  a  large  and  im- 
portant element.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Greeks,  the  Armenians 
and  the  Hebrews  almost  monopolise  the  commerce  of  the  Asiatic 
Empire.  The  Armenians  are  notable  for  their  intellectual  capacity 
and  their  singular  dexterity  in  business.  The  shrewdest  traders  in 
the  Orient  and  in  Eastern  Europe  are  the  Armenians.  And  to  the 
superior  commercial  ability  on  their  part  must  be  charged  many  of 
the  outrages  that  have  been  visited  upon  them.  Eeligious  fanaticism 
has,  of  course,  been  an  ever-prominent  element  of  discord;  but  the 
fact  that  the  ruling  race  is  unable  to  hold  its  own  in  fair  commer- 
cial competition  with  the  Armenians  has  by  no  means  tended  to 
smooth  matters. 

The  massacres  perpetrated  upon  this  Aryan  people  are  among  the 
very  worst  which  stain  history's  pages. 

Says  Prof.  H.  Anthony  Salmoni  apropos  of  the  massacres  of  1896 : 
"  The  darkest  record  in  the  pages  of  modern  history  is  unquestion- 
ably that  of  the  reign  of  Abdul  Hamid.  What  is  still  more  lam- 
entable is  the  fact  that  an  indelible  stain  blemishes  the  fair  re- 
pute of  European  chivalry  and  honor.  With  all  the  boasted  claims 
of  Western  nations  to  civilization,  culture,  love  of  justice  and  hu- 
manity, and  the  protection  of  the  oppressed,  they  have  of  late  re- 
mained inert  witnesses  of  the  most  barbaric  treatment  that  a  subju- 
gated people  ever  received  from  its  rulers.  All  this  notwithstanding 
that  the  six  Great  Powers  stand  pledged  by  treaties  to  afford  pro- 
tection to  the  persecuted  subjects  of  the  Sultan.  But  they  have  con- 
tinued passive,  lest  by  active  intervention  some  spoke  may  thereby 
be  put  in  the  wheel  of  their  political  machinery." 

77 


The  eloquent  arraignment  of  the  European  Powers  by  _  the  late 
France-*  Willard  is  well  worthy  of  note.  "An  ancient  nation,"  she 
said,  "  is  being  slaughtered  at  the  foot  of  Mt.  Ararat,  fifty  thousand 
victims  stretched  out  under  God's  sky  in  the  slow  circle  of  a  year. 
Women  pure,  devout  and  comely  suffering  two  deaths ;  little  children 
poised  on  the  bayonets  of  Moslem  soldiers,  villages  burned  and  starva- 
tion the  common  lot. 

"  On  the  other  hand  Christian  Europe,  with  seven  millions  of  sol- 
diers who  take  their  rations  and  their  sacrament  regularly;  states- 
men who  kneel  on  velvet  cushions  in  beautiful  cathedrals  and  pray, 
'  We  beseech  thee  to  hear  u  *  Good  Lord,'  diplomatists  who  can  '  shape 
the  whisper  of  a  throne '  and  shade  the  meaning  of  an  Ultimatum ; 
but  neither  statesman,  diplomat  nor  soldier  has  wit,  wisdom  or  will 
to  save  a  single  life,  shelter  a  single  tortured  babe,  or  supply  a  single 
loaf  of  bread  to  the  starving  Christians  on  the  Armenian  Hillsides 
— '  vested  interests '  are  against  it,  '  the  balance  of  power '  does  not 
permit  it,  the  will  of  the  Sultan  is  the  only  will  in  the  Empire  of 
Turkey,  and  all  the  wills  of  all  the  Christian  nations  cannot  move 
it  a  hair. 

"  The  Turk  is  a  savage,  while  the  statesmen  are  over-civilised;  he  is 
a  tyrant  while  they  are  craven  cowards." 

From  "The  Independent"  of  Mar.  5,  1896,  we  extract  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"  The  bare,  bald  and  humiliating  fact  that  must  dawn  on  us, 
sooner  or  later,  as  to  these  Armenian  massacres  is  that,  in  spite  of 
the  assurance  our  nineteenth  century  civilisation  and  progress  were 
supposed  to  give  against  such  atrocities,  the  impossible  has  burst  on 
us,  and  of  all  the  records  of  cruelty  and  horror  enacted  by  man  on 
man,  this  last  extirpation  of  the  Christian  population  in  Asiatic  Tur- 
key is  the  worst.  .  .  . 

"  No  cruelty  that  could  be  practiced  was  omitted  by  these  masters 
of  the  art.  Fathers,  husbands,  friends  were  slowly  and  systemat- 
ically done  to  death,  while  their  wives,  sisters  and  daughters  were 
compelled  to  watch  their  sufferings.  Wives  were  outraged  in  the 
presence  of  their  husbands,  sisters  of  their  brothers,  maidens  of  their 
agonised  mothers.  Women  with  child  were  ripped  up  by  a  demon 
soldiery  with  bets  among  them  on  the  sex  of  the  unborn  infants. 
With  grim  ingenuity  these  demons  practice  an  economy  in  their  art 
which  tortured  the  poor  sufferers  out  of  life  slowly,  inch  by  inch  and 
drop  by  drop,  the  quintessence  of  some  ingenious  torture." 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  massacres  here  referred  to  were 
the  first  which  have  occurred  in  Turkey  or  that  they  will  be  the  last. 
Counting  only  the  larger  Turkish  massacres  in  which  ten  thousand 
or  more  perished,  there  have  been,  according  to  the  Eev.  Frederick 
Davis  Greene,  five  within  the  past  seventy-five  years,  recurring  at  in- 
tervals of  about  fifteen  years.  These  outbreaks  occurred  in  widely 
separated  localities,  and  the  victims,  belonging  to  no  less  than  five 
different  races,  aggregate  120,000!  He  states  that  the  immediate 
occasion  of  all  these  outrages  was  political.  The  victims  had  begun 
to  feel  the  stimulating  influences  of  higher  ideals  and  a  better  civili- 
sation. This  could  not  be  allowed  to  continue  since  no  aiaour  or 

78 


ASIATIC   TURKEY 

infidel,  may  be  suffered  to  live  in  a  Mohammedan  state,  except  in  a 
condition  of  subjection.  And  this  does  not  mean  merely  submission, 
but  rather  distinct  inequality  and  humiliation.  The  Koran  (Sura 
IX.)  commands  all  good  Mohammedans  to  fight  against  all  who 
believe  not,  first,  until  they  pay  tribute;  second,  until  they  admit 
subjection,  and  third,  until  they  be  brought  low. 

The  following  official  prayer  of  Islam,  is  translated  directly  from 
the  Arabic,  and  is  used,  the  Eev.  Mr.  Greene  informs  us,  throughout 
all  Turkey  and  daily  repeated  in  Cairo,  "  Azhar  "  University,  by  ten 
thousand  Mohammedan  students  from  all  lands : 

"  I  seek  refuge  with  Allah  from  Satan,  the  accursed. 
In  the  name  of  Allah,  the  Compassionate,  the  Merciful, 
O  Lord  of  all  creatures!     O  Allah!     Destroy  the  infidels  and 
polytheists,  thine  enemies,  the  enemies  of  the  religion. 
O  Allah!     Make  their  children  orphans,  and  defile  their  bodies. 
Cause  their  feet  to  slip;  give  them  and  their  families, 
their  household  and  their  women,  their  children  and 
their  relations  by  marriage  and  their  race,  their  wealth 
and  their  lands,  as  booty  to  the  Moslems,  O  Lord  of  all 
creatures." 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  to  kill,  plunder  and  defile  Chris- 
tians or  any  other  infidels  are  acts  not  only  legitimate  according  to  the 
Moslem  religion  but  are  actually  obligatory. 

The  testimony  of  Eev.  Jas.  Dennis,  missionary  to  Beirut,  shows 
still  another  phase  of  the  Armenian  horrors.  He  says : 

"  Some  tangible  signs  of  the  desolating  and  devouring  character 
of  the  awful  excesses'  of  the  '  policy  of  extermination  '  have  appeared 
at  Beirut  in  the  offering  for  sale  to  Moslem  harems  of  timid  and 
heart-broken  Armenian  girls  who  have  been  captured  and  brought 
there  in  the  expectation  of  larger  prices  for  the  '  white  chattel '  than 
in  the  interior  cities  where,  no  doubt,  there  is  a  glut  in  the  market. 
The  nineteenth  century,  thanks  to  the  tacit  consent  of  the  '  Christian 
Powers,'  will  close  with  a  revival  of  the  vilest  form  of  Moslem  slav- 
ery inflicted  upon  tens  of  thousands  of  maidens  who  will  end  their 
days  in  the  ignominy  of  a  loathsome  and  sorrowful  captivity ." 

Mr.  Wm.  Watson  in  his  poem,  "  The  Purple  East,"  says : 

"The  panther  of  the  desert,  matched  with  these, 
Is  pitiful;  beside  their  lust  and  hate 
Fire  and  the  plague  wind  are  compassionate, 

And  soft  the  deadliest  fangs  of  ravening  seas. 

How  long  shall  they  be  borne?    Is  not  the  cup 

Of  crime  yet  full?" 

A  writer  in  "  The  Contemporary  Beview,"  whose  name  is  withheld 
for  good  reasons,  but  for  the  accuracy  of  whose  story  the  editor  per- 
sonally vouches,  states,  in  connection  with  the  last  massacre,  that 
eighteen  men  were  dragged  by  the  police,  one  after  another,  out  of  a 
building  in  Galatia  and  were  cut  to  pieces  at  the  door. 

Some  twenty  employes  at  the  railway  station  were  seised  and  beaten 
to  death.  A  man  whom  the  author  knew  was  beaten  to  death, 
stripped,  and  a  big  cross  cut  on  his  breast  with  a  sword.  A  living 

79 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

child  was  found  in  the  pile  of  seven  hundred  multilated  bodies  in  the 
Chichli  cemetery.  A  personal  friend  of  the  author  saw  a  mob  of 
Turkish  women  looting  the  shop  of  an  Armenian  just  killed.  They 
were  shouting  and  laughing  and  treading  under  foot  what  they  did 
not  care  to  take  away. 

The  author  states  that  he  personally  knew  of  a  case  where  a  widow 
prayed  for  the  life  of  her  only  son,  an  innocent  boy,  till  even  the 
murderers  were  touched  and  would  have  spared  him,  had  not  the  mob 
of  Turkish  women  cried  out  "  Kill  him ! "  They  killed  him  in  his 
mother's  arms. 

Mr.  Schuyler,  in  his  report  of  his  visit  to  Batak  which  occurred 
some  three  months  after  the  massacre,  specially  mentions  seeing  "  the 
heads  of  girls  still  adorned  with  braids  of  long  hair,"  as  well  as 
heads  of  little  children.  He  gave  harrowing  details  of  the  occur- 
rences at  Panagurishta.  where  three  thousand  were  brutally  massacred, 
"unborn  babes  carried  triumphantly  on  the  points  of  bayonets  and 
sabres/'  and  many  other  horrible  outrages  at  which  the  heart  sickens. 

It  is  needless  to  multiply  instances  of  the  more  than  fiendish 
crimes  of  the  unspeakable  Turk.  Enough  has  been  written  to  show 
any  unprejudiced  reader  that  conditions  in  the  Ottoman  Empire  are 
far,  very  far  from  ideal. 

We  have  not  cited  these  horrors  under  the  mistaken  impression 
that  they  make  pleasant  reading, —  nor  are  we  writing  to  entertain. 
We  are  thoroughly  in  earnest,  and  our  purpose  is  a  most  serious  one. 

As  a  recent  writer  has  well  said :  "  A  laying  bare  of  corruption 
is  the  necessary  first  step  forward  toward  extirpating  it.  The  sur- 
geon must  uncover  the  cancer  before  cutting  it  out/' 

The  purpose  of  Gillette's  Social  Eedemption  is  nothing  less  than 
the  absolute  removal  for  all  time  of  all  such  cancers.  We  make 
therefore  no  apology  for  first  laying  them  bare. 


80 


CHAPTEE  II 
THE    CONGO    FREE    STATE 


81 


.    .    .    thieves  at  home  must  hang;  but  he  that  puts 
Into  his  overgorged  and  bloated  purse 
The  wealth  of  Indian  provinces,  escapes. 

Cowper  —  Task. 
O,  would  the  deed  were  good! 
For  now  the  devil,  that  told  me  I  did  well, 
Says  that  this  deed  is  chronicled  in  hell. 

Richard  II. 
Tremble,  thou  wretch, 
That  hast  within  thee  undivulged  crimes, 
Unwhipp'd  of  justice. 

King  Lear. 

Blood,  though  it  sleep  a  time,  yet  never  dies, 
The  gods  on  murderers  fix  revengeful  eyes. 

George  Chapman. 

Are  you  called  forth  from  out  a  world  of  men, 
To  slay  the  innocent? 

Richard  III. 

From  the  dawn  of  history,  and  until  quite  recently,  the  slave  trade 
has  been  one  of  the  safest  and  most  profitable  commercial  interests.  It 
was  a  highly  respectable  interest,  too.  The  incorruptible  Cato  derived 
large  revenues  from  it,  and  was  as  highly  praised,  among  his  contempo- 
raries, for  the  skilful  husbandry  of  his  human  breeding  farms  as  he  was 
for  his  political  virtues.  Senator  Crassus,  the  Chairman  of  the  Steering 
Committee  of  the  Roman  Senate  was  a  famous  captain  of  industry  in 
slaves,  and  operated  in  '  Numidian  common '  and  '  Circassian  preferred ' 
as  a  modern  statesman  might  operate  in  gas  or  sugar.  Only  a  few  gen- 
erations ago,  the  carrying  trade  in  slaves  was  one  of  the  most  respectable 
commercial  interests  protected  by  the  British  flag,  so  important  indeed 
that  a  war  with  Spain  was  necessary,  in  order  to  protect  its  sacred  vested 
rights.  And  yet,  upon  mere  moral  grounds  this  valuable  commerce  has 
disappeared  from  the  sea.  And  why?  Was  it  because  the  worshipful 
shareholders  of  the  African  Company  were  no  longer  willing  to  soil  their 
hands  with  fat  dividends  from  such  a  source?  Was  it  because  the  direc- 
tors who  controlled  its  operations  experienced  a  quickening  sense  of  its 
baseness?  No.  It  languished  because  it  gradually  came  to  be  condemned 
by  the  public  conscience.  It  perished  because  it  could  not  endure  under 
an  enlightened  publicity.  Capital  withdrew  from  it,  not  because  it  was 
wrong,  but  because  under  the  penalties  imposed  it  ceased  to  pay.  This 
is  always  the  moral  attitude  of  Mammon.  He  obeys  many  moral  laws, 
but  he  obeys  them  like  a  galley  slave,  because  he  must.  Reform  always 
comes  from  the  outside.  You  will  search  history  in  vain  for  a  single 
instance  of  a  selfish  interest  that  was  ever  reformed  by  its  friends. 

John  M.  Palmer,  The  Morals  of  Mammon,  McClure's,  July, 


CHAPTER  IT 
THE    CONGO    FREE    STATE 


E  cannot  close  our  survey  of  the  untoward  foreign 
conditions  which  at  present  obtain,  either  actively  or 
latently,  as  the  result  of  our  existing  cruel  and 
chaotic  regime,  without  adverting  to  the  heartrend- 
ing story  of  the  Congo  Free  State. 

This  territory  which  is  administered  by  Leopold 
II.,  King  of  the  Belgians,  comprises  an  area  of  more  than  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  square  miles  and  contains  a  population  of  twenty  mil- 
lion people.  In  size  it  is  about  the  area  of  the  United  States  in 
1800  and  something  less  than  twice  the  size  of  Alaska.  It  is  four 
times  as  big  as  France  and  somewhat  less  than  one-fourth  the  present 
gross  area  of  the  United  States. 

The  African  International  Association  was  established  in  1876 
under  the  patronage  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians.  The  avowed  ob- 
ject of  the  association  was  to  further  a  unity  of  aims  and  methods 
among  the  various  persons,  societies,  and  governments  engaged  in 
colonising  or  exploring  the  Congo  country.  It  was  mainly  supported 
from  the  private  purse  of  King  Leopold,  and  two  of  its  chief  objects, 
we  are  told,  was  the  stopping  of  the  slave  trade  and  the  reduction  of 
the  natives  to  a  semblance  of  civilisation. 

The  Congo  Free  State  was  constituted  and  defined  February  26, 
1885,  by  the  International  Congo  Conference  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives of  all  the  European  nations.  It  was  declared  a  neutral 
country,  and  was  placed  under  sovereignty  of  Leopold  II.,  the  King 
of  the  Belgians,  individually,  he  having  expended  large  sums  in  de- 
veloping its  resources. 

King  Leopold  spared  no  pains  to  impress  upon  the  powers  that 
his  interest  was  purely  philanthropic  and  humanitarian.  In  the 
words  of  E.  D.  Morel,  in  "  King  Leopold's  Rule  in  Africa/'  "  In  the 
earliest  stages  His  Majesty  invited,  in  effect,  the  world  to  regard 
him  as  a  second  Henry  the  Navigator.  As  a  philanthropist  he  has 
ever  posed,  but  by  1880  the  idea  of  an  African  State  of  which  he 
should  be  the  European  sovereign  had  already  defined  itself  very 
clearly  in  His  Majesty's  mind,  and  given  to  his  philanthrophy  that 
severely  practical  side  for  which  it  has  been  ever  remarkable." 

The  real  status  of  affairs  is  well  summed  up  in  the  following  ex- 
tract from  "  The  Congo  News  Letter  "  of  Oct.  14,  1904. 

"  The  Congo  State  is  frequently  referred  to  as  a  Belgian  colony, 
and  it  is  assumed  that  it  is  conducted  under  the  authority  of  the 
Belgian  State.  This  is  a  mistake.  The  Congo  State  is  wholly  inde- 
pendent of  Belgium.  The  King  has  more  than  once  asserted  his 

83 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

right  to  deal  with  the  Congo  as  with  his  own.  The  right  to  discuss 
its  affairs  has  been  denied  members  of  the  Belgian  parliament.  The 
kin"  has  mortgaged,  willed  away  and  parcelled  out  to  the  control  of 
monopolistic  companies  not  only  its  800,000  square  miles  of  land,  but 
also  its  twenty  million  of  people,  as  if  they  were  his  personal  prop- 
erty. This  assertion  does  not  touch  the  question  of  his  right.  That 
is  a  question  of  international  law.  It  merely  describes  the  author- 
ity that  the  King  actually  wields  there.  Practically  the  Congo  and 
its  people  belong  to  Leo;  as  Legree  said  of  Uncle  Tom — 'body  and 
soul/ 

"The  King's  interest  in  the  Free  State  has  been  described  as 
( philanthropic '  and  "sentimental/  This  legend  was  started  long 
ago  innocently  enough  by  Henry  M.  Stanley  and  by  other  early  pro- 
moters of  the  Congo  State,  and  has  since  been  kept  alive  by  the  King 
and  his  supporters.  Legends  die  hard.  After  one  has  torn  from 
them  every  shred  of  fact  on  which  they  might  have  subsisted  they 
still  linger  on  in  the  shadowy  background  of  the  popular  conscious- 
ness, and  still  modify  public  opinion. 

"  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  doubtful  if,  in  the  long  intrigue  that 
has  put  him  in  possession  of  the  Congo  State,  Leopold  has  been  in- 
fluenced even  by  patriotic  motives.  In  1891  the  Congo  .State  was 
bankrupt,  and  the  King  needed  funds  to  complete  his  railway.  He 
thereupon  mortgaged  it  to  Belgium,  promising  to  turn  over  the  whole 
property  in  ten  years  to  the  Belgian  people.  This  promise  he  did  not 
keep.  At  the  end  of  ten  years  he  managed  it  so  that  he  still  re- 
mains as  heretofore  in  full  possession,  and  he  now  seems  to  be  seek- 
ing an  arrangement  by  which  he  can  hand  over,  practically  intact, 
his  absolute  control  of  the  Congo  to  a  successor  appointed  by  himself. 

"  The  New  York  Sun  came  much  nearer  the  truth  in  regard  to  the 
King,  when  it  characterised  him  the  other  day  as  '  A  dissolute  miser, 
who  deprived  his  own  wife  of  her  private  fortune  while  she  was  alive, 
and  stole  it  from  his  daughters  on  a  legal  quibble  when  she  was 
dead/" 

In  "  The  Contemporary  Review  "  of  March,  1902,  Mr.  Edmund  D 
Morel,  under  the  caption  of  "  The  Belgian  Curse  In  Africa,"  shows 
Leopold's  evolution  from  an  alleged  philanthropist  to  an  actual  ivory 
trader.  He  says :  "  The  history  of  King  Leopold's  action  in  cen- 
tral Africa  between  1876  and  1890  may  be  summed  as  follows. 
First  stage.  Inauguration  of  a  '  movement '  for  the  '  exploration 
and  civilisation  of  Africa '  from  motives  (so  stated)  of  pure  philan- 
thropy, devoid  of  any  shade  of  personal  egotism  or  ambition  on  the 
part  of  Belgium.  The  expenditure  of  a  certain  sum  of  money  for 
this  (alleged)  interest.  The  acquisition  of  a  certificate  of  high  moral 
purpose.  Second  stage.  The  '  movement '  takes  the  form  of  a  state, 
possibly  an  '  Independent  confederacy  of  free  negroes,'  with  the  King 
as  President.  This  idea  is  abandoned,  and  for  it  is  substituted  the 
theory  of  an  '  Independent  State '  administered  directly  by  the  King 
and  his  representative.  The  theory  takes  root  and  by  the  Act  of 
Berlin  is  converted  into  a  fait  accompli.  According  to  this  Act  the 
King  becomes  Sovereign  of  the  '  Congo  Independent  State '  and 
undertakes  that  the  State  shall  grant  no  monopoly  or  privilege  in 

84 


THE   CONGO    FREE    STATE 

matters  of  trade,  shall  watch  over  the  welfare  of  the  natives  and 
shall  not  impose  any  import  duties.  Formal  assurances  are  also 
given  to  the  commercial  world  that  the  State  will  not  trade  on  its 
own  account  directly  or  indirectly.  Third  stage.  The  State 
promptly  starts  trading  in  ivory  in  the  Upper  Congo,  and  wages  war 
against  the  natives  by  means  of  a  cannibal  army,  raised  from  slaves 
captured  in  war  and  paid  by  the  vanquished  as  tribute.  Its  agents 
begin  to  be  accused  of  shocking  treatment  of  the  natives.  Fourth 
stage.  The  King  asks  for  permission  to  impose  import  duties,  plead- 
ing the  expenses  which  he  is  incurring  in  putting  down  slave  raiding, 
and  the  Brussels  Conference  grants  the  request. 

"  It  may,  I  think,  be  fairly  argued  that  the  '  sentimental  satisfac- 
tion '  which  in  1884,  according  to  Sir  Henry  .Stanley,  was  all  the 
King  required  as  a  reward  for  his  out-of-pocket  expenses,  had  as- 
sumed a  singularly  practical  shape  in  1890.  From  a  philanthropist 
to  an  ivory  trader  is  a  long  step." 

The  Domaine  Prive,  or  Domaine  de  La  Couronne,  as  it  is  some- 
times called,  is  the  private  domain  of  Leopold  II.,  and  constitutes 
practically  all  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  In  this  territory  he  levies 
impots  de  nature,  or  taxes  in  kind.  To  these  taxes  there  is  no  limit 
whatsoever.  They  rest  in  extent  wholly  upon  the  g^eed  of  the  King 
and  the  zeal  of  representatives,  who  are  given  to  understand  that 
their  hope  for  promotion  depends  wholly  upon  how  much  rubber  and 
ivory  stands  to  their  account.  As  has  been  pointed  out  by  Congo 
authorities,  the  result  of  this  regime  enforced  upon  a  people  who 
never  before  had  to  toil  to  supply  its  needs,  is  brutal  in  the  extreme. 
Anything  short  of  sheer  force  would  be  as  idle  as  beating  the  air. 
The  ever-recurring  instruction  to  State  officials  is  well  set  forth  in 
the  following: 

"  Rubber,  rubber,  rubber, 

Mind  you  get  the  rubber. 
It  really  does  not  matter 
How  you  get  it. 

"  But  be  careful  to  remember 

That  your  principal  endeavor 
Must  be  rubber,  rubber,  rubber 
All  the  day. 

"  On  this  the  Government  relies 

And  abundantly  supplies 
The  necessary  allies 
For  the  purpose. 

"  The  chicotte,  the  cartridge,  and  the  gun 

The  more  easily  to  dun 
(While  providing  extra  fun) 
'  A  titre  d'  impot.' 

"  The  Force  Publigue,  the  chain,  the  prison 

Must  be  the  limit  of  your  vision 
When  making  adequate  provision 
For  the  Domaine. 

85 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

"  To  this  confidential  information 
We  draw  your  strict  attention. 
Just  as  well  not  to  mention 
It  outside. 

"  For  the  world,  another  tale 

We  have  perpetually  on  sale 
Which  can  never,  never  fail 
To  be  effective. 

"Regeneration,  moral  and  material, 

From  the  daily  to  the  serial 
Is  preached  in  tones  ethereal 
To  the  universe. 

"  But  pray  once  again  remember 

That  your  principal  endeavor 
Must  be  rubber,  rubber,  rubber 
All  the  day." 

In  "  King  Leopold's  Kule  in  Africa  "  Mr.  Morel  thus  ably  paints 
the  condition  of  the  Congo  native  at  the  time  of  the  advent  of  the 
white  man  as  a  trader. 

"I  detest  sensationalism,  and  this  appalling  Congo  business  is  re- 
plete with  so  many  elements  of  horror  that  the  reader  may  well  be 
spared  anything  beyond  the  enumeration  of  facts,  which  in  them- 
selves are  sufficiently  repulsive  without  any  attempt  at  'piling  on 
the  agony.'  But  the  policy  of  appropriation  of  the  native's  land  and 
the  products  thereof  is  the  key  to  the  whole  Congo  problem;  and  I 
almost  feel  that  the  reader  will  forgive  me  if  I  endeavour  to  give  a 
brief  sketch  representing  the  legitimate  and  illegitimate  develop- 
ment of  Equatorial  Africa,  and  their  respective  effects  upon  the 
African. 

"  Imagine  a  broad  river,  with  brown,  discoloured  waters.  From 
either  bank  stretches  a  vast  sea  of  dark,  impenetrable  bush,  broken 
here  and  there  by  clearings  where  native  villages  are  situate,  con- 
taining anything  from  500  to  5,000  inhabitants.  Round  them  are 
plantations  of  bananas  and  various  crops,  large  or  small,  according  to 
the  needs  of  the  population  —  well  or  ill  kept,  according  to  the  rela- 
tive degree  of  prosperity  of  the  people  and  to  individual  characteris- 
tics. Here  and  there  the  bush  yawns  back  from  the  riverside,  and  a 
village  will  be  found  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  bank,  for 
where  there  is  a  river  there  is  fish,  and  large  numbers  will  be  caught 
for  local  consumption,  or  for  bartering  with  inland  villages  against 
other  food.  In  the  cooler  hours  of  the  day,  the  men-folk  will  hunt 
or  fish,  weave  mats,  make  knives,  work  brass  wire,  or  smoke  and 
laze  and  discuss  local  affairs,  while  the  women  attend  to  household 
matters,  work  in  the  plantations,  gather  firewood,  and  spend  many 
an  hour  over  the  intricacies  of  their  coiffure;  and  the  children  will 
play  about,  the  elders  helping  in  the  fishing  operations,  or  keeping 
off  the  gray  parrots  from  committing  havoc  with  the  young  crops. 
At  night  the  fires  will  be  lit,  and  the  glow  of  the  embers  will  nicker 
on  dark  forms  squatting  round,  smoking,  and  listening  perhaps  to 
the  professional  story-teller  spinning  'fairy  tales'  by  the  yard;  or 

86 


THE   CONGO    FREE    STATE 

if  the  moon  be  shining  brightly,  and  the  sky  free  from  clouds,  a 
wild  dance  will  take  place  in  the  street  of  the  village  —  a  dance  con- 
tinued for  many  hours,  and  only  brought  to  an  end  by  the  physical 
exhaustion  of  the  performers.  They  are  happy,  these  people,  in 
their  primitive  way.  Life  goes  on  with  much  the  same  monotony  as 
at  home.  An  occasional  affray  between  villages  will  come  as  an  ex- 
citing diversion,  accompanied  by  a  good  deal  more  sound  and  fury 
than  bloodshed ;  a  herd  of  elephants  may  wreck  the  plantations,  a 
storm  swamp  some  canoes,  fish  may  be  scarce,  but,  on  the  whole,  ex- 
istence is  distinctly  passable.  There  are  no  telephones,  no  rates  and 
taxes,  not  even  a  fiscal  policy.  In  those  native  communities  there 
are  good  men  and  bad,  just  as  at  home  —  good  according  to  their 
lights,  bad  according  to  their  individual  characters,  just  as  at  home. 
Their  lights  are  not  our  lights,  but  who  shall  say  which  bring  the 
greatest  happiness?  They  have  no  work-houses  in  the  forest,  no  un- 
employed, no  paupers. 

"  On  a  sudden  a  whisper  is  carried  on  the  wings  of  the  wind ;  it 
gathers  in  volume.  The  news  flies  from  village  to  village,  the  drums 
are  sounded  summoning  the  people  to  the  palaver.  A  steamer  is 
coming  up  the  river  with  white  men  on  board.  Do  they  come  in 
peace  or  war  ?  It  will  soon  be  known,  for  the  steamer  has  anchored, 
and  its  occupants  are  parleying  with  the  shore.  Then  comes  the  in- 
telligence that  all  is  well.  The  white  men  have  come  in  peace,  and 
with  many  marvellous  articles  to  sell.  Within  an  enormous  radius 
the  news  is  conveyed  by  drum,  and  within  a  day  or  two  every  vil- 
lage knows  what  are  the  white  man's  wants.  It  is  ivory  that  he 
wants  —  ivory  live  or  dead,  ivory  cut  from  the  freshly  killed  elephant, 
or  ivory  stacked  in  the  compounds  of  the  chiefs.  Ivory;  but  also  the 
sap  from  the  great  vines  which  grow  so  luxuriously  in  the  forest, 
thick  sometimes  as  a  man's  thigh.  The  white  man's  servants  have 
told  the  villagers  on  whose  land  they  are  even  now  erecting  a  dwell- 
ing and  a  store,  how  to  collect  that  sap;  that  he  will  buy  as  much 
as  the  people  will  bring  him;  and  that  he  will  give  gaudy  handker- 
chiefs, and  cloth,  brass  wire,  beads,  iron  pots,  and  copper  rods  for  it, 
and  many  more  wonderful  things  that  he  has  —  armlets  and  leglets, 
looking-glasses,  hair-pins  with  wonderful  heads,  bright-coloured  glass, 
such  marvels  as  will  drive  every  native  lady  in  the  country  wild  with 
anticipation,  and  into  an  eager  and  enthusiastic  factor  in  promoting 
a  taste  for  rubber-collecting  on  the  part  of  her  lord. 

"  To  these  primitive  folk  it  is  a  mine  of  desirable  objects  suddenly 
brought  before  their  delighted  vision,  a  toy-shop,  whose  contents  a 
moderate  degree  of  labour  will  bring  within  arm's  reach ;  for  the  man 
will  sit  down  and  make  bracelets  and  anklets  out  of  the  brass  rods, 
the  brass  wire  will  do  to  ornament  spear-shafts,  knives,  and  axes, 
and  what  man  will  not  covet  one  of  those  gaily  striped  cloths  which 
will  make  him  a  finer  peacock  than  his  fellows?  As  for  the  women, 
well,  if  the  iron  hoes  represent  a  decided  improvement  on  the  primi- 
tive agricultural  implements  with  which  they  have,  hitherto,  been 
fain  to  rest  content,  what  can  be  thought  of  the  articles  of  personal 
adornment?  If  Lofinda  has  set  her  heart  upon  that  string  of  bright 
blue  beads,  Yamina  must  have  that  kerchief  with  the  gorgeous 

87 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

checks;  and  shall  not  Bikela,  the  comely  one,  see  her  beauty  re- 
flected in  that  curious  shiny  thing,  brighter  even  than  the  spear  of 
Molobo  her  lover  ?  .  .  .  for  no  one  but  the  Negro  can  gather  the 
produce  of  the  soil  the  European  desired.  .  .  . 

"But  what  is  that  vague  and  meaningless  rumour  coming  from 
afar  ?  Why  are  the  faces  of  the  white  merchants  troubled  ?  Who  are 
these  other  white  men  who  come  in  big  steamers,  with  many  black 
men  in  uniforms  and  carrying  rifles  ?  As  yet  they  know  it  not,  our 
forest-dwellers,  who  since  the  advent  of  the  first  white  men  have 
extended  their  villages  and  plantations  and  prospered  amazingly. 
As  yet  they  know  it  not,  but  these  other  white  men,  these  soldiers 
with  guns,  are  the  heralds  of  the  dawn,  the  dawn  of  '  moral  and  ma- 
terial regeneration' — '  Bula  Matadi/  And  soon  the  process  begins. 
In  each  village  soldiers  come  summoning  the  chiefs  to  attend  the 
great  palaver  of  'Bula  Matadi/  They  enter  the  villages,  do  those 
soldiers,  full  of  insolent  swagger,  and  ere  they  leave,  after  deliver- 
ing their  message,  have  interfered  with  women,  stolen  fowls,  and 
perchance  robbed  the  plantations  of  a  bunch  or  two  of  bananas. 
From  all  the  villages  around  the  chiefs  and  head  men  attend  the 
great  palaver  in  fear,  knowing  not  what  it  may  portend.  They  are 
not  kept  long  in  suspense.  Each  chief  is  asked  the  number  of  able- 
bodied  males  in  his  village;  the  figure  is  put  down  by  the  repre- 
sentative of  '  Bula  Matadi '  in  a  book.  Each  chief  is  then  told  that 
his  village  must  furnish  so  many  baskets  of  rubber  every  moon,  so 
many  goats  and  fowls,  so  much  cassava;  all  ivory  must  be  brought 
to  '  Bula  Matadi/  no  ivory  and  no  rubber  must  be  taken  to  the  white 
men  at  the  factories ;  such  is  the  order  of  '  Bula  Matadi/  The  chiefs 
depart,  bewildered,  angry,  sullen,  and  afraid.  That  night,  and  the 
next  and  the  next,  councils  are  held  in  every  village.  Runners  to 
the  white  men  in  the  factories  report  that  the  latter  are  powerless; 
they  will  still  buy  rubber  and  ivory,  but  only  by  stealth,  for  '  Bula 
Matadi '  will  not  let  them  buy  openly.  The  people  are  filled  with 
consternation;  there  is  a  babel  of  many  tongues;  divers  opinions  are 
expressed.  Is  not  the  country  theirs,  and  the  trees,  and  the  vines  in 
the  forest?  Are  they  the  slaves  of  'Bula  Matadi'?  Shall  they  be 
treated  not  as  men  but  as  monkeys?  How  shall  they  live  if  their 
goats,  their  fowls,  their  cassava,  and  their  bananas  must  be  taken  to 
the  big  palaver  camp  every  moon  ?  What  is  '  Bula  Matadi '  that 
they  should  no  longer  gather  rubber  for  the  sellers  of  cloths  and 
beads  ?  Let  '  Bula  Matadi '  beware  lest  the  spears  of  the  young  men 
pierce  the  soldiers  that  steal!  Have  they  become  women?  They 
will  collect  rubber  as  before  for  the  white  sellers  of  cloth. 

"  The  next  day  a  party  from  the  village,  laden  with  rubber,  starts 
for  the  nearest  factory.  One  man  creeps  back  at  nightfall  broken, 
bleeding,  and  trembling.  He  reports  the  party  was  stopped  by  sol- 
diers who  fell  upon  them  not  far  from  the  factory,  and  stole  the 
rubber.  They  resisted;  Bogasu  was  killed,  the  others,  beaten  and 
buffeted,  were  dragged  before  the  representative  of  'Bula  Matadi  * 
who  ordered  them  to  be  flung  upon  their  faces,  when  they  were  cru- 
elly beaten  with  whips,  so  cruelly  that  blood  flowed.  Then  they 
were  'tied  up/  and  the  survivor  was  told  to  go  back  to  his  village, 


THE    CONGO    FREE    STATE 

and  inform  the  chief  that  he  had  disobeyed  the  orders  of  e  Bula  Ma- 
tadi '  by  sending  rubber  to  the  factory.  If  the  offence  were  re- 
peated, '  Bula  Matadi '  would  send  soldiers  to  the  village  to  punish 
him.  The  other  men  would  be  kept  as  hostages  for  the  hundred 
basketfuls  of  rubber  due  from  the  village  at  the  full  moon.  Terror 
mingled  with  fury  now  reigns  supreme  in  the  village.  Let  the  sol- 
diers come. 

"  The  moon  is  almost  at  its  full  when  a  messenger  arrives  from  the 
camp  of  '  Bula  Matadi/  It  is  a  reminder  that  the  time  for  payment 
of  the  rubber  is  nearly  at  hand.  If  it  is  not  forthcoming,  the  anger 
of  '  Bula  Matadi '  will  vent  itself  upon  those  who  have  dared  to  dis- 
regard instructions.  The  messenger  is  heard  in  sombre  silence. 
The  quantity  of  rubber  required  could  not  be  gathered  if  the  popula- 
tion of  the  village  were  twice  what  it  is. 

"  The  soldiers  of  '  Bula  Matadi '  have  come  and  gone,  and  all  is 
over:  a  short,  fierce  resistance,  a  crackling  fusilade,  cries  of  agony, 
and  a  dull  glare  lighting  up  the  sombre  recesses  of  the  forest.     The 
sun  sets  on  blackened  ruins,  smouldering  ashes,  and  ruined  crops; 
while  here  and  there  outstretched  figures  lie  prone.     The  survivors 
—  men,  women,  and  children  —  are  crouching,  bereft  of  shelter,  in 
the  forest.     And  so  they  crouch  for  days,  subsisting  on  roots  and 
herbs.     Then  one  by  one  they  slink  back  furtively  to  the  site  of 
their  former  homes.     Little  by  little  a  measure  of  confidence  returns, 
huts  are  rebuilt,  seed  is  sown.     Diminished  in  numbers,  shaken  but 
not  quite  broken  in  spirit,  the  community  settles  down  once  more. 
And  then  —  then  another  visit  from  the  soldiers  of  '  Bula  Matadi/ 
anothers  summons  to  the  camp,  renewed  demands  coupled  with  a 
pointing  of  the  moral.     They  have  not  forgotten  it,  poor  souls.     No 
longer  can  resistance  be  entertained.     A  couple  of  soldiers  are  sta- 
tioned permanently  in  the  village,  where  they  rape  and  steal  to  their 
heart's  content.     As  for  the  villagers  themselves,  they  are  no  longer 
men,  but  weary  slaves.     All  day  long,  and  for  days  together  in  the 
forest   getting  rubber,   striving  to   satisfy   insatiable   demands,  un- 
mercifully flogged  if  the  amount  gathered  falls  short  of  the  amount 
required,  wandering  ever  further  afield,  away  from  their  homes,  un- 
able to  attend  to  their  plantations,   demoralised,  degraded,  all  the 
manhood  driven  out  of  them.     If  such  be  the  lot  of  the  men,  what 
of  the  women?     The  village,  formerly  clean  and  well  kept,  becomes 
dirty  and  neglected.     Indifference  and  despair  eat  into  the  hearts 
of  the  people;  mortality  increases,  many  seek  refuge  in  the  forest 
and  perish  miserably,  while  others  may  finally  be  successful  in  find- 
ing shelter  in  some  other  village  further  removed  from  '  Bula  Ma- 
tadi's '  immediate   sphere   of   operations.     The  village  empties   and 
decays;  it  is  played  out,  and  the  representative  of  'Bula  Matadi' 
shifts  his  quarters  to  the  nearest  *  untapped  district/     In  a  few  years, 
or  perhaps  only  in  a  few  months,  since  the  advent  of  '  Bula  Ma- 
tadi '  and  his  soldiers,  the  swiftly  encroaching  bush  has  covered  up 
all  traces  of  what  was  once,  before  the  blasting  breath  of  a  '  moral 
and  material  regeneration '  passed  over  the  land,  a  little  community 
in  the  African  forest  with  its  joys  and  its  sorrows,  its  elements  of 
badness  and  its  elements  of  good,  primitive,  savage,  but  as  happy, 

89 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

perchance,  as  important  assuredly  to  itself,  as  any  cluster  of  thatched- 
roofed  cottages  in  sunny  Devon. 

"  Overdrawn  ?  No,  the  description,  minus  all  its  repulsive  details, 
of  an  event  a  thousand  times  repeated  on  the  Congo ;  an  illustration 
of  the  New  African  Slave  Trade,  which  prevails  wherever  *  Bula 
Matadi '  has  obtained  a  foothold  from  Banana  to  the  Great  Lakes." 

The  testimony  of  Colonel  The  Honorable  Geo.  W.  Williams,  in 
an  open  letter  to  King  Leopold  II.,  is  to  the  same  effect.  He  re- 
lates how  he  was  induced  to  enter  the  service  for  the  State  of  Congo 
through  the  alleged  philanthropic  and  humanitarian  motives  and  in- 
tentions of  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  to  the  effect  that  his  govern- 
ment was  to  be  based  upon  the  foundation  of  "  Truth,  Liberty,  Hu- 
manity and  Justice."  He  then  relates  how  he  personally 
investigated  conditions  and  says,  "How  thoroughly  I  have  been  dis- 
enchanted, disappointed  and  disheartened  it  is  now  my  painful  duty 
to  make  known  to  your  Majesty  in  plain  but  respectful  language." 

We  regret  that  the  limits  of  this  chapter  do  not  permit  of  a  full 
treatment  of  this  letter.  We  cannot,  however,  refrain  from  ex- 
cerpting certain  vital  portions  of  it,  so  essential  are  they  to  a  cor- 
rect understanding  of  the  subject.  The  following,  for  example,  is 
a  case  in  point: 

"Your  Majesty's  title  to  the  territory  of  the  State  of  Congo  is 
badly  clouded,  while  many  of  the  treaties  made  with  the  natives  by 
the  '  Association  Internationale  du  Congo/  of  which  you  were  Direc- 
tor and  Banker,  were  tainted  by  frauds  of  the  grossest  character. 
The  world  may  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  your  flag  floats  over 
territory  to  which  your  Majesty  has  no  legal  or  just  claim,  since 
other  European  Powers  have  doubtful  claims  to  the  territory  which 
they  occupy  upon  the  African  Continent;  but  all  honest  people  will 
be  shocked  to  know  by  what  grovelling  means  this  fraud  was  con- 
summated. 

"  There  were  instances  in  which  Mr.  Henry  M.  Stanley  sent  one 
white  man,  with  four  or  five  Zanzibar  soldiers,  to  make  treaties  with 
native  chiefs.  The  staple  argument  was  that  the  white  man's  heart 
had  grown  sick  of  the  wars  and  rumours  of  war  between  one  chief 
and  another,  between  one  village  and  another;  that  the  white  man 
was  at  peace  with  his  black  brother,  and  desired  to  '  confederate  all 
African  tribes'  for  the  general  defense  and  public  welfare.  All  the 
sleight  of  hand  tricks  had  been  carefully  rehearsed,  and  he  was  now 
ready  for  his  work.  A  number  of  electric  batteries  had  been  pur- 
chased in  London,  and  when  attached  to  the  arm  under  the  coat, 
communicated  with  a  band  of  ribbon  which  passed  over  the  palm  of 
the  white  brother's  hand,  and  when  he  gave  the  black  brother  a  cor- 
dial grasp  of  the  hand  the  black  brother  was  greatly  surprised  to 
find  his  white  brother  so  strong,  that  he  nearly  knocked  him  off 
his  feet  in  giving  him  the  hand  of  fellowship.  When  the  native  in- 
quired about  the  disparity  of  strength  between  himself  and  his  white 
brother,  he  was  told  that  the  white  man  could  pull  up  trees  and  per- 
form the  most  prodigious  feats  of  strength.  Next  came  the  lens 
act.  The  white  brother  took  from  his  pocket  a  cigar,  carelessly  bit 
off  the  end,  held  up  his  glass  to  the  sun  and  complacently  smoked 

90 


THE    CONGO    FREE    STATE 

his  cigar  to  the  great  amazement  and  terror  of  his  black  brother. 
The  white  man  explained  his  intimate  relation  to  the  sun,  and  de- 
clared that  if  he  were  to  request  him  to  burn  up  his  black  brother's 
village  it  would  be  done.  The  third  act  was  the  gun  trick.  The 
white  man  took  a  percussion-cap  gun,  tore  off  the  end  of  the  paper 
which  held  the  powder  to  the  bullet,  and  poured  the  powder  and 
paper  into  the  gun,  at  the  same  time  slipping  the  bullet  into  the 
sleeve  of  the  left  arm.  A  cap  was  placed  upon  the  nipple  of  the 
gun,  and  the  black  brother  was  implored  to  step  off  ten  yards  and 
shoot  at  his  white  brother  to  demonstrate  his  statement  that  he  was  a 
spirit,  and  therefore  could  not  be  killed.  After  much  begging  the 
black  brother  aims  the  gun  at  his  white  brother,  pulls  the  trigger,  the 
gun  is  discharged,  the  "white  man  stoops  .  .  .  and  takes  the  bul- 
let from  his  shoe! 

"  By  such  means  as  these,  too  silly  and  disgusting  to  mention,  and 
a  few  boxes  of  gin,  whole  villages  have  been  signed  away  to  your 
Majesty." 

He  refers  most  poignantly  to  the  letter  of  February  25,  1884,  writ- 
ten to  the  United  .States  by  a  gentleman  long  sustaining  an  inti- 
mate relation  to  King  Leopold,  and  quotes  therefrom  this  passage: 
"  It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  no  barbarous  people  have  ever  so 
readily  adopted  the  fostering  care  of  benevolent  enterprise,  as  have 
the  tribes  of  the  Congo,  and  never  was  there  a  more  honest  and 
practical  effort  made  to  increase  their  knowledge  and  secure  their 
welfare."  This  he  shows  to  be  grossly  false  and  he  points  out  that 
it  was  written  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  friendly  action  of  the 
United  States  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  which  then  had  un- 
der consideration  a  Senate  Resolution  in  which  our  government 
recognised  the  flag  of  the  Association  Internationale  du  Congo  as 
that  of  a  friendly  government. 

Continuing  Col.  Williams  writes :  "  Your  Majesty's  government 
has  sequestered  their  land,  burned  their  towns,  stolen  their  property, 
enslaved  their  women  and  children  and  committed  other  crimes  too 
numerous  to  mention  in  detail.  •  It  is  natural  that  they  everywhere 
shrink  from  '  the  fostering  care '  your  Majesty's  Government  so 
eagerly  proffers  them. 

"  There  has  been  to  my  absolute  knowledge  no  '  honest  and  prac- 
tical effort  made  to  increase  their  knowledge  and  secure  their  wel- 
fare.' Your  Majesty's  Government  has  never  spent  one  franc  for 
educational  purposes,  nor  instituted  any  practical  system  of  indus- 
trialism." 

Coming  to  specific  charges  too  numerous  to  admit  of  extended 
quotation  he  writes :  "  Women  are  imported  into  your  Majesty's 
Government  for  immoral  purposes.  They  are  introduced  by  two 
methods,  viz.,  black  men  are  despatched  to  the  Portuguese  coast 
where  they  engage  these  women  as  mistresses  of  white  men,  who  pay 
to  the  procurers  a  monthly  sum.  The  other  method  is  by  captur- 
ing native  women  and  condemning  them  to  seven  years'  servitude 
for  some  imaginary  crime  against  the  State  with  which  the  villages 
of  these  women  are  charged.  The  State  then  hires  these  women  out 
to  the  highest  bidder,  the  officers  having  the  first  choice  and  then 

91 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  men.  Whenever  children  are  born  of  such  relations,  the  State 
maintains  that,  the  woman  being  its  property,  the  child  belongs  to  it 
also.  Not  long  ago  a  Belgian  trader  had  a  child  by  a  slave-woman 
of  the  State  and  he  tried  to  secure  possession  of  it  that  he  might 
educate  it,  but  the  Chief  of  the  Station  where  he  resided,  refused  to 
be  moved  by  his  entreaties.  At  length  he  appealed  to  the  Governor- 
General,  and  he  gave  him  the  woman  and  thus  the  trader  obtained 
the  child  also.  This  was,  however,  an  unusual  case  of  generosity  and 
clemency;  and  there  is  only  one  post  that  I  know  of  where  there  is 
not  to  be  found  children  of  the  -civil  and  military  officers  of  your 
Majesty's  Government  abandoned  to  degradation ;  white  men  bringing 
their  own  flesh  and  blood  under  the  lash  of  a  most  cruel  master,  the 
State  of  Congo/' 

Eegarding  slavery  the  same  author  specifically  alleges  that  the 
Government  of  Leopold  "has  been,  and  now  is,  guilty  of  waging 
unjust  and  cruel  wars  against  natives,  with  the  hope  of  securing 
slaves  and  women,  to  minister  to  the  behests  of  the  officers  of  your 
Government.  In  such  slave  hunting  raids  one  village  is  armed  by 
the  State  against  the  other,  and  the  force  thus  secured  is  incorporated 
with  the  regular  troops.  I  have  no  adequate  terms  with  which  to 
depict  to  your  Majesty  the  brutal  acts  of  your  soldiers  upon  such 
raids  as  these.  The  soldiers  who  open  the  combat  are  usually  the 
bloodthirsty  cannibalistic  Bangalas,  who  give  no  quarter  to  the  aged 
grandmother  or  nursing  child  at  the  breast  of  its  mother.  There 
are  instances  in  which  they  have  brought  the  heads  of  their  victims 
to  their  white  officers  on  the  expeditionary  steamers,  and  afterwards 
eaten  the  bodies  of  slain  children.  In  one  war  two  Belgian  Army 
officers  saw,  from  the  deck  of  their  steamer,  a  native  in  a  canoe  some 
distance  away.  He  was  not  a  combatant  and  was  ignorant  of  the 
conflict  in  progress  upon  the  shore,  some  distance  away.  The  offi- 
cers inade  a  wager  of  £5  that  they  could  hit  the  native  with  their 
rifles.  Three  shots  were  fired  and  the  native  fell  dead,  pierced 
through  the  head,  and  the  trade  canoe  was  transformed  into  a  funeral 
barge  and  floated  silently  down  the  river. 

"  In  another  war,  waged  without  just  cause,  the  Belgian  Army 
officer  in  command  of  your  Majesty's  forces  placed  the  men  in  two  or 
three  lines  on  the  steamers  and  instructed  them  to  commence  firing 
when  the  whistles  blew.  The  steamers  approached  the  fated  town, 
and,  as  was  usual  with  them,  the  people  came  to  the  shore  to  look  at 
the  boats  and  sell  different  articles  of  food.  There  was  a  large 
crowd  of  men,  women  and  children,  laughing,  talking  and  exposing 
their  goods  for  sale.  At  once  the  shrill  whistles  of  the  steamers 
were  heard,  and  the  soldiers  levelled  their  guns  and  fired,  and  the 
people  fell  dead,  and  wounded,  and  groaning,  and  pleading  for  mercy. 
Many  prisoners  were  made,  and  among  them  four  comely-looking 
young  women.  And  now  ensued  a  most  revolting  scene;  your  Ma- 
jesty's officers  quarreling  over  the  selection  of  these  women.  The 
commander  of  this  murderous  expedition,  with  his  garments  stained 
with  innocent  blood;  declared,  that  his  rank  entitled  him  to  the  first 
choice!  Under  the  direction  of  this  same  officer  the  prisoners  were 

92 


The  Camera's  Irrefutable  Testimony  of  King  Leopold's  Atrocious  Brutality 
Plate  loaned  by  Congo  Reform  Association 


THE    CONGO    FREE    STATE 

reduced  to  servitude,  and  I  saw  them  working  upon  the  plantation  of 
one  of  the  stations  of  the  State. 

"  Your  Majesty's  Government  is  engaged  in  the  slave  trade,  whole- 
sale and  retail.  It  buys  and  sells  and  steals  slaves.  Your  Majes- 
ty's Government  gives  £3  per  head  for  able-bodied  slaves  for  military 
service.  Officers  at  the  chief  stations  get  the  men  and  receive  the 
money  when  they  are  transferred  to  the  State;  but  there  are  some 
middlemen  who  only  get  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  francs  per  head. 
Three  hundred  and  sixteen  slaves  were  sent  down  the  river  recently, 
and  others  are  to  follow.  These  poor  natives  are  sent  hundreds  of 
miles  away  from  their  villages,  to  serve  among  other  natives  whose 
language  they  do  not  know.  When  these  men  run  away  a  reward 
of  one  thousand  N'taka  is  offered.  Not  long  ago  such  a  recaptured 
slave  was  given  one  hundred  '  chikote '  each  day  until  he  died. 
Three  hundred  N'taka  —  brass  rod  —  is  the  price  the  State  pays  for 
a  slave,  when  bought  from  a  native.  The  labour  force  at  the  stations 
of  your  Majesty's  Government  in  the  Upper  Kiver  is  composed  of 
slaves  of  all  ages  and  both  sexes/' 

In  concluding  his  letter  Col.  Williams  draws  the  following  com- 
parison between  the  so-called  Christian  white  man  in  the  Congo 
State  and  his  black  pagan  brother :  "  Against  the  deceit,  fraud, 
robberies,  arson,  murder,  slave-raiding,  and  general  policy  of  cruelty 
of  your  Majesty's  Government  to  the  natives,  stands  their  record  of 
unexampled  patience,  long  suffering  and  forgiving  spirit,  which  puts 
the  boasted  civilisation  and  professed  religion  of  your  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment to  the  blush.  During  thirteen  years  only  one  white  man  has 
lost  his  life  by  the  hands  of  the  natives,  and  only  two  white  men 
have  been  killed  in  the  Congo.  Major  Barttelot  was  shot  by  a  Zan- 
zibar soldier,  and  the  captain  of  a  Belgian  trading-boat  was  the  vic- 
tim of  his  own  rash  and  unjust  treatment  of  a  native  chief. 

"  All  the  crimes  perpetrated  in  the  Congo  have  been  done  in  your 
name,  and  you  must  answer  at  the  bar  of  Public  Sentiment  for  the 
misgovernment  of  a  people  whose  lives  and  fortunes  were  entrusted 
to  you  by  the  August  Conference  of  Berlin,  1884,  1885." 

Nor  has  the  Congo  rule  of  Leopold  II.  escaped  the  criticism  of  his 
own  parliament.  Witness  the  following  from  a  debate  which  oc- 
curred in  1901 :  "  We  are  adversaries  of  the  capitalist  colonial 
policy  which  entails  exploitation,  theft,  and  assassination.  The 
Congo  Free  State  has  introduced  forced  labour,  tribute  in  kind,  and 
a  forced  twelve-year  military  service.  We  protest  against  this  dis- 
guised form  of  slavery.  'Kemember  the  thirteen  hundred  severed 
hands ! ' ; 

The  levying  of  tribute  in  the  Domaine  Prive  is  so  well  described 
by  an  agent  of  the  Societe  Anversoise  .that  we  think  it  well  to  quote 
his  words :  "  When  natives  bring  rubber  to  a  factory  they  are  re- 
ceived by  the  agents  surrounded  by  soldiers.  The  baskets  are 
weighed.  If  the  baskets  do  not  contain  the  five  kilos  required,  the  na- 
tives receive  one  hundred  blows  with  a  chicotte.  Those  whose  bas- 
kets contain  the  correct  weight  receive  a  piece  of  cloth  or  some  other 
object.  If  a  certain  village  contains,  say,  one  hundred  male  in- 
habitants (a  census  is  always  taken  of  the  villages  before  '  operations ' 

93 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

begin)  and  only  fifty  come  to  the  factory  with  rubber,  they  are  retained 
as  hostages,  and  a  force  is  despatched  to  shoot  (sic)  the  fifty  recalci- 
trant natives  and  burn  their  village." 

The  following  article  which  appeared  in  the  daily  press  gives  a 
slight  idea  of  the  awful  conditions  which  obtain  in  the  Congo. 
"  Cannibalism  is  rampant  to-day  in  the  Congo  Free  State.  There 
Leopold,  King  of  the  Belgians,  maintains  an  army  of  some  25,000 
negroes,  officered  by  white  men,  and  one  and  all  of  them  practise 
cannibalism,  practically  with  the  consent  of  the  Belgian  Govern- 
ment." 

"WORSE  THAN  INQUISITION." 

.Such  was  the  startling  assertion  made  by  the  Eev.  G.  L.  Raikes,  a 
missionary  who  recently  returned  from  the  Belgian  protectorate. 
Continuing  he  said : 

"  If  I  was  to  tell  of  half  the  fiendish  sights  I  have  witnessed  there 
no  one  would  believe  me.  The  acts  of  this  Belgian  army  there  are  be- 
yond all  conception,  and  the  tortures  of  the  inquisition  sound  like 
child-play  in  comparison. 

"  Several  times  I  saw  the  inhabitants  of  a  whole  town  .... 
rushing  for  the  forests  to  hide  from  the  Belgian  invaders.  Those 
who  were  too  ill  or  too  old  to  flee  were  killed  and  eaten  by  the 
soldiers. 

"  Whenever  one  of  the  villages  fails  to  ship  its  allotted  quantity  of 
rubber,  a  raid  is  ordered  by  King  Leopold's  chief  rubber-collector, 
and  then  the  atrocities  begin. 

"  Every  able-bodied  man  caught  is  taken  prisoner  and  made  to 
serve  in  the  army,  or  is  sold  as  a  slave;  the  women  are  ravaged  and 
then  eaten,  and  the  children  are  also  used  to  feed  the  army." 

Still  more  recently  we  have  the  following  printed  in  the  "  Boston 
Daily  Advertiser  "  of  June  8,  1906. 


"CALLS  LEOPOLD  A  CUTTHROAT." 

Rev.  Dr.  Nassau,  Returned  Missionary,  Tells  of  Horrors  in  Congo 

Free  State. 

"  New  York,  June  7. — (  King  Leopold  is  a  monumental  liar  and 
cutthroat. 

'  He  has  15,000  soldier-cannibals  killing  women  and  children  for 
food  so  that  he  may  get  rubber. 

'  I  would  not  be  in  Leopold's  boots  for  the  whole  world.  He  has  an 
awful  account  to  render  his  Maker.' 

"  In  this  language  Rev.  Dr.  R.  H.  Nassau  characterised  the  king 
of  the  Belgians  to-day  on  his  return  from  Africa  in  the  White  Star 
liner  Majestic. 

"  Dr.  Nassau  is  70  years  old,  and  has  been  in  Africa  for  the  Pres- 
byterian board  of  foreign  missions  since  1861,  visiting  this  country, 
but  four  times  in  the  meanwhile. 

94 


THE   CONGO    FREE    STATE 

"  He  has  come  back  now  because  he  thinks  he  has  reached  the  age 
limit.  His  life  has  been  spent  in  the  French  and  German  Congo 
section  on  the  west  coast  near  the  equator. 

"  Dr.  Nassau  was  led  to  give  his  opinion  of  King  Leopold  by  a  ques- 
tion as  to  the  truth  of  the  statements  regarding  the  slave  traffic.  His 
reply  was : 

'  A  question  like  that  makes  me  angry  all  the  way  through'.  Yes, 
everything  that  has  been  claimed  by  the  enemies  of  the  slave  traffic  is 
true,  but  a  great  deal  has  not  been  told.  I  think  there  would  be  no 
slave  traffic  if  there  were  no  Leopold.  He  is  behind  it  all. 

'When  Leopold,  through  his  agents,  denies  the  existence  of  the 
slave  traffic  he  is  a  monumental  liar  as  well  as  a  cutthroat.  I  am  a 
clergyman  and  I  cannot  form  words  sufficiently  strong  to  character- 
ise the  King  of  Belgium.  I  should  have  to  get  a  dictionary  and 
mark  off  the  words  without  saying  them.  I  cannot  be  profane. 

'  Leopold  denies  that  outrages  are  committed  on  the  helpless  na- 
tives in  Africa.  He  knows  it  to  be  true,  however,  and  with  true 
diplomacy  the  other  politicians  of  Europe  take  his  denial  as  granted. 
Leopold  sent  his  own  commission  out  to  Africa  to  learn  if  certain 
things  were  true.  He  expected  that  commission  to  whitewash  him. 
But  the  commission  confirmed  all  the  stories  that  all  the  traders  and 
travellers  told. 

'  Leopold  has  150,000  native  soldiers  in  the  Congo  Free  State. 
What  a  misnomer!  These  soldiers  subsist  on  blood,  and  Leopold 
knows  it.  They  must  kill  human  beings  to  get  their  food.  All  the 
time  they  are  gathering  rubber  to  make  Leopold  rich. 

'  Leopold  is  the  owner  of  that  state ;  it  is  a  personal  ownership. 
When  he  dies  he  will  turn  it  over  to  Belgium. 

'  England  will  probably  stop  the  traffic.  The  question  is  now  in 
parliament.  E.  D.  Morel,  an  African  editor,  is  in  England,  leading 
the  crusade  against  Leopold/  " 

Victor  Hugo  said :  "  In  the  region  of  the  Unknown,  Africa  is 
absolute."  The  truth  of  these  words  is  rapidly  being  brought  home 
to  us. 

In  his,  "  A  Modern  Slavery "  Henry  Nevinson  gives  a  vivid  pic- 
ture of  the  African  slave  trade  which  still  exists  in  spite  of  the  Ber- 
lin Treaty  of  1895.  In  the  Congo  we  have  already  seen  the  atrocities 
of  the  rubber  traffic. 

In  many  cases  the  natives  receive  in  return  for  their  rubber  only 
a  strip  of  cheap  calico,  a  few  teaspoonfuls  of  salt,  or  some  other 
equally  valuable  commodity.  According  to  Morel  the  value  of  the 
raw  produce  collected  by  the  natives  in  four  years,  1899-1902  in- 
clusive, reached  the  enormous  figure  of  thirty-five  million  dollars. 
Of  this  more  than  six-sevenths  was  rubber. 

.  Mr.  Samuel  Phillips  Verner  says  that  the  Congo  produces  an- 
nually nearly  five  million  dollars  of  rubber.  He  states  that  the  labour 
of  the  African  men  can  be  secured  for  fifty  cents  per  month  and 
that  rubber  costs  in  Africa  about  five  cents  a  pound  and  brings  from 
eighty  cents  to  one  dollar  crude  in  Europe. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  how  the  Congo  native  was  first 
enslaved,  and  how  the  entering  wedge  was  driven  home  until  the 

95 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

trail  of  Leopold  II.  in  the  Congo  Free  State  is  like  the  swath  of  a 
cyclone,  or  the  path  of  a  river  of  white-hot  lava.  Beside  his  record 
all  other  modern  crimes  pale  into  numerical  insignificance.  To  him 
belongs  the  unenviable  distinction  of  being  considered  the  very  prince 
of  murderers.  No  other  man  in  all  history  has  a  record  that  in 
comparison  is  worthy  even  a  passing  glance.  Nero  in  his  most  be- 
sotted days  was  as  soothing  as  the  scented  breath  of  May  when  placed 
in  parallel  with  this  twentieth-century  sulphurous  blast  from  hell. 
Well  has  Leopold  II.  been  called  "The  King  With  Ten  Million 
Murders  on  his  .Soul."  The  uncompromising  truth,  could  it  be  fully 
known,  would  probably  increase  this  estimate  by  half. 


96 


Hark!  to  the  hurried  question  of  Despair; 
'Where  is  my  child?" — an  Echo  answers  — 
"Where?" 

Byron  —  The  Bride  of  Abydos. 

For  nothing  canst  thou  to  damnation  add 
Greater  than  that. 

Othello. 
Thou  tyrant! 

Do  not  repent  these  things,  for  they  are  heavier 
Than  all  thy  woes  can  stir:  therefore  betake  thee 
To  nothing  but  despair. 

Winter's  Tale. 


98 


CHAPTER  II 
THE    DEVIL'S    STERN    CHASE 


ARK  TWAIN",  the  inimitable  humorist,  has  just  pub- 
lished his  "King  Leopold's  Soliloquy,"  in  which  he 
trenchantly  calls  to  book  the  Monarch  of  th&  Bel- 
gians. No  one  interested  in  this  subject  can  afford 
to  miss  this  publication.  The  following  quotations 

will  afford  our  Readers  more  than  a  mere  taste  of 

its  quality,  and  will,  we  trust,  convince  all  of  the  thorough  serious- 
ness underlying  the  work,  despite  its  brilliant  humor,  and  of  the 
noble  purpose  which  induced  its  publication. 

"These  meddlesome  American  missionaries!  these  frank  British 
consuls !  these  blabbing  Belgian-born  traitor  officials !  —  those  tire- 
some parrots  are  always  talking,  always  telling.     They  have  told  how 
for  twenty  years  I  have  ruled  the  Congo  State  not  as  a  trustee  of 
the  Powers,  an  agent,  a  subordinate,  a  foreman,  but  as  a  sovereign  — 
sovereign  over  a  fruitful  domain  four  times  as  large  as  the  German 
Empire  —  sovereign  absolute,  irresponsible,  above  all  law;  trampling 
the  Berlin-made  Congo  charter  under  foot;  barring  out  all  foreign 
traders  but  myself;  restricting  commerce  to  myself,  through  conces- 
sionaires who  are  my  creatures  and  confederates;  seizing  and  hold- 
ing the  State  as  my  personal  property,  the  whole  of  its  vast  revenues 
as   my  private   'swag'  mine,   solely  mine  —  claiming  and  holding 
its  millions  of  people  as  my  private  property,  my  serfs,  my  slaves; 
their  labor  mine,  with  or  without  wage;  the  food  they  raise  not  their 
property  but  mine;  the  rubber,  the  ivory  and  all  the  other  riches  of 
the  land  mine  —  mine  solely  —  and  gathered  for  me,  by  the  men, 
the  women  and  the  little  children  under  compulsion  of  lash  and  bul- 
let, fire,  starvation,  mutilation  and  the  halter. 

"  These  pests !  —  It  is  as  I  say,  they  have  kept  back  nothing !    They 
have  revealed  these  and  yet  other  details  which  shame  should  have 
kept  them  silent  about,  since  they  were  exposures  of  a  king,  a  sacred 
personage  and  immune  from  reproach,  by  right  of  his  selection  and 
appointment  to  his  great  office  by  God  himself;  a  king  whose  acts 
cannot  be  critcised  without  blasphemy,  since  God  has  observed  them 
from  the  beginning  and  has  manifested  no  dissatisfaction  with  them, 
nor  shown  disapproval  of  them,  nor  hampered  nor  interrupted  them 
in  any  way.     By  this  sign  I  recognise  his  approval  of  what  I  have 
done;  his  cordial  and  glad  approval,  I  am  sure  I  may  say.     Blest, 
crowned,  beatified  with  this  great  reward,  this  golden  reward,  this 
unspeakably  precious  reward,  why  should  I  care  for  men's  cursings 
and  revilings  of  me  ?  " 

•        ••••••••• 

99 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"  They  tell  it  all :  how  I  am  wiping  a  nation  of  friendless  creatures 
out  of  existence  by  every  form  of  murder,  for  my  private  pocket's 

sake."     .     .     . 

"And  are  the  fault-finders  frank  with  my  private  character? 
They  could  not  be  more  so  if  I  were  a  plebeian,  a  peasant,  a  me- 
chanic. They  remind  the  world  that  from  the  earliest  days  my 
house  has  been  chapel  and  brothel  combined,  and  both  industries 
working  full  time ;  that  I  practised  cruelties  upon  my  queen  and  my 
daughters,  and  supplemented  them  with  daily  shame  and  humilia- 
tions; that,  when  my  queen  lay  in  the  happy  refuge  of  her  coffin, 
and  a  daughter  implored  me  on  her  knees  to  let  her  look  for  the  last 
time  upon  her  mother's  face,  I  refused;  and  that,  three  years  ago, 
not  being  satisfied  with  the  stolen  spoils  of  a  whole  alien  nation,  I 
robbed  my  own  child  of  her  property  and  appeared  by  proxy  in  court, 
a  spectacle  to  the  civilised  world,  to  defend  the  act  and  complete  the 
crime."  .  .  . 

"  They  prefer  to  work  up  what  they  call  '  ghastly  statistics '  into 
offensive  kindergarten  object  lessons,  whose  purpose  is  to  make  senti- 
mental people  shudder,  and  prejudice  them  against  me.  They  re- 
mark that  'if  the  innocent  blood  shed  in  the  Congo  State  by  King 
Leopold  were  put  in  buckets  and  the  buckets  placed  side  by  side,  the 
line  would  stretch  two  thousand  miles;  if  the  skeletons  of  his  ten 
millions  of  starved  and  butchered  dead  could  rise  up  and  march  in 
single  file,  it  would  take  them  seven  months  and  four  days  to  pass  a 
given  point;  if  compacted  together  in  a  body,  they  would  occupy 
more  ground  than  St.  Louis  covers,  World's  Fair  and  all;  if  they 
should  all  clap  their  bony  hands  at  once,  the  grisly  clash  would  be 
heard  at  a  distance  of  — '  damnation,  it  makes  me  tired !  And  they 
do  similar  miracles  with  the  money  I  have  distilled  from  that  blood 
and  put  into  my  pocket.  They  pile  it  into  Egyptian  pyramids ;  they 
carpet  Saharas  with  it;  they  spread  it  across  the  sky,  and  the  shadow 
it  casts  makes  twilight  in  the  earth.  And  the  tears  I  have  caused, 
the  hearts  I  have  broken  —  oh,  nothing  can  persuade  them  to  let 
them  alone!  (Meditative;  pause)  Well  ...  no  matter,  I  did  beat 
the  Yankees,  anyway !  there's  comfort  in  that.  (Reads  with  mocking 
smile,  the  President's  Order  of  Recognition  of  April  22,  1884.) 
' .  .  .  the  government  of  the  United  .States  announces  its  sym- 
pathy with  and  approval  of  the  humane  and  benevolent  purposes  of 
(my  Congo  scheme),  and  will  order  the  officers  of  the  United  States, 
both  on  land  and  sea,  to  recognise  its  flag  as  the  flag  of  a  friendly 
government/ 

"  Possibly  the  Yankees  would  like  to  take  that  back,  now,  but  they 
will  find  that  my  agents  are  not  over  there  in  America  for  nothing. 
But  there  is  no  danger;  neither  nations  nor  governments  can  afford 
to  confess  a  blunder."  .  .  . 

"Yes,  I  certainly  was  a  shade  too  clever  for  the  Yankees.  It 
hurts ;  it  gravels  them.  They  can't  get  over  it !  Puts  a  shame  upon 
them  in  another  way,  too,  and  a  graver  way;  for  they  never  can  rid 
their  records  of  the  reproachful  fact  that  their  vain  Eepublic,  self- 
appointed  Champion  and  Promoter  of  the  Liberties  of  the  World, 

100 


THE    DEVIL'S    STERN    CHASE 

is  the  only  democracy  in  history  that  has  lent  its  power  and  influence 
to  the  establishing  of  an  absolute  monarchy!  "     ,     .     . 

"That  is  their  (the  missionaries')  way;  they  spy  and  spy,  and  run 
into  print  with  every  foolish  trifle.  And  that  British  consul,  Mr. 
Casement,  is  just  like  them.  He  gets  hold  of  a  diary  which  had  been 
kept  by  one  of  my  government  officers,  and,  although  it  is  a  private 
diary  and  intended  for  no  eye  but  its  owner's,  Mr.  Casement  is  so 
lacking  in  delicacy  and  refinement  as  to  print  passages  from  it. 
(Reads  a  passage  from  the  diary) 

'  Each  time  the  corporal  goes  out  to  get  rubber,  cartridges  are 
given  him.  He  must  bring  back  all  not  used,  and  for  every  one  used 
he  must  bring  back  a  right  hand.  M.P.  told  me  that  sometimes  they 
shot  a  cartridge  at  an  animal  in  hunting;  they  then  cut  off  a  hand 
from  a  living  man.  As  to  the  extent  to  which  this  is  carried  on, 
he  informed  me  that  in  six  months  the  State  on  the  Mambogo  Eiver 
had  used  6,000  cartridges,  which  means  that  6,000  people  are  killed 
or  mutilated.  It  means  more  than  6,000,  for  the  people  have  told 
me  repeatedly  that  the  soldiers  kill  the  children  with  the  butt  of  their 
guns/  .  .  . 

"  When  the  mutilations  (severing  hands,  unsexing  men,  etc.)  be- 
gan to  stir  Europe,  we  hit  upon  the  idea  of  excusing  them  with  a 
retort  which  we  judged  would  knock  them  dizzy  on  that  subject  for 
good  and  all,  and  leave  them  nothing  more  to  say;  to  wit,  we  boldly 
laid  the  custom  on  the  natives,  and  said  we  did  not  invent  it,  but 
only  followed  it.  Did  it  knock  them  dizzy?  did  it  shut  their  mouths? 
Not  for  an  hour.  They  dodged,  and  came  straight  back  at  us  with 
the  remark  that  'if  a  Christian  King  can  perceive  a  saving  moral 
difference  between  inventing  bloody  barbarities,  and  imitating  them 
from  savages,  for  charity's  sake  let  him  get  what  comfort  he  can 
out  of  his  confession/  .  .  . 

"  One  of  my  sorrowing  critics  observes :  '  Other  Christian  rulers 
tax  their  people,  but  furnish  schools,  courts  of  law,  roads,  light, 
water  and  protection  to  life  and  limb  in  return;  King  Leopold  taxes 
his  stolen  nation,  but  provides  nothing  in  return,  but  hunger,  terror, 
grief,  shame,  captivity,  mutilation  and  massacre.'  That  is  their 
style !  I  furnish  *  nothing ! '  I  send  the  gospel  to  the  survivors ; 
these  censure-mongers  know  it,  but  they  would  rather  have  their 
tongues  cut  out  than  mention  it."  .  .  . 

"  Another  detail,  as  we  see !  —  cannibalism.  They  report  cases  of 
it  with  a  most  offensive  frequency.  My  traducers  do  not  forget  to 
remark  that,  inasmuch  as  I  am  absolute  and  with  a  word  can  prevent 
in  the  Congo  anything  I  choose  to  prevent,  then  whatsoever  is  done 
there  by  my  permission  is  my  act,  my  personal  act ;  that  /  do  it ;  that 
the  hand  of  my  agent  is  as  truly  my  hand  as  if  it  were  attached  to  my 
own  arm ;  and  so  they  picture  me  in  my  robes  of  state,  with  my  crown 
on  my  head,  munching  human  flesh,  saying  grace,  mumbling  thanks 
to  Him  from  whom  all  good  things  come."  .  .  . 

"  Oh,  yes,  they  call  me  a  '  record/  They  remark  that  twice  in  a 
generation,  in  India,  the  Great  Famine  destroys  2,000,000  out  of  a 
population  of  320,000,000,  and  the  whole  world  holds  up  its  hands 
in  pity  and  horror;  then  they  fall  to  wondering  where  the  world 

101 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

would  find  room  for  its  emotions  if  I  had  a  chance  to  trade  places 
with  the  Great  Famine  for  twenty  years !  The  idea  fires  their  fancy, 
and  they  go  on  and  imagine  the  Famine  coming  in  state  at  the  end 
of  the  twenty  years  and  prostrating  itself  before  me,  saying: 
'  Teach  me,  Lord,  I  perceive  that  I  am  but  an  apprentice/  And  next 
they  imagine  Death  coming,  with  his  scythe  and  hour-glass,  and  beg- 
ging me  to  marry  his  daughter  and  reorganise  his  plant  and  run 
the  business.  For  the  whole  world,  you  see !  By  this  time  their 
diseased  minds  are  under  full  steam,  and  they  get  down  their  books 
and  expand  their  labours,  with  me  for  text.  They  hunt  through  all 
biography  for  my  match,  working  Attila,  Torquemada,  Ghengis 
Khan,  Ivan  the  Terrible,  and  the  rest  of  that  crowd  for  all  they  are 
worth,  and  evilly  exulting  when  they  cannot  find  it.  Then  they  ex- 
amine the  historical  earthquakes  and  cyclones  and  blizzards  and  cata- 
clysms and  volcanic  eruptions ;  verdicf,  none  of  them  'in  it '  with 
me.  At  last  they  do  really  hit  it  (as  they  think),  and  they  close  their 
labors  with  conceding  —  reluctantly  —  that  I  have  one  match  in  his- 
tory, but  only  one  —  the  Flood.  This  is  intemperate. 

"  But  they  are  always  that,  when  they  think  of  me.  They  can  no 
more  keep  quiet  when  my  name  is  mentioned  than  can  a  glass  of 
water  control  its  feelings  with  a  seidlitz  powder  in  its  bowels.  The 
bizarre  things  they  can  imagine,  with  me  for  an  inspiration!  One 
Englishman  offers  to  give  me  the  odds  of  three  to  one  and  bet  me 
anything  I  like,  up  to  20,000  guineas,  that  for  2,000,000  years  I  am 
going  to  be  the  most  conspicuous  foreigner  in  hell."  .  .  . 

"(Harassed  and  muttering,  walks  the  floor  a  while,  then  takes  to 
the  Consul's  chapter-headings  again.  Reads) : 

'  Government  starved  a  woman's  children  to  death  and  killed  her 
sons.' 

'  Butchery  of  women  and  children.' 

'  The  native  has  been  converted  into  a  being  without  ambition  be- 
cause without  hope/ 

'  Women  chained  by  the  neck  by  rubber  sentries/ 

'Women  refuse  to  bear  children  because,  with  a  baby  to  carry, 
they  cannot  well  run  away  and  hide  from  the  soldiers/  .  .  . 

'  They  put  a  knife  through  a  child's  stomach/ 

'  They  cut  off  the  hands  and  brought  them  to  C.  D.  (white  officer) 
and  spread  them  out  in  a  row  for  him  to  see/ 

'  Captured  children  left  in  the  bush  to  die,  by  the  soldiers/ 

'  Friends  came  to  ransom  a  captured  girl ;  but  sentry  refused,  say- 
ing the  white  man  wanted  her  because  she  was  young/ 

'Extract  from  a  native  girl's  testimony.  'On  our  way  the  sol- 
diers saw  a  little  child,  and  when  they  went  to  kill  it  the  child 
laughed,  so  the  soldier  took  the  butt  of  his  gun  and  struck  the  child 
with  it  and  then  cut  off  its  head.  One  day  they  killed  my  half-sister 
and  cut  off  her  head,  hands  and  feet,  because  she  had  bangles  on. 
Then  they  caught  another  sister,  and  sold  her  to  the  W.W.  people, 
and  now  she  is  a  slave  there/ 

"The  little  child  laughed!  (A  long  pause.  Musing.)  That  in- 
nocent creature.  Somehow  —  I  wish  it  had  not  laughed.  (Reads  ) 

'Mutilated  children/ 

102 


THE   DEVIL'S    STERN    CHASE 

'Government  encouragement  of  inter-tribal  slave-traffic.  The 
monstrous  fines  levied  upon  villages  tardy  in  their  supplies  of  food- 
stuffs compel  the  natives  to  sell  their  fellows  —  and  children  —  to 
other  tribes  in  order  to  meet  the  fine.' 

'  A  father  and  mother  forced  to  sell  their  little  boy/ 

'  Widow  forced  to  sell  her  little  girl/ 

'Men  intimidated  by  the  torture  of  their  wives  and  daughters. 
(To  make  the  men  furnish  rubber  and  supplies  and  so  get  their  cap- 
tured women  released  from  chains  and  detention.)  The  sentry  ex- 
plained to  me  that  he  caught  the  women  and  brought  them  in 
(chained  together  neck  to  neck)  by  direction  of  his  employer/ 

'  An  agent  explained  that  he  was  forced  to  catch  women  in  prefer- 
ence to  men,  as  then  the  men  brought  in  supplies  quicker ;  but  he  did 
not  explain  how  the  children  deprived  of  their  parents  obtained  their 
own  food  supplies/ 

*  A  file  of  15  (captured)  women/ 

'  Allowing  women  and  children  to  die  of  starvation  in  prison/ 

'  The  crucifying  of  sixty  women ! ' 

"  How  stupid,  how  tactless !  Christendom's  goose-flesh  will  rise 
with  horror  at  the  news.  '  Profanation  of  the  sacred  emblem ! ' 
That  is  what  Christendom  will  shout.  Yes,  Christendom  will  buzz. 
It  can  hear  me  charged  with  half  a  million  murders  a  year  for 
twenty  years  and  keep  its  composure,  but  to  profane  the  Symbol  is 
quite  another  matter.  It  will  regard  this  as  serious.  It  will  wake 
up  and  want  to  look  into  my  record.  Buzz  ?  Indeed  it  will ;  I  seem 
to  hear  the  distant  hum  already.  ...  It  was  wrong  to  crucify 
the  women,  clearly  wrong,  manifestly  wrong;  I  can  see  it  now,  my- 
self, and  am  sorry  it  happened,  sincerely  sorry.  I  believe  it  would 
have  answered  just  as  well  to  skin  them."  .  .  . 

"  The  kodak  has  been  a  sore  calamity  to  us.  The  most  powerful 
enemy  that  has  confronted  us,  indeed.  In  the  early  years  we  had  no 
trouble  in  getting  the  press  to  '  expose '  the  tales  of  the  mutilations 
as  slanders,  lies,  inventions  of  busy-body  American  missionaries  and 
exasperated  foreigners  who  had  found  the  '  open  door '  of  the  Ber- 
lin-Congo charter  closed  against  them  when  they  innocently  went 
out  there  to  trade;  and  by  the  press's  help  we  got  the  Christian 
nations  everywhere  to  turn  an  irritated  and  unbelieving  ear  to  those 
tales  and  say  hard  things  about  the  tellers  of  them.  Yes,  all  things 
went  harmoniously  and  pleasantly  in  those  good  days,  and  I  was 
looked  up  to  as  the  benefactor  of  a  down-trodden  and  friendless  peo- 
ple. Then  all  of  a  sudden  came  the  crash !  That  is  to  say,  the  in- 
corruptible kodak  —  and  all  the  harmony  went  to  hell !  The  only 
witness  I  have  encountered  in  my  long  experience  that  I  couldn't 
bribe.  Every  Yankee  missionary  and  every  interrupted  trader  sent 
home  and  got  one ;  and  now  —  oh,  well,  the  pictures  get  sneaked 
around  everywhere,  in  spite  of  all  we  can  do  to  ferret  them  out  and 
suppress  them.  Ten  thousand  pulpits  and  ten  thousand  presses  are 
saying  the  good  word  for  me  all  the  time  and  placidly  and  con- 
vincingly denying  the  mutilations.  Then  that  trivial  little  kodak, 

103 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

that  a  child  can  carry  in  its  pocket,  gets  up,  uttering  never  a  word, 
and  knocks  them  dumb ! 

.     .     .     What  is  this  fragment?     (Reads) 

'  But  enough  of  trying  to  tally  off  his  crimes !  His  list  is  in- 
terminable, we  should  never  get  to  the  end  of  it.  His  awful  shadow 
lies  across  his  Congo  Free  State,  and  under  it  an  unoffending  nation 
of  15,000,000  is  withering  away  and  swiftly  succumbing  to  their 
miseries.  It  is  a  land  of  graves ;  it  is  The  Land  of  Graves ;  it  is  the 
Congo  Free  Graveyard.  It  is  a  majestic  thought :  that  is,  this  ghast- 
liest episode  in  all  human  history  is  the  work  of  one  man  alone; 
one  solitary  man;  just  a  single  individual  —  Leopold,  King  of  the 
Belgians.  He  is  personally  and  solely  responsible  for  all  the  myriad 
crimes  that  have  blackened  the  History  of  the  Congo  State.  He  is 
sole  master  there;  he  is  absolute.  He  could  have  prevented  the 
crimes  by  his  mere  command ;  he  could  stop  them  to-day  with  a  word. 
He  withholds  the  word.  For  his  pocket's  sake.' ': 

As  we  write  our  eye  falls  upon  an  article  in  to-day's  paper  describ- 
ing a  meeting  called  by  representative  Bostonians,  and  held  last  night 
in  Tremont  Temple,  for  the  purpose  of  protesting  against  the  atroci- 
ties practised  in  the  Congo  Free  State  and  urging  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  to  interfere  in  the  cause  of  humanity. 

The  Rev.  W.  H.  Sheppard  was  sent  out  by  the  mission  to  investi- 
gate what  is  called  a  "  rubber-raid."  He  personally  saw  indisputa- 
ble proof  of  the  horrors  which  were  perpetrated.  Questioning  one 
of  the  raiders  the  following  conversation  took  place : 

"  *  I  demanded  30  slaves  from  this  side  of  the  stream  and  30  from 
the  other  side;  2  points  of  ivory,  2,500  balls  of  rubber,  13  goats,  10 
fowls  and  6  dogs,  some  corn  chumy,  etc/ 

'  How  did  the  fight  come  up  ? '  I  asked. 

'  I  sent  for  all  their  chiefs,  sub-chiefs,  men  and  women,  to  come 
on  a  certain  day,  saying  that  I  was  going  to  finish  all  the  palaver. 
When  they  entered  these  small  gates  (the  walls  being  made  of 
fences  brought  from  other  villages,  the  high  native  ones)  I  demanded 
all  my  pay  or  I  would  kill  them;  so  they  refused  to  pay  me,  and  I 
ordered  the  fence  to  be  closed  so  they  couldn't  run  away;  then  we 
killed  them  here  inside  the  fence.  The  panels  of  the  fence  fell  down 
and  some  escaped.' 

'  How  many  did  you  kill  ? '  I  asked. 

'  We  killed  plenty,  will  you  see  some  of  them  ? ' 

"  That  was  just  what  I  wanted. 

"  He  said :  '  I  think  we  have  killed  between  eighty  and  ninety,  and 
those  in  the  other  villages  I  don't  know,  I  did  not  go  out  but  sent  my 
people.' 

"  He  and  I  walked  out  on  the  plain  just  near  the  camp.     There 
were  three  dead  bodies  with  the  flesh  carved  off  from  the  waist  down. 
1  Why  are  they  carved  so,  only  leaving  the  bones? '  I  asked 
My  people  ate  them,'  he  answered  promptly.     He  then  explained, 
Ihe  men  who  have  young  children  do  not  eat  people,  but  all  the 
rest  ate  them '     On  the  left  was  a  big  man,  shot  in  the  back  and 
bout  a  head.     (All  these  corpses  were  nude.) 
'  Where  is  the  man's  head  ? '  I  asked. 

104 


THE   DEVIL'S    STERN    CHASE 

'  Oil,  they  made  a  bowl  of  the  forehead  to  rub  up  tobacco  and 
diamba  in/ 

"  We  continued  to  walk  and  examine  until  late  in  the  afternoon, 
and  counted  forty-one  bodies.  The  rest  had  been  eaten  up  by  the 
people. 

"  On  returning  to  the  camp  we  crossed  a  young  woman,  shot  in  the 
back  of  the  head,  one  hand  was  cut  away.  I  asked  why,  and  Mulunba 
N'Cusa  explained  that  they  always  cut  off  the  right  hand  to  give  to 
the  .State  on  their  return. 

'Can  you  not  show  me  some  of  the  hands  ? '  I  asked. 

"  So  he  conducted  us  to  a  framework  of  sticks,  under  which  was 
burning  a  slow  fire,  and  there  they  were,  the  right  hands  —  I  counted 
them,  eighty-one  in  all. 

"There  were  not  less  than  sixty  women  (Bena  Pianga)  prisoners. 
I  saw  them. 

"  We  all  say  that  we  have  as  fully  as  possible  investigated  the  whole 
outrage,  and  find  it  was  a  plan  previously  made  to  get  all  the  stuff 
possible  and  to  catch  and  kill  the  poor  people  in  the  *  death-trap.' ': 

In  an  article,  entitled  "  The  Evidence  before  the  Kongo  Com- 
mission," published  in  "  The  Independent "  of  Nov.  9,  1905,  the  Rev. 
C.  B.  Antisdel  calls  attention  to  the  rapid  depopulation  of  the  Congo 
State.  He  states  that  Bolobo  in  1887  had  a  population  of  about 
forty  thousand  which  had  decreased  in  1900  to  less  than  eight  thou- 
sand. During  the  same  period  the  population  of  Lukoleka  shrunk 
from  five  thousand  to  three  hundred  and  fifty-two.  He  states  that 
from  every  place,  for  which  he  was  able  to  obtain  statistics,  from 
sixty  to  eighty  per  cent  of  the  people  have  disappeared,  owing  to 
the  methods  employed  in  enforcing  the  enormous  "taxes." 

The  article  contains  Mr.  Harris's  graphic  description  of  how  the 
natives  testified,  which  is  as  follows : 

"  Sixteen  Esanga  witnesses  were  questioned  one  by  one.  They 
gave  clearly  the  details  of  how  father,  mother,  sister,  brother,  son 
or  daughter  was  killed  in  cold  blood  for  rubber.  Then  the  big  chief 
of  Bolima  stood  boldly  before  all,  pointed  to  his  twenty  witnesses, 
placed  on  the  table  his  hundred  and  twenty  twigs,  each  twig  repre- 
senting a  life  for  rubber.  '  These  are  the  chief's  twigs,  these  are  the 
men's,  these  shorter  are  women's,  these  smaller  still  are  children's.' 
He  tells  how  the  white  man  fought  him,  and  when  the  fight  was 
over  handed  him  his  corpses  and-  said :  '  Now  you  will  bring  rubber, 
won't  you  ?  '  To  -which  he  replied,  '  Yes/  The  corpses  were  cut  up 
and  eaten  by  Mons.  Forcie's  fighters. 

"  Here  Bonkoko  came  forward  and  told  how  he  accompanied  the 
A.  B.  I.  R.  sentries  when  they  went  to  murder  Isekifasu  and  his  wives 
and  little  ones;  of  finding  them  sitting  peacefully  at  their  evening 
meal;  of  the  killing  as  many  as  they  could;  also  the  cutting  up  and 
eating  the  bodies  of  Isekifasu's  son  and  his  father's  wives;  of  how 
they  dashed  the  baby's  brains  out,  cut  the  bodies  in  halves  and  im- 
paled the  halves.  Again  he  tells  how,  on  their  return,  Mons.  Forcie 
had  the  sentries  chicotted  (beaten)  because  they  had  not  killed 
enough  of  the  Bolima  people. 

"  Lomboto  shows  his  mutilated  wrist  and  useless  hand,  done  by  the 

105 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

sentry.  Isekansu  shows  his  stump  of  a  fore-arm,  telling  the  same 
pitiful  story.  Every  witness  tells  of  floggings,  rape,  mutilations, 
murders  and  imprisonments  of  men,  women  and  children,  and  of 
illegal  fines  and  irregular  taxes." 

The  article  also  quotes  from  the  testimony  of  Mrs.  Harris,  also 
given  before  the  commission. 

"Whilst  the  men  were  in  the  forest  trying  to  get  rubber  their 
wives  were  outraged,  ill  treated  and  stolen  from  them  by  the  sen- 
tries. Boali,  a  woman  of  Ekorongo,  appeared  before  the  commis- 
sioners and  showed  her  maimed  body.  Because  she  wanted  to  re- 
main faithful  to  her  husband,  who  was  away  collecting  rubber,  and 
would  not  submit  to  be  outraged  by  a  sentry  called  Ekolonda,  she 
was  shot  in  the  abdomen,  which  made  an  awful  wound ;  the  intestines 
partly  protruded,  and  it  seems  a  miracle  that  she  survived.  The 
scars  are  plainly  visible,  and  the  site  of  the  old  wound  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  an  enormous  tumor.  She  fell  down  insensible,  and  the 
wretches  were  not  yet  satisfied,  for  they  then  hacked  off  her  foot  to 
get  the  anklet  she  was  wearing.  It  is  a  pity  that  woman's  mutilated 
body  cannot  be  seen  at  home  as  we  have  seen  it  and  her  story  reach 
the  ears  of  all." 

After  the  Commission  had  left  Baringa,  Mr.  Harris  wrote  the 
President  of  the  Commission  some  new  facts.  He  said : 

"  The  people  were  killed  by  hanging,  spearing,  cutting  the  throat, 
but  mostly  with  the  rifle.  Some  of  the  women  were  tortured  to  death 
by  forcing  a  pointed  stake  into  the  abdomen.  I  knew  of  other  such 
instances,  but  in  order  to  test  the  chief  who  was  reporting  murders 
committed  in  his  town,  I  asked  him  for  an  example.  '  They  killed 
my  daughter  Nsinga  in  this  manner.  I  found  the  stake  in  her ! ' ' 

In  another  letter  sent  by  Mr.  Harris  to  the  Vice-Governor-Gen- 
eral, the  Rev.  Mr.  Antisdel  extracts  the  following :  "  The  young 
woman  Imenenga  was  tied  to  a  forked  tree  and  chopped  in  half  with 
a  matchet,  beginning  at  the  left  shoulder,  chopping  down  through 
the  chest  and  abdomen  and  out  at  the,  side;  and  this  was  how  the 
sentries  punished  the  woman's  husband." 

But  it  is  unnecessary  to  further  multiply  atrocities,  for,  as  a  dis- 
tinguished journalist  has  well  said :  "  There  is  no  longer  any  dispute 
in  the  mind  of  any  reasonable  person  as  to  what  is  going  on  in  the 
Congo."  What  wonder  that  the  highest  official  in  the  Congo,  when 
shown  the  conclusions  reached  by  the  recent  investigating  commis- 
sion, realised  the  awful  significance  of  the  indictment.  What  won- 
der that,  realising  the  game  was  up,  he  should  retire  to  his  room  and 
cut  his  throat ! 

It  has  been  computed  that  if  the  skulls  of  Leopold's  victims  in  the 
Congo  were  collected  in  a  pile  they  would  rival  in  size  the  Great 
Pyramid  of  Cheops,  the  base  of  which  covers  thirteen  acres  and  the 
apex  of  which  is  four  hundred  and  fifty-one  feet  above  ground. 

Lest  the  Reader  should  think  this  gruesome  thought  has  no  basis 
in  history  we  hasten  to  inform  him  that  on  Aug.  26,  1857,  the  cele- 
brated German  scientist  Adolf  Schlagintweit,  while  in  the  service  of 
the  East  India  Company,  was  murdered  by  the  Emir  of  Kaahgar  and 

106 


Tsekelumbisi  of  Ekorongo,  who  was  brutally  shot  in  the  side  by  a  sentry  during 
a  rubber  raid.  The  tumour,  or  hornia,  was  caused  by  the  bullet,  the  wound  of 
which  can  be  seen  on  the  top  of  the  tumour.  The  picture  was  taken  by  the 
British  missionary,  Rev.  H.  M.  Whiteside,  in  Feb.,  1907.  Reproduced  from  pho- 
tograph loaned  by  the  Congo  Reform  Association. 


THE   DEVIL'S    STERN    CHASE 

his  head  thrown  upon  a  pyramid  of  skulls  which  it  was  the  Emir's 
amusement  to  watch  daily  growing  bigger. 

The  impressive  picture  by  the  late  Vassili  Verestchagin,  entitled 
the  "Apotheosis  of  War,"  had  its  inception  in  this  custom  adopted 
by  Tamerlane  and  many  others,  of  building  a  ghastly  pyramid  from 
the  bones  of  those  they  had  slaughtered.  Should  the  material  which 
King  Leopold  has  gleaned  in  the  Congo  and  made  applicable  to  such 
a  purpose  be  so  used,  the  result  would  make  all  former  attempts  in 
this  direction  look  like  warts  beside  the  Matterhorn. 

Can  we  marvel  that  the  atrocities  perpetrated  by  the  King  of  the 
Belgians  have  caused  the  celebrated  journalist,  Mr.  W.  T.  Stead,  to 
write  an  article  in  the  "  English  Eeview  of  Eeviews  "  for  Sept.,  1905, 
under  the  caption  "  Ought  King  Leopold  to  be  Hanged  ?  " 

The  Congo  Free  State  which  formerly  had  a  population  variously 
estimated  at  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  millions  has  now,  after  twenty 
years'  rule  by  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  but  fifteen  million  people. 
What  has  happened  to  the  rest  is  more  than  vaguely  hinted  at  by 
the  unsavory  title  bestowed  upon  this  wholesale  butcher,  "  The  King 
with  Ten  Million  Murders  on  His  Soul." 

Reader,  does  the  Congo  Free  State  seem  a  long  way  off?  Does 
its  distance  render  its  wails  inaudible  to  you?  Do  you  find  your- 
self saying,  "What  has  all  this  to  do  with  us  in  free  and  civilised 
America  ? "  We  cannot  believe  it !  We  cannot  think  that  Africa, 
Armenia,  Russia,  Siberia  or  the  Philippines  will  lift  its  voice  of 
anguish  without  finding  in  your  heart  an  echoing  resonance  of  pity, 
and  creating  within  you  a  desire  to  do  all  in  your  power  to  help  to 
make  impossible  the  continuance  of  any  regime  of  brutality,  even  in 
the  remostest  corner  of  the  Earth. 

And  the  United  States  ?  "  The  way  to  be  safe  is  never  to  feel 
secure/'  says  the  proverb.  Conditions  in  our  country  are  approach- 
ing the  danger  point,  albeit  they  may  still  seem  even  roseate  when 
compared  with  those  which  obtain,  for  example,  in  Russia  or  Turkey. 
But  is  this  the  proper  method  by  which  to  judge  them?  Assuredly 
not.  We  determine  whether  an  individual  be  conscientious  or  not  by 
the  extent  to  which  he  follows  his  own  judgment  of  what  is  right, 
and  just  in  that  way  must  we  determine  whether  a  nation  is  advanc- 
ing or  degenerating.  Judged  in  this  way,  we  are  confronted  by  the 
unpleasant  fact  that,  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  there  is  not  one 
which  to-day  can  compare  with  the  United  States  of  America  in  the 
speed  with  which  it  is  leaving  behind  its  time-honoured  and  most 
dearly  purchased  ideals.  Russia  is  not  growing  Un-Russian;  Turkey 
is  not  becoming  Un-Turkish ;  but  the  United  States  is  growing  Un- 
American!  The  indictment  is  severe,  but  we  shall  prove  it  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  most  sceptical. 


107 


BOOK    IV 

CHAPTER      I.     AMERICAN  IDEALS 

CHAPTER    II.     NATIONAL  CONDITIONS,  LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL 

CHAPTER  III.     THE  POISON  WORKS 

CHAPTER   IV.     CONTRACTION    OF    CURRENCY   AND   EXPANSION   OF 
STATISTICS 

CHAPTER     V.    THE  BUSSIANISING  OF  UNCLE  SAM 


109 


"  Freedom  Is  re-created  year  by  year,  in  hearts  wide  open  on  the  God- 
ward  side." 

They  pass,  a  mighty  army 
From  every  race  and  age  — 
The  just,  who  toiled  for  justice 
And  asked  no  other  wage. 

And  though  the  people's  laurels 
About  my  brow  I  bind  — 
I  know  they  sought  a  city 
That  I  shall  never  find. 

They  climbed  the  large,  steep  pathway, 
By  saints  and  heroes  trod, 
To  the  home  of  the  ideal, 
And  to  the  mount  of  God. 

May  Kendall,  in  New  Age,  London. 

So  long  as  a  single  one  amongst  your  brothers  has  no  vote  to  represent 
him  in  the  development  of  the  national  life,  so  long  as  there  is  one  left 
to  vegetate  in  ignorance  where  others  are  educated,  so  long  as  a  single 
man,  able  and  willing  to  work,  languishes  in  poverty  through  want  of 
work  to  do,  you  have  no  country  in  the  sense  in  which  country  ought  to 
exist  —  the  country  of  all  and  for  all. 

On  the  duties  of  Man,  by  Mazzini. 

In  the  old  republic,  money  was  despised  and  virtue  was  the  energy  of 
the  state. 

Tacitus. 

Though  your  word  shall  run  with  power,  and  your  arm  reach  over 

seas, 

Yet  the  questing  bolt  shall  find  you  if  you  keep  not  faith  with  these; 
Lest  you  be  at  one  with  Egypt,  lest  you  lie  as  Rome  lies  now 
In  the  potter's  field  of  empires,  mint  and  cumin,  keep  the  vow. 

Keep  the  truth  your  fathers  made, 

Lest  your  children  grow  afraid, 
Lest  you  hear  the  captives'  mothers  weeping  sore  — 

There  is  little  worth  beside  — 

They  are  dead  because  they  lied, 
And  the  young  men's  feet  are  at  the  door. 

Mary  Austin. 

The  strength  and  greatness  of  a  nation  do  not  lie  in  the  sinews  of  its 
people,  nor  in  the  money  bags  of  its  traders,  but  in  the  devotion  of  its 
citizens  to  a  lofty  ideal  of  public  and  private  duty,  in  the  love  for  all  that 
is  true  and  good  and  beautiful,  and  the  hatred  of  all  that  is  false,  evil, 
mean  and  ugly. 

British  Medical  Journal. 

For  as  caste  waxes  with  us  it  wanes  in  Japan.  As  the  democratic  ideals 
fade  with  us  they  become  stronger  in  Japan.  The  measure  of  any  na- 
tion's strength  is  the  measure  of  its  democracy.  The  rise  of  Japan  has 
kept  exact  pace  with  the  rise  of  her  plain  people  that  work  with  their 
hands  and  have  no  rank  and  no  station,  the  people  that  in  all  lands  and 
all  times  are  the  sole  source  of  power  and  progress. 

Charles  Edward  Russell, 
In  Everybody's  Magazine,  August,  1906. 

Our  country  is  the  world  —  our  countrymen  are  all  mankind. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison. 

110 


There  is  what  I  call  the  American  idea.  .  .  .  This  Idea  demands, 
as  the  proximate  organisation  thereof,  a  democracy, — that  is,  a  govern- 
ment of  all  the  people,  by  all  the  people,  for  all  the  people;  of  course,  a 
government  of  the  principles  of  eternal  justice,  the  unchanging  law  of 
God;  for  shortness'  sake  I  will  call  it  the  idea  of  Freedom. 

Theodore  Parker. 

The  principles  of  Jefferson  are  the  definitions  and  axioms  of  free  so- 
ciety. And  yet  they  are  denied  and  evaded,  with  no  small  show  of  suc- 
cess. One  dashingly  calls  them  "  glittering  generalities."  Another 
bluntly  calls  them  "  self-evident  lies."  And  others  insidiously  argue  that 
they  apply  to  "  superior  races."  These  expressions,  differing  in  form,  are 
identical  in  object  and  effect  —  the  supplanting  of  the  principles  of  free 
government,  and  restoring  those  of  classification,  caste,  and  legitimacy. 
They  would  delight  a  convocation  of  crowned  heads,  plotting  against  the 
people.  They  are  the  vanguard,  the  miners  and  sappers  of  returning 
despotism.  We  must  repulse  them,  or  they  will  subjugate  us.  .  .  . 
Those  who  deny  freedom  to  others  deserve  it  not  for  themselves,  and,  un- 
der a  just  God,  cannot  long  retain  it.  All  honor  to  Jefferson  —  to  the 
man  who,  in  the  concrete  pressure  of  a  struggle  for  national  independence 
by  a  single  people,  had  the  coolness,  forecast,  and  capacity  to  introduce 
into  a  merely  revolutionary  document  an  abstract  truth,  applicable  to  all 
men  and  all  times,  and  so  to  embalm  it  there  that  to-day  and  all  coming 
days  it  shall  be  a  rebuke  and  a  stumbling-block  to  the  very  harbingers 
of  reappearing  tyranny  and  oppression. 

Abraham  Lincoln, 
Extract  from  a  letter  written  to  H.  L.  Pierce  and  Others,  Springfield,  111., 

April  6,  1859. 


CHAPTER  I 
AMERICAN    IDEALS 

the  last  chapter  we  called  attention  to  the  indis- 
putable fact  that  when  nations  or  individuals  ceased 
to  live  up  to  the  level  of  their  ideals  they  were  under- 
going moral  disintegration.     A  nation  like  Russia, 
with  ideals  so  far  below  those  of  the  best  Americans 
======_^  that  we  find  it  difficult  even  to  understand  them, 

may  yet,  by  conscientiously  seeking  to  rise  to  the  level  of  those  ideals, 
be  moving  in  the  right  direction  and  progressing,  however  slowly, 
toward  the  light.  On  the  other  hand,  a  country  like  the  United 
States,  originally  founded  on  the  noblest  political  conceptions  then 
known  to  the  human  race,  and  possessing  to-day  ideals  only  excelled 
by  a  few  relatively  small  communities,  may,  by  its  falling  ever  far- 
ther and  farther  away  from  its  high  standards,  demonstrate  to  all 
who  have  eyes  to  see  that  it  is  traveling  in  the  wrong  direction,  and 
is  on  the  down-hill  road  leading  straight  to  moral,  political  and  social 
degeneration  and  decay. 

We  cannot  emphasise  this  point  too  strongly,  since  all  the  great 
civilisations  of  the  past,  like  those  of  Greece  and  Rome,  have  fallen 
through  just  this  failure  to  see,  while  yet  there  was  time,  that  the 
thing  of  paramount  importance  was  not  the  degree  of  civilisation 
they  had  achieved  relative  to  other  countries,  but  the  direction  in 
which  they  were  going  relative  to  their  own  attainments.  It  was 
not  whether  the  Romans  were  more  civilised  and  had  wider  liberty  than 
their  northern  barbarian  neighbors,  but  rather  whether  Roman  civil- 
isation and  Roman  liberty  were  increasing  or  decreasing.  All  civil- 
isations fall  inward, —  collapse,  as  it  were,  from  internal  decay.  When 
they  have  become  sufficiently  rotten  they  are  used  as  fertiliser  for 
their  growing  and  evolving  neighbors.  National  health  finds  a  per- 
fect parallel  in  physical  health,  and  the  following  illustration  shows 
the  right  and  the  wrong  method  of  diagnosis.  Smith  begins  to  look 
into  his  physical  condition.  On  January  1st,  he  finds  himself,  as  he 
calls  it,  "  a  little  off  color,"  and  sets  about  to  right  matters.  On 
February  1st,  he  doesn't  console  himself  with  the  reflection  that  his 
Russian  neighbor  is  so  much  worse  off  that  the  doctor  has  given 
him  up.  Nothing  of  the  sort.  He  compares  his  February  condi- 
tion with  that  of  January,  finds  his  weight,  color,  temperature,  pulse, 
appetite,  etc.,  nearer  the  ideal  thing  and  says:  "I'm  on  the  mend, 
and  if  I  can  keep  to  this  road  I'll  get  well ! n 

Jones,  on  the  contrary,  takes  but  little  care  of  himself.  He  no- 
tices, to  be  sure,  that  he  is  losing  flesh,  but  he  dismisses  the  thought 
with  the  reflection  that  he  is  still  fat  in  comparison  with  the  "  living 


skeleton "  he  recently  saw  in  the  Dime  Museum.  Soon  his  friends 
begin  to  hint  that  he  would  do  well  to  look  to  his  health,  but  this 
only  draws  from  him  the  indignant  remark,  "  If  you're  looking  for 
disease  you'd  better  call  on  the  dying  Eussian  next  door.  After  you 
see  him  I  reckon  you'll  conclude  I'm  decidedly  robust."  Jones,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  say,  is  an  optimist. 

The  "  dying  Eussian  "  is  blue  and  pessimistic.  He  knows  his  case 
is  all  but  hopeless,  and  he  determines  that  he  will  not  lose  through 
carelessness  a  single  trick.  Day  by  day  he  gains  a  little.  In  a  week  he 
is  just  "holding  his  own."  In  a  month  he  is  still  very  ill,  but  is 
slowly  gaining. 

And  so  it  goes.  What  is  the  result?  This:  .Smith  gets  well 
quickly  and,  having  learned  his  lesson,  keeps  well.  The  Eussian  re- 
covers his  lost  ground  inch  by  inch,  and  is  satisfied  that  he  is  mov- 
ing in  the  right  direction.  Jones  —  Jones  is  no  more.  His  optimism, 
as  he  grew  worse  and  worse,  worked  diligently  to  find  some  other 
wretch  who  was  in  a  still  more  abject  state,  and  in  comparison  with 
whose  plight  his  own  showed  an  advantage.  Just  as  he  was  drawing 
his  last  gasp  he  hopefully  compared  his  condition  with  that  of  a 
friend  who  had  died  a  week  previously.  His  family  put  the  following 
on  his  tombstone :  "  Here  lies  an  optimist.  To  the  very  end  he  cheer- 
fully proclaimed  his  perfect  health;  Stranger,  go  thou  and  do  like- 
wise." 

To  the  Eussian  this  was  very  ambiguous.  He  has  but  a  limited 
command  of  English  and  could  not  make  out  the  significance  of  the 
word  "  optimist,"  so  he  asked  Smith  to  enlighten  him.  Smith,  how- 
ever, who  had  been  recently  reading  a  comic  paper,  only  replied: 
"  An  optimist  is  a  man  who  doesn't  care  a  hang  what  happens, —  so 
long  as  it  doesn't  happen  to  him." 

Does  it  not  behoove  us  as'  a  nation  to  diagnose  our  condition  after 
Smith's  plan  rather  than  after  Jones's?  There  is  no  other  way  to 
tell  whether  we  are  advancing  or  degenerating.  It  is  clearly  folly  for 
us  to  seek  to  determine  this  question  by  measuring  our  country 
against  a  standard  which,  in  the  first  place,  has,  so  far  as  we  are  con- 
cerned, no  significance  whatsoever,  and  which,  in  the  second  place, 
rises  and  falls  from  inherent  causes  of  its  own  in  which  we  do  not 
participate.  As  well  seek  to  measure  apples  in  terms  of  chairs. 

Such  being  the  case  let  us  briefly  consider  those  priceless  bequests 
of  our  forefathers  which  constitute  the  highest  ideals  ever  put  in 
practice  in  our  country,  to  the  end  that  later  we  may  ascertain 
whether  our  present  course  be  toward  or  away  from  those  grand 
models,  for  which  they  gave  so  freely  of  their  blood  and  treasure. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  contains  these  words :  "  We  hold 
these  truths  to  be  self-evident  —  that  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that 
they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  That 
to  secure  these  rights  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving 
their  just  powers  from  the  consen't  of  the  governed;  that  when  any 
form  of  government  becomes  destructive  to  these  ends  it  is  the  right 
of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new  govern- 
ment, laying  its  foundation  on  such  principles,  and  organising  its 
8  113 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their 
safety  and  happiness." 

From  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  we  extract  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more 
perfect  Union,  establish  Justice,  insure  domestic  Tranquillity,  provide 
for  the  common  defence,  promote  the  general  Welfare,  and  secure  the 
Blessings  of  Liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and 
establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America." 

Apropos  of  the  President's  oath  of  office,  Art.  II.,  Sec.  I.,  is  the 
following : 

"Before  he  enter  on  the  execution  of  his  office  he  shall  take  the 
following  oath  or  affirmation: 

'I  do  solemnly  swear  (or  affirm)  that  I  will  faithfully  execute 
the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  and  will,  to  the  best  of 
my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Cbnstitution  of  the 
United  .States/  " 

Art.  II.,  Section  2,  provides  that  the  President  "  shall  have  power, 
by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  to  make  treaties, 
provided  two-thirds  of  the  Senators  present  concur,  etc." 

Art.  IV.,  Section  4.  "  The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every 
State  in  this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  pro- 
tect each  of  them  against  invasion,  and,  on  application  of  the  Legis- 
lature or  of  the  Executive,  (when  the  Legislature  cannot  be  con- 
vened,) against  domestic  violence." 

Art.  VI.  "...  This  Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  and  all 
treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be  made,  under  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land;  and  the  Judges 
in  every  -State  shall  be  bound  thereby,  anything  in  the  Constitution  or 
laws  in  any  State  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding." 

Amendments.  Art.  I.  (1791).  "Congress  shall  make  no  law  re- 
specting an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise 
thereof;  or  abridging  the  freedom  of  speech,  or  of  the  press;  or  the 
right  of  the  people  peaceably  to  assemble,  and  to  petition  the  govern- 
ment for  a  redress  of  grievances." 

Article  V.  (1791).  "No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capi- 
tal or  otherwise  infamous  crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indict- 
ment of  a  Grand  Jury,  except  in  cases  arising  in  the  land  or  naval 
forces,  or  in  the  militia  when  in  actual  service  in  time  of  war  or 
public  danger;  nor  shall  any  person  be  subject  for  the  same  offence 
to  be  twice  put  in  jeopardy  of  life  or  limb ;  nor  shall  he  be  compelled 
in  any  criminal  case  to  be  a  witness  against  himself,  nor  be  deprived 
of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law ;  nor  shall  pri- 
vate property  be  taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation." 

Our  fathers,  imbued  with  the  same  desire  to  guarantee  life,  liberty 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  upon  a  basis  of  justice  and  equality, 
still  further  amended  the  constitution. 

Article  XIII.,  (1865),  Section  I.  "Neither  slavery  nor  involun- 
tary servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the  party 

114 


AMERICAN    IDEALS 

shall  be  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any 
place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction." 

Article  XV.,  (1870),  Section  I.  "The  right  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United 
States,  or  by  any  State,  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  con- 
dition of  servitude." 

Section  2.  "  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  article  by 
appropriate  legislation." 

The  above  extracts  show  in  no  uncertain  way  the  purposes  of  those 
who  drafted  them.  There  is  no  official  record  in  existence  of  the 
same  -length  which  is  so  typical  of  their  intent.  We  have  selected 
the  extracts  for  this  reason,  and  because  they  afford  an  easy  means  of 
showing  whether  or  not  we  are  receding  from  the  ideals  they  express. 

In  his  "Democracy  in  America"  De  Tocqueville  says,  (Vol.  I.,  p. 
242),  "  The  policy  of  America  owes  its  rise  to  Washington,  and  after 
him  to  Jefferson,  who  established  those  principles  which  it  observes 
at  the  present  day." 

Some  of  the  ideals  which  the  "  father  of  his  country  "  bequeathed 
to  his  children  find  expression  in  the  following  extracts  from  the  let- 
ter which  he  addressed  to  his  fellow  citizens :  "  If  we  remain  one  peo- 
ple, under  an  efficient  government,  the  period  is  not  far  off  when  we 
may  defy  material  injury  from  external  annoyance;  when  we  may 
take  such  an  attitude  as  will  cause  the  neutrality  we  may  at  any  time 
resolve  upon  to  be  scrupulously  respected;  when  belligerent  nations, 
under  the  impossibility  of  making  acquisitions  upon  us,  will  not 
lightly  hazard  the  giving  us  provocation;  when  we  may  choose  peace 
•  or  war,  as  our  interest,  guided  by  justice,  shall  counsel.  Why  forego 
the  advantages  of  so  peculiar  a  situation?  Why  quit  our  own  to 
stand  upon  foreign  ground?  .  .  . 

"  It  is  our  true  policy  to  steer  clear  of  permanent  alliances  with 
any  portion  of  the  foreign  world;  so  far,  I  mean,  as  we  are  now  at 
liberty  to  do  it;  for  let  me  not  be  understood  as  capable  of  patroniz- 
ing infidelity  to  existing  engagements.  I  hold  the  maxim  no  less 
applicable  to  public  than  to  private  affairs,  that  honesty  is  always 
the  best  policy.  I  repeat  it,  therefore,  let  those  engagements  be  ob- 
served in  their  genuine  sense;  but  in  my  opinion  it  is  unnecessary, 
and  would  be  unwise,  to  extend  them." 

In  another  part  of  the  same  letter  he  wrote :  "  The  nation  which 
indulges  toward  another  an  habitual  hatred  or  an  habitual  fondness 
is  in  some  degree  a  slave.  It  is  a  slave  to  its  animosity  or  to  its  af- 
fection, either  of  which  is  sufficient  to  lead  it  astray  from  its  duty 
and  its  interest." 

Though  Washington  owned  slaves  he  resolved  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  life  "  never  to  obtain  another  slave,  and  '  wished  from  his  soul ' 
that  his  State  could  be  persuaded  to  abolish  slavery;  'it  might  pre- 
vent much  future  mischief/  " 

In  his  first  inaugural  address  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  father  of 
American  Democracy  and  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
said: 

"  Error  of  opinion  may  be  tolerated  where  reason  is  left  free  to 
combat  it.  ...  Equal  and  exact  justice,  to  all  men,  of  what- 

115 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

ever  state  or  persuasion,  religious  or  political ;  peace,  commerce,  and 
honest  friendship  with  all  nations, —  entangling  alliances  with  none; 
the  support  of  the  State  governments  in  all  their  rights,  as  the  most 
competent  administrations  for  our  domestic  concerns,  and  the  surest 
bulwarks  against  anti-republican  tendencies;  the  preservation  of  the 
general  government  in  its  whole  constitutional  vigour,  as  the  sheet 
anchor  of  our  peace  at  home  and  safety  abroad;  .  .  .  freedom 
of  religion;  freedom  of  the  press;  freedom  of  person  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  habeas  corpus;  and  trial  by  juries  impartially  se- 
lected,—  these  principles  form  the  bright  constellation  which  has 
gone  before  us,  and  guided  our  steps  through  an  age  of  revolution 
and  reformation." 

In  a  conversation  with  Baron  Humboldt,  in  1807,  he  gave  utter- 
ance to  this  oft-quoted  dictum  of  democracy :  "  When  a  man  assumes 
a  public  trust,  he  should  consider  himself  as  public  property." 

He  referred  to  virtue  and  talents  as  constituting  a  "natural  aris- 
tocracy .  .  .  the  most  precious  gift  of  nature,  for  the  instruc- 
tion, the  trust  and  the  government  of  society,"  while  he  characterised 
the  artificial  aristocracy  as  "  founded  on  wealth  and  birth,  without 
either  virtue  or  talents,"  and  called  it  "  a  mischievous  ingredient  in 
government." 

Eegarding  the  acceptance  of  gifts  by  servants  'of  the  people  he 
wrote  in  1808 :  "  On  coming  into  public  office,  I  laid  it  down  as  a 
law  of  my  conduct,  while  I  should  continue  in  it,  to  accept  no  present 
of  any  sensible  pecuniary  value.  .  .  .  .  Things  of  sensible  value, 
however  innocently  offered  in  the  first  examples,  may  grow  at  length 
into  abuse,  for  which  I  wish  not  to  furnish  a  precedent." 

In  referring  to  the  New  England  town-meeting,  Jefferson  declared 
it  to  be  "  the  wisest  invention  ever  devised  by  the  wit  of  man  for  the 
perfect  exercise  of  self-government  and  for  its  preservation." 

When  one  reads  the  following  they  can  scarcely  fail  to  accredit 
the  greatest  of  democrats  with  the  gift  of  seership :  "  The  executive 
power  in  our  government  is  not  the  only,  perhaps  not  even  the  princi- 
pal, object  of  my  solicitude.  The  tyranny  of  the  legislature  is  really 
the  danger  most  to  be  feared,  and  will  continue  to  be  so  for  many 
years  to  come.  The  tyranny,  of  the  executive  power  will  come  in  its 
turn,  but  at  a  more  distant  period." 

Like  Washington  Jefferson  owned  slaves,  though  it  does  not  appear 
that'  he  ever  acquired  any  by  purchase  and  as  an  investment.  He  was 
the  first  English-speaking  statesman  who  had  sufficient  foresight  to 
see  the  terrible  menace  of  slavery  and  to  warn  his  countrymen  against 
it.  Publicly  and  privately  he  condemned  the  practice,  saying  in  his 
Notes  on  Virginia :  "  Indeed  I  tremble  for  my  country  when  I  reflect 
that  God  is  just;  that  His  justice  cannot  sleep  forever;  that,  consid- 
ering numbers,  nature  and  natural  means  only,  a  revolution  of  the 
wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of  situation,  is  among  possible  events ; 
that  it  may  become  probable  by  supernatural  interference.  The  Al- 
mighty has  no  attribute  that  can  take  sides  with  us  in  such  a  eon- 
test." 

In  the  report  he  drafted  of  a  plan  for  the  government  of  the^  vast 
territory  lying  to  the  north-west  of  the  Ohio  river,  was  this-  provision 

116 


AMERICAN    IDEALS 

which  was  adopted  and  which  was  destined  many  years  later  to  pre- 
cipitate a  rebellion  of  far  vaster  proportions  than  that  which  he 
had  so  recently  helped  to  bring  to  a  successful  conclusion :  "  That 
after  the  year  1800  of  the  Christian  era  there  shall  be  neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude  in  any  of  the  said  states,  otherwise  than 
in  punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  be  duly  convicted 
to  have  been  personally  guilty." 

The  death  of  this  great  American  was  sufficiently  remarkable  to 
warrant  passing  notice.  It  occurred  July  4th,  182G,  while  the  nation 
was  celebrating  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, which  he  had  written,  and  almost  at  the  same  hour  at 
which  John  Adams,  the  second  president,  who  had  signed  with  him 
the  Declaration,  was  breathing  his  last  in  New  England. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
was  one  of  the  greatest  men  America  ever  produced.  In  1782  he 
wrote,  "  In  America  people  do  not  ask,  '  What  is  he  ? '  but  '  What 
can  he  do?" 

Speaking  of  social  conditions  in  the  United  States  Franklin  said: 
"  The  truth  is  that  though  there  are  in  that  country  few  people  so 
miserable  as  the  poor  of  Europe,  there  are  also  very  few  that  in 
Europe  would  be  called  very  rich ;  it  is  rather  a  happy  mediocrity  that 
prevails.  There  are  few  great  proprietors  of  the  soil  and  few  ten- 
ants. Most  people  cultivate  their  own  lands,  or  follow  some  handi- 
craft or  merchandise,  and  few  are  rich  enough  to  live  idly  upon  their 
rents  and  incomes." 

In  his  "  Information  to  those  who  would  remove  to  America," 
Franklin  says :  "  Much  less  is  it  advisable  for  a  person  to  go  thither, 
who  has  no  other  quality  to  recommend  him  but  his  birth.  In  Eu- 
rope it  has  indeed  its  value;  but  it  is  a  commodity  that  cannot  be 
carried  to  a  worse  market  than  to  that  of  America,  where  people 
do  not  enquire  concerning  a  stranger,  'What  is  he?'  but  'What  can 
he  do?'  If  he  has  any  useful  art,  he  is  welcome ;  and  if  he  exercises 
it,  and  behaves  well,  he  will  be  respected  by  all  that  know  him;  but 
a  mere  man  of  quality,  who  on  that  account  wants  to  live  upon  the 
public  by  some  office  or  salary,  will  be  despised  and  disregarded.  The 
husbandman  is  in  honour  there,  and  even  the  mechanic,  because  their 
employments  are  useful.  The  people  have  a  saying,  that  God  Al- 
mighty is  himself  a  mechanic,  the  greatest  in  the  Universe;  and  he 
is  respected  and  admired  more  for  the  variety,  ingenuity,  and  utility  of 
his  handiworks,  than  for  the  antiquity  of  his  family.  They  are  pleased 
with  the  observation  of  a  negro  and  frequently  mention  it,  that  '  Boc- 
carora  (meaning  the  white  man)  make  de  black  man  workee,  make  de 
horse  workee,  make  de  ox  workee,  make  eberyting  workee ;  only  de  hog. 
He  de  hog,  no  workee,  he  eat,  he  drink,  he  walk  about,  he  go  to  sleep 
when  he  please;  he  libb  like  a  gentleman/  According  to  these  opin- 
ions of  the  Americans,  one  of  them  would  think  himself  more  obliged 
to  a  genealogist,  who  could  prove  for  him  that  his  ancestors  and 
relations  for  ten  generations  had  been  plowmen,  smiths,  carpenters, 
turners,  weavers,  tanners,  or  even  shoemakers,  and  consequently  that 
they  were  useful  members  of  society,  than  if  he  could  only  prove  that 
they  were  gentlemen,  doing  nothing  of  value,  but  living  idly  on  the 

117 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

labour  of  others,  mere  fruges  consumers  nati*  and  otherwise  good 
for  nothing,  till  by  their  deaths  their  estates,  like  the  carcass  of  the 
negro's  gentleman-hog,  come  to  be  cut  up." 

The  following  brief  quotations  give  us  a  hint  at  Franklin's  ideals 
upon  important  subjects: 

"They  that  can  give  up  essential  liberty  to  obtain  a  little  tempo- 
rary safety  deserve  neither  liberty  nor  safety." 

"  Idleness  and  pride  tax  with  a  heavier  hand  than  Kings  and  par- 
liaments. If  we  can  get  rid  of  the  former,  we  may  easily  bear  the 
latter." 

"  There  never  was  a  good  war  or  a  bad  peace." 

"  Finally,  there  seem  to  be  but  three  ways  for  a  nation  to  acquire 
wealth.  The  first  is  by  war,  as  the  Romans  did,  in  plundering  their 
conquered  neighbours.  This  is  robbery. —  The  second  by  commerce, 
which  is  generally  cheating. —  The  third  by  agriculture,  the  only 
honest  way,  wherein  man  receives  a  real  increase  of  the  seed  thrown 
into  the  ground,  in  a  kind  of  continual  miracle  wrought  by  the  hand 
of  God  in  his  favor,  as  a  reward  for  his  innocent  life,  and  his  virtuous 
industry." 

"  It  was  an  excellent  saying  of  a  certain  Chinese  emperor,  '  /  will, 
if  possible,  have  no  idleness  in  my  dominions;  for  if  there  be  one 
man  idle,  some  one  must  suffer  cold  or  hunger.'  We  take  this  em- 
peror's meaning  to  be,  that  the  labor  due  to  the  public  by  each  indi- 
vidual, not  being  performed  by  the  indolent,  must  naturally  fall  to 
the  share  of  others,  who  must  thereby  suffer." 

Like  Jefferson,  Franklin  was  opposed  to  slavery.  He  helped  to 
organise  and  was  president  of  the  first  society  formed  on  this  conti- 
ment, —  or  elsewhere,  so  far  as  we  are  aware, —  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  and  as  its  president  wrote  and  signed  the  first  remonstrance 
against  slavery  addressed  to  the  American  •  Congress. 

His  wisdom,  sagacity  and  prophetic  vision  were  such  that  the 
world  has  not  yet  ceased  to  marvel  at  them.  His  writings  are  as 
readable  to-day  as  when  they  were  first  written. 

When  advocating  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  Madison 
wrote:  "Justice  is  the  end  of  government.  It  is  the  end  of  civil 
society.  It  ever  has  been  and  ever  will  be  pursued,  until  it  be  ob- 
tained, or  until  liberty  be  lost  in  the  pursuit." 

The  neutral  policy  of  the  United  States  upon  which  her  greatest 
statesmen  had  been  so  insistent  had  been  established  with  great  diffi- 
culty. This  was  adopted  in  order  to  prevent  the  United  States  from 
meddling  in  European  affairs.  So  firmly  was  this  sentiment  estab- 
lished that  James  Munroe  felt  constrained  in  his  seventh  annual 
message,  Dec.  2,  1823,  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  well-known 
policy  by  which  the  United  States  was  to  mind  its  own  business,  as  it 
were,  and  not  interfere  with  Europe,  carried  with  it,  as  a  necessary 
corollary,  the  dictum  that  Europe  must  not  interfere  with  American 
politics  either  in  North  or  South  America.  This  is  known  as  the 
"  Munroe  Doctrine."  In  asserting  it  President  Munroe  declared  that 
"  we  would  not  view  any  intervention  for  the  purpose  of  oppressing 

*  Born,  merely  to  eat  up  the  corn. 

118 


AMERICAN    IDEALS 

them  (the  Spanish  American  states)  or  controlling  in  any  manner 
their  destiny,  by  any  European  power,  in  any  other  light  than  as  the 
manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposition  towards  the  United 
States." 

Further  President  Munroe  said :  "  In  the  wars  of  the  European 
powers  in  matters  relating  to  themselves  we  have  never  taken  any 
part;  nor  does  it  comport  with  our  policy  to  do  so.  It  is  only  when 
our  rights  are  invaded  or  seriously  menaced  that  we  resent  injuries, 
or  make  preparation  for  our  defence." 

Said  Patrick  Henry :  "  Happy  will  you  be  if  you  miss  the  fate  of 
those  nations,  who,  omitting  to  resist  their  oppressors,  or  negligently 
suffering  their  liberty  to  be  wrested  from  them,  have  groaned  under 
intolerable  despotism.  Most  of  the  human  race  are  now  in  this  de- 
plorable condition." 

Elsewhere  he  said:  "If  I  am  asked  what  is  to  be  done  when  a 
people  feel  themselves  intolerably  oppressed,  my  answer  is  ready, 
'  Overturn  the  government.' " 

Writing  of  Property,  James  Madison,  the  fourth  President  of  the 
United  States,  says,  "  In  its  larger  and  juster  meaning,  it  embraces 
everything  to  which  a  man  may  attach  a  value  and  have  a  right,  and 
which  leaves  to  every  one  else  the  like  advantage" 

In  another  part  of  the  same  essay  he  says,  "  That  is  not  a  just 
government,  nor  is  property  secure  under  it,  where  arbitrary  restric- 
tions, exemptions,  and  monopolies  deny  to  part  of  its  citizens  that 
free  use  of  their  faculties,  and  free  choice  of  their  occupations  which 
not  only  constitute  their  property  in  the  general  sense  of  the  word, 
but  are  the  means  of  acquiring  property  strictly  so  called."  .  .  . 

"  A  just  security  to  property  is  not  afforded  by  that  government, 
under  which  unequal  taxes  oppress  one  species  of  property,  and 
reward  another  species;  where  arbitrary  taxes  invade  the  domestic 
sanctuaries  of  the  rich,  and  excessive  taxes  grind  the  faces  of  the 
poor;  where  the  keenness  and  competitions  of  want  are  deemed  an 
insufficient  spur  to  labour,  and  taxes  are  again  applied  by  an  unfeeling 
policy,  as  another  spur,  in  violation  of  that  sacred  property  which 
Heaven,  in  decreeing  man  to  earn  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow, 
kindly  reserved  to  him  in  the  small  repose  that  could  be  spared  from 
the  supply  of  his  necessities." 

From  Vol.  IV.  of  "  Letters  and  Other  Writings  of  James  Madison  " 
we  extract  the  following  relative  to  the  "sedition  act,"  which  reads 
like  a  criticism  of  recent  events.  ..."  But  this  bill  contains 
other  features,  still  more  alarming  and  dangerous.  It  dispenses  with 
the  trial  by  jury ;  it  violates  the  judicial  system ;  it  confounds  legisla- 
tive, executive,  and  judicial  powers ;  it  punishes  without  trial ;  and  it 
bestows  upon  the  President  despotic  power  over  a  numerous  class  of 
men.  Are  such  measures  consistent  with  our  constitutional  princi- 
ples? And  will  an  accumulation  of  power  so  extensive  in  the  hands 
of  the  Executive,  over  aliens,  secure  to  natives  the  blessings  of  re- 
publican liberty  ? 

"  If  measures  can  mould  governments,  and  if  an  uncontrolled  power 
of  construction  is  surrendered  to  those  who  administer  them,  their 
progress  may  be  easily  foreseen,  and  their  end  easily  foretold.  A 

119 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

lover  of  monarchy,  who  opens  the  treasures  of  corruption  by  dis- 
tributing emolument  among  devoted  partisans,  may  at  the  same 
time  be  approaching  his  object  and  deluding  the  people  with  pro- 
fessions of  republicanism.  He  may  confound  monarchy  and  republi- 
canism, by  the  art  of  definition.  He  may  varnish  over  the  dexterity 
which  ambition  never  fails  to  display,  with  the  pliancy  of  language, 
the  seduction  of  expediency,  or  the  prejudices  of  the  times;  and  he 
may  come  at  length  to  avow  that  so  extensive  a  territory  as  that  of 
the  United  States  can  only  be  governed  by  the  energies  of  monarchy ; 
that  it  cannot  be  defended,  except  by  standing  armies;  and  that  it 
cannot  be  united  except  by  consolidation/' 

We  extract  the  following  from  a  letter  by  John  Adams  to  Samuel 
Adams  dated  Oct.  18,  1790:  "I  am  willing  to  agree  with  you  in 
fancying,  that  the  greatest  improvements  of  society  and  government 
will  be  in  the  Republican  form.  It  is  a  fixed  principle  with  me  that 
all  good  government  is  and  must  be  republican.  But,  at  the  same 
time,  your  candor  will  agree  with  me  that  there  is  not,  in  lexicog- 
raphy, a  more  fraudulent  word.  Whenever  I  use  the  word  republic, 
with  approbation,  I  mean  a  government  in  which  the  people  have, 
collectively,  or  by  representation,  an  essential  share  in  the  sover- 
eignty." 

Elsewhere  he  says :  "  If  there  is  one  certain  truth  to  be  collected 
from  the  history  of  all  ages,  it  is  this;  that  the  people's  rights  and 
liberties  and  the  democratical  mixture  in  a  constitution  can  never 
be  preserved  without  a  strong  executive,  or,  in  other  words,  without 
separating  the  executive  from  the  legislative  power.  If  the  executive 
power,  or  any  considerable  part  of  it  is  left  in  the  hands  either  of 
an  aristocratical  or  democratical  assembly,  it  will  corrupt  the  legisla- 
ture as  necessarily  as  rust  corrupts  iron,  or  as  arsenic  poisons  the 
human  body;  and  when  the  legislature  is  corrupted,  the  people  are 
undone." 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  that  our  forefathers  had  a  much 
saner  fear  of  autocracy  and  bureaucracy  than  the  general  public  has 
to-day,  in  spite  of  our  boasted  educational  attainments  and  our  so- 
called  advanced  civilisation.  Referring  to  England's  government  of 
India  and  its  results,  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Eussell  says,  in  his  ex- 
cellent article  entitled  "  Soldiers  of  the  Common  Good,"  in  "  Every- 
body's Magazine  "  for  June,  1906 :  "  These  are  the  fruits  of  autoc- 
racy; even  when  autocracy  is  at  its  best  and  most  enlightened,  these 
are  the  fruits.  It  may  be  freely  admitted  that  the  gentlemen  that 
have  administered  the  affairs  of  India  have  been  very  wise  gentle- 
men, very  learned,  virtuous,  conscientious,  and  the  rest.  Their  chief 
duty  has  been  to  govern  India  for  England's  benefit;  their  allegiance 
to  their  duty  has  been  without  a  flaw.  Very  likely  many  of  them 
have  been  desirous  also  of  good  for  India.  These  have  done  the  best 
they  could  do  under  the  form  of  government  allowed  to  them;  but 
whether  in  Russia,  or  in  Finland,  or  in  India,  or  in  Philadelphia, 
that  form  of  government  produces  nothing  but  failure.  To  admit 
low,  common  persons  to  a  share  in  the  government  may  give  pain  to 
those  of  superior  intellect,  but  seems  to  have  ponderable  advantage 
in  the  way  of  preventing  tax-gouging,  land-robbery,  revenue-waste, 

120 


famines,  plague,  and  cholera.  Moreover,  there  is  the  invariable  testi- 
mony of  history  that  those  of  superior  intellect  have  made  a  hash  of 
government  whenever  they  have*  secured  its  exclusive  control.  Being 
a  very  wise  person  I  know  exactly  what  would  be  good  for  my  neigh- 
bor and  could  administer  his  affairs  most  admirably  (and  to  my  own 
profit) .  But  the  devil  of  that  is,  the  obstinate  beast  will  not  do  what 
I  tell  him  to  do.  Of  course  I  can  get  some  Lee-Metfords,  if  I  be  an 
Englishman,  or  some  Krag-Jorgensens,  if  I  be  an  American,  and' 
prove  the  strength  of  my  position  by  shooting  holes  into  him  and  his 
family.  But  there  again  the  signs  multiply  that  he  does  not  like  to  be 
shot  full  of  holes  and  may  even  some  day  retort  upon  me  with  the 
same  convincing  arguments,  which  would  be  extremely  disagreeable. 
On  the  whole  then  it  seems  best  to  let  him  manage  his  own  affairs  in 
his  own  fashion  —  particularly  as  I  have  a  lurking  suspicion  that 
after  all  his  way  is  quite  as  likely  to  prove  right  as  is  my  own. 

"The  people  of  India  have  no  chance.  They  never  had  a  chance. 
They  have  no  share  in  their  government.  They  never  had  a  share  in 
their  government.  The  idea  of  the  Common  Good  has  never  been 
even  rudimentary  among  them.  For  two  thousand  years  they  have 
been  the  vassals  of  one  form  of  autocracy  or  another,  of  one  adminis- 
tration or  another  that  has  sought  for  their  own  good  (and  others') 
to  exploit  them.  In  the  old  days  they'  were  the  physical  slaves  of 
conquerors.  In  our  day  they  are  the  political  slaves  of  a  benevolent 
despotism,  enchained  by  custom  and  an  enforced  habit  of  mind.  Of 
our  own  race  and  blood  they  are  the  least  efficient  of  civilised  peoples. 
In  seventeen  hundred  years  no  Hindu  has  discovered  anything,  in- 
vented anything,  learned  anything,  or  made  anything  that  has  con- 
tributed to  the  world's  available  store  or  that  anybody  cares  to  re- 
member. Nothing  worth  a  moment's  consideration  ever  came  from 
slaves.  It  is  only  the  free  peoples  that  have  forwarded  the  progress 
of  mankind.  As  the  Hindus  are  now  they  were  a  thousand  years 
ago.  As  they  were  a  thousand  years  ago,  so,  without  democracy, 
they  will  be  a  thousand  years  hence. 

"  If  the  gloomy  forecast  of  Mr.  Wells  and  an  oft-heard  prediction 
are  correct  and  the  Western  world  is  reverting  to  an  autocracy  with 
wealth  as  the  new  expression  of  Power  and  corruption  as  its  instru- 
ment, here  is  the  nation  of  all  on  earth  for  us  to  study.  Here  .we 
may  see  compendiously,  spread  out  before  us,  in  mass  and  in  detail, 
the  vast  and  multifold  evils  that  come  of  such  a  system.  For  Au- 
tocracy is  at  heart  one  thing  and  the  same,  always,  inevitably,  every- 
where, whether  it  work  with  the  sword  of  Akbar  or  the  corruption 
fund  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company." 

We  are  wont  to  think  that  our  most  advanced  ideas  are  of  strictly 
modern  and  recent  origin  and  we  are  not  a  little  jostled  when  we 
find  that  the  most  celebrated  "  Irish  bulls  "  date  back  to  the  Greeks, 
some  of  them  being  at  least  250  years  older  than  the  New  Testament, 
and  as  we  pursue  some  of  them  still  further  we  find  that  the  Greeks 
borrowed  them  of  the  ancient  Egyptians. 

In  like  manner  we  find  many  of  our  more  advanced  economical 
views  are  merely  revivals  in  one  form  or  another  of  ideas  which  were 
clearly  understood  in  the  day  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  Many  are  sur- 

121 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

prised  to  learn  that  the  ever-growing  distrust  of  the  righteousness 
of  interest  was  shared  by  the  ancients.  This  ignorance,  however,  is 
easily  explained,  since  the  ancients  ealled  interest  "usury,"  a. term 
which  the  modern  uses  to  signify  extortionate  interest.  Among  the 
ancients  it  meant  simply  interest  of  any  kind,  not  extortionate  inter- 
est. For  centuries  the  Catholic  Church  fulminated  against  "  usury  " 
and  used  that  term  in  its  ancient  sense  of  interest  of  any  kind. 

Even  physical  science  exhibits  traces  of  atavism,  although  it  must 
be  admitted  that  it  has  shown  a  more  systematically  forward  move- 
ment than  any  other  department  of  knowledge.  No  one  can  read 
the  writings  of  Benjamin  Franklin  for  the  first  time,  without  being 
thoroughly  astonished  at  their  up-to-date  tone  —  nay,  more,  the 
thought  of  Franklin  is  still  far  ahead  of  our  present  attainments 
eagerly  beckoning  us  on.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Humboldt,  Mill, 
arid  many  others  who  could  easily  be  mentioned.  Consider  for  a  mo* 
ment  how  far  in  advance  of  the  mass  of  public  opinion  are  these 
thoughts,  taken  from  John  Stuart  Mill's  autobiography :  "  Our  ideal 
of  ultimate  improvement  went  far  beyond  democracy,  and  would  class 
us  decidedly  under  the  general  name  of  socialists.  .  .  .  The  so- 
cial problem  of  the  future  we  considered  to  be  how  to  unite  the  great- 
est liberty  of  action  with  a  common  ownership  in  the  raw  material 
of  the  globe,  and  an  equal  participation  of  all  the  benefits  of  combined 
labour." 

Mill  was  a  man  of  marvellous  powers,  equipped  with  the  very  best 
economic  training  which  his  day  afforded.  Fearless  in  his  utterances, 
sober  and  careful  in  his  deductions  and  logical  to  a  degree  to  which 
few  men  have  ever  been  logical.  A  profound  lover  of  liberty,  he  was 
unremittingly  watchful  and  uncompromisingly  critical  of  anything 
and  everything  which  threatened  the  freedom  of  the  individual.  He 
objected  to  our  present  social  system  because  he  believed  the  real  free- 
dom of  most  individuals  was  in  imminent  danger.  There  is  no  un- 
certain ring  in  the  conclusion  which  he  gives  us  in  these  words: 
"  Between  communism  with  all  its  chances,  and  the  present  state  of 
society  with  all  its  sufferings  and  injustices,  ...  all  the  diffi- 
culties great  or  small  of  communism  would  be  but  as  dust  in  the 
balance." 

Dealing  with  the  question  of  social  ultimates  the  same  brilliant 
philosopher  says :  "  The  form  of  association,  however,  which,  if  man- 
kind continues  to  improve,  must  be  expected  in  the  end  to  predomi- 
nate, is  not  that  which  can  exist  between  a  capitalist  as  chief  and 
work-people  without  a  voice  in  Hie  management,  but  the  association 
of  the  laborers  themselves  on  terms  of  equality,  collectively  owning 
the  capital  with  which  they  carry  on  their  operations,  and  working 
under  managers  selected  and  removable  by  themselves." 

We  could  go  on  indefinitely  giving  testimony  to  the  high  political 
and  social  ideals  of  our  forefathers  and  of  the  great  men  who  have 
followed  them,  but  enough  has  already  been  written  to  show  that  they 
were  thoroughly  imbued  with  sentiments  of  liberty,  equality  and 
fraternity.  No  one  who  peruses  their  writings  can  fail  to  perceive 
that  they  did  not  believe  in  class-distinctions  and  that  they  had  a 
much  juster  estimate  of  individual  character  and  worth  than  gen- 

122 


AMERICAN    IDEALS 

erally  obtains  at  the  present  time.  The  genealogical  tree,  if  it  could 
not  be  hewn  into  useful  timber,  was  considered  of  no  account,  and 
they  had  a  delightfully  blunt  way  of  judging  a  man  by  the  service  he 
rendered.  The  richest  man  in  the  Colonies  was  George  Washington, 
whose  estate  was  computed  to  be  worth  three-quarters  of  a  million 
dollars,  yet,  when  he  was  president,  Martha  Washington,  his  wife, 
wore  gowns  spun  under  her  own  roof.  John  Hancock,  reputed  to  be 
the  richest  man  in  Massachusetts  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  was 
probably  not  worth  more  than  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars. 

In  those  days  there  was  not  a  large  loafing  class  which  considered 
itself,  because  of  its  very  unproductiveness,  the  salt  of  the  earth. 
Work  was  the  rule  in  all  circles. 

Franklin  was  a  printer,  Washington  a  surveyor,  Jefferson,  John 
Adams,  James  Munroe,  Patrick  Henry,  John  Jay,  Robert  Treat 
Paine,  Richard  Stockton  and  John  Penn,  lawyers,  John  Hancock  and 
Philip  Livingston,  merchants,  James  Madison  (for  the  last  twenty 
years  of  his  life)  and  "  Honest  John  Hart,"  farmers,  and  John  Paul 
Jones,  a  sailor. 

The  following  words  of  Jefferson  speak  volumes  for  our  early 
social  conditions  and  ideals:  "From  Savannah  (Georgia)  to  Ports- 
mouth (New  Hampshire)  you  will  seldom  meet  a  beggar.  In  the 
large  towns,  indeed,  they  sometimes  present  themselves.  They  are 
usually  foreigners  who  have  never  obtained  a  settlement  in  any  parish. 
I  never  saw  a  native  American  begging  in  the  streets  and  highways." 

De  Tocqueville,  who  visited  America  in  the  first  third  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  pays  eloquent  tribute  to  the  sound,  sensible  and  benefi- 
cent democracy  of  the  United  States.  In  a  letter  to  his  father  he 
speaks  of  us  as  one  of  the  happiest  nations  in  the  world  and  adds: 
"  Amongst  the  novel  objects  that  attracted  my  attention  during  my 
stay  in  the  United  States,  nothing  struck  me  more  forcibly  than  the 
general  equality  of  conditions  among  the  people/' 

Commenting  on  De  Tocqueville's  observations,  Dr.  Gilman  says,  in 
his  introductory  to  the  Frenchman's  work :  "  De  Tocqueville  came 
to  this  country,  and  found  not  only  political  equality,  but  an  absence 
of  noteworthy  social  distinctions.  There  was  no  rich  class,  no  fash- 
ionable class ;  there  were  no  families  of  inherited  importance,  no  privi- 
leged people." 

Many  years  subsequent  to  De  Tocqueville's  visit,  Charles  Dickens, 
after  examining  our  social  conditions,  said:  "A  beggar  in  Boston 
would  be  like  a  flaming  sword." 

From  the  foregoing  we  may  get  a  vivid  presentiment  of  the  hopes, 
aspirations  and  attainments  of  our  country  in  the  days  of  our  fore- 
fathers. Keeping  this  in  mind,  we  are  now  qualified  to  consider 
present  American  conditions  for  the  purpose  of  judging  if  it  be  true 
that  the  things  happening  in  the  United  .States  to-day  sustain  a  more 
sinister  ratio,  a  more  disastrous  relation  to  American  ideals  than  do 
the  occurrences  of  Russia  or  Armenia  to  the  ideals  of  those  countries. 


123 


CHAPTEE  II 


125 


I  loved  my  country  so  as  only  they 

Who  love  a  mother  fit  to  die  for  may. 

I  loved  her  old  renown,  her  stainless  fame;  — 

What  better  proof  than  that  I  loathed  her  shame? 

Lowell. 
Judges  and  Senators  have  been  bought  for  gold. 

Pope. 
Accusing  is  proving  where  malice  and  force  sit  judges. 

Proverb. 
A  corrupt  society  has  many  laws. 

Dr.  Johnson. 
Laws  grind  the  poor,  and  rich  men  rule  the  law. 

Goldsmith. 
Justice  oft  leans  to  the  side  where  the  purse  hangs. 

Danish  Proverb. 


126 


CHA'PTEK  II 

NATIONAL  CONDITIONS,  LEGISLATIVE 
AND  JUDICIAL 


0  much  has  been  said  and  written  of  late  in  regard 
to  the  corruption  of  our  legislators  and  judiciary  that 
it  seems  at  first  blush  almost  unnecessary  to  give  more 
than  a  passing  glance  at  this  part  of  our  subject. 
Such,  however,  is  far  from  being  the  case. 

In  putting  this  picture  before  our  readers  we  are 

quite  aware  we  run  a  double  risk,  first,  that  the  uninitiated  will  think 
it  very  "  pessimistic,"  and,  second,  that  the  well-informed  will  look 
upon  it  as  something  akin  to  an  attempt  to  prove  a  rotten  egg  worth- 
less. 

For  the  sake  of  those  readers,  however,  who  may  not  be  well-in- 
formed along  these  lines,  we  cite  a  few  cases  in  point,  confident  that 
these  will  be  an  all-sufficient  taste  of  the  bounteous  repast  which  might 
easily  be  afforded  them. 

Not  so  very  long  since,  if  press  reports  are  to  be  trusted,  a  senator 
stated  on  the  floor  of  the  United  States  Senate  that  he  and  his  col- 
leagues were  there  for  what  they  could  make  out  of  it. 

A  few  years  since,  when  William  Mason,  U.  S.  senator  from  Illinois, 
assayed  to  violate  the  unwritten  senatorial  law  to  the  effect  that 
"  freshman  "  senators  should  be  seen  and  not  heard,  the  august  as- 
sembly, it  is  said,  prepared  to  betake  itself  to  the  cloakroom  as  a 
means  of  disciplining  the  presumptuous  new-comer.  It  is  related 
that  they  were  summarily  checked  by  these  significant  words  cheerily 
uttered^ by  the  new  member:  "You  all  know  how  we  got  here?" 
Indeed  they  knew  so  well  the  bribery,  corruption  and  fraud  by  which 
they  had  secured  their  seats  that  they  did  not  think  it  well  to  indulge 
in  any  discourteous  disciplining  which  might  tempt  "  Billy  "  Mason, 
as  he  is  commonly  called,  to  pass  from  insinuating  generalities  to 
succinct  particulars. 

So  Mr.  Mason  was  listened  to.  He  told  his  hearers  some  very  plain 
truths,  but  it  is  said  that  nothing  in  his  speech  was  so  fetching  to  the 
Senate  "  as  the  Mephistophelean  leer,  '  You  all  know  how  we  got 
here.' " 

In  "  The  National  Magazine  "  for  May,  1906,  Mr.  Frank  Putnam 
makes  a  plea  for  the  abolition  of  the  United  States  Senate.  In  this 
he  points  out  a  few  important  facts  which,  in  his  optimism,  the  aver- 
age man  is  far  too  prone  to  forget.  He  says  in  part :  "  We  haven't 
a  king  to  rule  us  in  the  United  States,  but  we  have  the  federal  su- 
preme court  —  in  office  for  life,  and  not  responsible  to  the  people. — 
which  is  a  very  effective  substitute  for  an  absolute  monarch. 

"  Precisely  as  Hamilton  and  the  other  monarchists  in  the  constitu- 

127 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

tional  convention  intended,  the  federal  judges  are  steadily  advancing 
their  own  prerogatives  —  unmaking  good  laws  enacted  by  congress 
and  signed  by  the  president,  and  making  new,  bad  laws  by  pretend- 
ing to  read  new  meanings  into  the  constitution.  Always  these  laws 
slain  by  the  federal  court  are  laws  that  were  demanded  by  the  people 

—  the  income  tax  law  was  an  example;  always  these  usurpations  of 
the  federal  courts  are  in  the  interest  of  the  too-rich  and  the  too-power- 
ful —  witness  the  countless  injunctions  forbidding  workmen  to  exer- 
cise their  'natural  and  inalienable '  right  of  free  speech  for  self- 
preservation. 

"  Everybody  knows  now  that  the  federal  senate  is  made  up  mainly 
of  railroad  and  other  trusts'  lawyers ;  what  everybody  apparently  does 
not  yet  know,  or  realise,  is  that  the  System  —  organised  predatory 
wealth  —  is  now  relying  more  on  the  federal  courts  than  it  does  on  the 
senate.  The  System  long  since  found  it  cheaper  to  elect  senators  than 
to  buy  them  after  election  —  so  it  dismissed  the  lobby  and  seated  its 
agents  in  the  senate.  Now  that  the  senate  seems  likely  to  be  abolished 
for  its  crimes,  the  System  will  be  found  more  strongly  intrenched  in 
the  federal  court  than  it  ever  was  in  the  senate.  It  will  make  its  last 
stand  behind  the  one  bulwark  of  genuine  absolutism  possible  under 
our  government  —  the  federal  judiciary. 

"  The  people  may  purge  the  senate  of  its  trust  lawyers,  may  re- 
gain control  of  it  for  a  time,  but  it  is,  in  its  nature,  a  denial  of  the 
safety  of  really  popular  government;  and  I  predict  that  this  people 
will  in  due  time,  perhaps  a  very  short  time,  cut  it  out  of  their  gov- 
ernmental system  entirely.  As  long  as  we  retain  the  senate,  we  so 
notify  the  world  that  we  dare  not  trust  ourselves  to  enjoy  really  free 
government;  that  we  feel  the  need  of  guidance  by  a  house  of  over- 
lords, who  shall  have  power  to  deny  us  our  desires,  whenever,  in  their 
opinion,  we  ought  so  to  be  denied.  This  means,  in  practice,  when- 
ever our  desires  conflict  with  those  of  the  overlords  and  their  master 

—  the  System. 

"  The  house  of  representatives,  having  to  go  back  to  the  people  every 
two  years  for  re-election,  can  always  be  forced  to  obey  any  really  wide- 
spread public  demand ;  and,  if  Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Lincoln 
were  right,  if  we  as  a  people  really  have  enough  justice  and  humanity 
and  common  sense  in  our  brains  to  govern  ourselves,  then  the  quicker 
we  cut  out  the  house  of  lords  and  simplify  government  by  putting  it 
into  the  hands  of  a  house  of  direct  representatives  who  must  answer 
to  us  every  two  years  for  what  they  do  in  office,  the  better  for  us  all 
around." 

Writing  of  the  atrocious  land  graft,  Mr.  William  R.  Lighten  says, 
in  the  "  Boston  Transcript "  of  May  20,  1905  :  "  It  is  Congress  more 
than  any  other  branch  of  the  government  which  is  chargeable  with 
full  and  guilty  knowledge  of  this  stupendous  crime." 

The  shameful  and  despotic  methods  employed  by  Thomas  B.  Reed, 
while  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  are  too  well  known  to 
need  more  than  passing  mention..  They  earned  for  him  the  soubri- 
quet, "  Czar  Reed,"  and  should  have  secured  his  political  retirement, 
although  there  are  many  to-day  sufficiently  void  of  political  con- 
science to  speak  approvingly  of  his  autocratic  rule. 

128 


LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  CONDITIONS 

In  April,  1904,  Mr.  William  Bourke  Cochran,  the  distinguished 
orator,  repeated  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  the 
newspaper  story  to  the  effect  that  the  Presidential  election  of  1896 
was  bought  for  the  sum  of  sixteen  million  dollars.  This  insinuation, 
that  the  "  honest  money  "  campaign  was  won  by  purchase,  went  un- 
investigated.  Later,  when  Mr.  Cochran  introduced  a  bill  for  the 
creation  of  a  commission  to  investigate  the  sources  of  both  Democratic 
and  Eepublican  campaign  funds,  it  was  "sent  to  committee  and 
chloroformed.  It  was  regarded  as  too  dangerous  to  be  admitted  to 
debate  and  a  vote  in  the  House." 

The  recent  insurance  exposures  give  abundant  proof  of  political 
purchase.  The  chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  New  York 
Life  Insurance  Company,  Mr.  George  W.  Perkins,  testified  that  his 
company  gave  forty-eight  thousands  dollars  to  the  Eepublican  Cam- 
paign fund  in  the  Presidential  contest  of  1904,  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  to  the  same  fund  in  each  of  the  Presidential  struggles  imme- 
diately preceding.  Mr.  Perkins  not  only  justified  these  acts  to  his 
own  satisfaction,  but  actually  suggested  that  legal  provisions  should 
be  made  authorising  the  President  of  an  insurance  company  to  make 
political  donations  for  his  company,  at  his  own  discretion,  without 
consulting  the  policy  holders, —  whose  money  would  be  sacrificed, — 
the  other  officers,  or  the  directors  of  the  company!  "Whom  the 
gods  would  destroy  they  first  make  mad/' 

The  Mutual  and  the  Equitable  Companies  also  contributed  hand- 
somely to  the  recent  Presidential  campaigns.  Furthermore,  the  tes- 
timony taken  in  the  insurance  investigation  shows  conclusively  that 
considerable  sums  of  money  were  paid  by  the  companies  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  influencing  elections. 

In  his  article  entitled  "  The  Black  Flag  on  the  Big  Three,"  pub- 
lished in  "  Everybody's  Magazine  "  of  March,  1906,  Mr.  Lawson  treats 
of  corruption  on  a  bigger  scale.  Under  the  subheading,  "  Andy's 
Answer,"  he  says :  "  I  stated  that  the  New  York  investigation  had 
revealed  little  more  than  petty  graft.  It  was  so  steered  as  to  be  con- 
fined to  minor  peccadillos  of  officials  and  directors.  The  men  who 
might  have  been  compelled  to  give  information  of  such  a  character 
as  seriously  to  involve  the  respectable  criminals  began  to  disappear 
from  sight  at  the  first  rumble  of  approaching  trouble.  Andy  Fields, 
the  head  devil  of  the  Mutual  Life,  landlord  of  the  '  House  of  Mirth ' 
in  Albany,  debaucher  of  legislatures,  chief  graftsman  of  the  institu- 
tion, flitted  .to  parts  unknown.  What  might  he  not  have  been  forced 
to  disclose  of  corruption  and  knavery?  In  the  case  of  Judge  Andy 
Hamilton,  the  New  York  Life's  chief  lobbyist,  more  explicit  informa- 
tion was  gathered.  This  man  had  actually  been  paid  the  enormous 
sum  of  $1,200,000  for  the  purpose  of  bribing  legislatures  throughout 
the  country,  congressmen,  judges,  and  even  United  States  senators. 
While  the  sums  traced  to  this  corruptionist  are  fairly  large,  every  fea- 
ture in  connection  with  his  performances  and  his  detection  snowed 
that  the  investigators  had  traced  only  a  fraction  of  the  amounts  he 
had  handled.  This  led  to  the  suspicion  that  Andy  Hamilton  might 
easily  have  been  used  as  a  cover  for  much  direct  stealing.  From 
what  happened  in  Hamilton's  case  the  people  can  judge  by  what  tac^ 
»  129 


tics  they  will  be  met  when  they  dare  to  try  to  free  themselves  from 
the  meshes  in  which  they  are  ensnared.  As  soon  as  Counsel  Hughes 
had  caught  this  thread  that  led  into  the  main  skein,  he  proved  clearly 
to  the  loquacious  John  A.  McCall  (the  gentleman  who  from  the  plat- 
form, through  the  press,  and  by  millions  of  circular  letters  was  but  a 
brief  year  ago  pledging  his  sacred  honour  that  there  was  nothing  to 
my  charges  but  the  spleen  and  spite  of  a  man  looking  for  revenge 
because  he  had  been  refused  insurance)  proved,  I  say,  from  McCall's 
own  statements  that  Hamilton  had  gotten  away  with  two  hundred  and 
sixty-odd  thousand  dollars  belonging  to  the  policy-holders,  and  he 
demanded  an  unequivocal  explanation." 

Mr.  W.  F.  Thrummel,  legislative  agent  of  the  Mutual,  testified  un- 
der oath  that  he  personally  delivered  a  contribution  of  $2,500  in  cash 
into  the  hands  of  Chairman  Babcock,  of  the  Eepublican  Congressional 
Committee,  for  use  in  the  1904  campaign. 

Apropos  of  Insurance  grafting,  the  Auburn  (N.  Y.)  Citizen  printed 
the  following  parody  of  a  well  known  theme :  "  Ten  little  grafters 
working  overtime,  Alexander  quit,  then  there  were  nine.  Nine  little 
grafters  awaiting  their  fate,  Hyde  took  a  tumble,  then  there  were 
eight.  Eight  little  grafters  ready  for  heaven,  Missionary  Me  Curdy 
went,  then  there  were  seven.  Seven  little  grafters  in  a  tight  fix,  Out 
goes  Perkins,  now  there  are  six.  Six  little  grafters  trembling  in  their 
shoes,  All  crying,  '  Massa,  save  us  from  Hughes ! '  ' 

In  a  remarkable  address  delivered  by  Attorney  Hamilton  before  the 
Armstrong  insurance  committee  and  members  of  the  New  York  Legis- 
lature, he  defended  the  "  yellow  dog  "  fund  upon  grounds  which  savour 
very  strongly  of  those  sacrosanct  utterances  accredited  to  Mr.  Baer 
for  which  philosopher  Dooley  with  as  much  justice  as  wit  dubbed  the 
humorless  coal  baron  "  Ursa  Major."  Here  is  Mr.  Hamilton's  as- 
tonishing contribution  to  the  ethics  of  latter  day  commercialism :  "  I 
have  no  excuse  whatever  to  offer,  about  the  form  of  the  vouchers  that 
were  accepted  for  the  disbursements  that  I  made  to  the  various  branch 
agencies.  The  insurance  world  to-day  is  the  greatest  financial  propo- 
sition in  the  United  States.  And,  as  great  affairs  always  attend,  it 
commands  a  higher  law.  In  defending  its  rights  and  its  property 
you  cannot  stop  to  kick  every  cur  that  comes  along  and  barks,  and  if 
you  could  sweep  them  out  in  other,  perhaps  mysterious,  but  honest, 
ways,  you're  defending  and  asserting  the  higher  law  which  great  enter- 
prises have  a  right  to  command." 

Commenting  upon  this  a  Boston  paper  under  date  of  Mar.  17,  1906, 
remarks  editorially :  "  The  audacity  of  this  declaration  takes  away 
the  breath.  Let  an  enterprise  be  big  enough,  and  it  is  above  all  law ; 
it  makes  a  '  higher  law '  for  itself.  If  this  is  the  theory  upon  which 
the  New  York  insurance  companies  have  been  conducted,  everything 
is  explained." 

Nor  is  Mr.  Hamilton  alone  in  his  ideas.  To  such  a  depth  of  po- 
litical degradation  have  we  sunk  that  many  openly  applaud  the  cor- 
ruption which  elected  Mr.  McKinley  and  defeated  Mr.  Bryan.  On 
Mar.  2nd,  1906,  the  "  Chicago  Chronicle,"  a  Republican  newspaper,  in- 
dignantly protests  against  the  ingratitude  of  the  Eepublican  party  in 
condemning  those  great  financial  corporations  which  contributed  to  its 

130 


LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  CONDITIONS 

campaign  funds.  Apparently  dead  to  the  implication  of  its  own 
words  the  "  Chronicle  "  asks :  "  What  was  it  that  plucked  us  from 
the  dark  despair  in  which  the  free-silver  craze  had  plunged  us,  and 
inaugurated  this  unheard-of  and  indescribable  prosperity  ?  "  It  an- 
swers its  own  question  with  unblushing  frankness :  "  It  was  the  con- 
tributions of  these  corporations  to  the  McKinley  campaign  fund." 
This,  bear  in  mind,  is  the  confession  of  a  Republican  newspaper,  and 
it  is,  moreover,  a  deeply  purposeful  confession,  being  but  a  prelimi- 
nary to  the  following  solemn  warning:  "If  the  Republican  party 
now  insanely  punishes  those  for  contributing  to  campaign  funds  who 
have  the  most  at  stake  in  elections  and  whose  contributions  have  often 
been  the  salvation  of  the  party  in  the  past,  it  can  confidently  reckon 
on  some  kind  of  disaster  in  the  future." 

Could  anything  better  illustrate  the  passage  of  politics  into  the 
third  ethical  state  where  distinctions  moral  and  immoral  cease  and 
everything  becomes  unmoral?  Formerly  corrupt  practices  were  re- 
lated, if  at  all,  in  whispers.  Now  they  are  flaunted  in  cold  print  to 
a  chorus  of  approval. 

Apropos  of  this  Hamiltonian  "  Higher  Law  "  we  offer  the  follow- 
ing poem  by  James  J.  Montague,  published  in  the  "  Boston  Ameri- 
can." 

"  When  the  haughty-browed  McCurdy  out  of  other  people's  pelf 
Drew  down  three  men's  sized  salaries  with  which  to  pay  himself; 
When  a  long,  pathetic  bread-line  of  his  relatives  and  friends 
Stood  waiting  every  pay-day  for  the  Mutual's  dividends; 
We  must  not  think  his  conduct  was  a  trifle  to  the  raw, 
Because  that  form  of  piracy  commands  a  higher  law. 

"When  the  kindly  sharks  of  Wall  street  moved  the  svelte  and  soulful 

Hyde 

To  take  part  in  their  syndicates  and  afterward  divide; 
When  Depew  drew  twenty  thousand  for  the  pleasant,  childlike  sport 
Of  thinking  up  conundrums  for  the  annual  report; 
When   the   surplus   went   this   way   or   that   when   Harriman   yelled 

"  Haw!  " 
It  was  not  wrong,  because  these  things  command  a  higher  law. 

"When  the  Legislature-fixer  dipped  his  fingers  in  the  till, 
And  traveled  through  a  score  of  States  to  beat  some  hostile  bill; 
When  methods  quite  mysterious,  but  honest  as  the  day, 
(Like  bullying  and  bribery),  were  got  well  under  way, 
It  all  was  pure  and  holy,  for  the  noble  grafters  saw 
Writ  large  above  the  Penal  Code  their  special  higher  law." 

It  is  a  fact  verifiable  by  anyone  who  has  interest  sufficient  to  war- 
rant the  investigation,  that  the  Senate  is  chiefly  composed  of  Princes 
of  Privilege  and  those  who  are  sent  there  by  them  for  the  express 
purpose  of  legislating  in  their  favour.  As  for  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives its  members  are,  in  the  main,  mere  puppets  with  actuating 
strings  held  by  railroad,  tariff,  corporation  and  other  powers. 

Approximately  three-fourths  of  the  membership  of  both  branches 
of  Congress  are  lawyers,  a  fact  too  significant  to  be  ignored.  Justice 
Brewer,  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  has  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  lawyer  as  a  lawmaker  is  prone  to  be  tempted  by  the 

131 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

colossal  commercial  interests  desiring  special  legislation,  "  not  merely 
by  the  money  they  possess  and  with  which  they  can  reward,  but  more 
by  the  influence  they  can  exert  in  favor  of  the  individual  lawmaker 
in  the  furtherance  of  his  personal  advancement."  .  .  . 

"  Senators  and  Representatives  have  owed  their  places  to  corporate 
influence,  and  that  influence  has  been  exerted  under  an  expectation, 
if  not  an  understanding,  that  as  lawmakers  the  corporate  interests 
shall  be  subserved.  .  .  .  The  danger  lies  in  the  fact  that  they 
are  so  powerful  and  that  the  pressure  of  so  much  power  upon  the  in- 
dividual lawmaker  tempts  him  to  forget  the  nation  and  remember  the 
corporation.  And  the  danger  is  greater  because  it  is  insidious." 

In  a  public  letter  written  by  ex-Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Garl 
Schurz,  in  reference  to  party  corruption,  he  says :  "  One  of  the 
great  party  organisations  before  every  national  election  *  fries  the  fat ' 
out  of  its  beneficiaries,  with  the  understanding  that  the  beneficiaries 
will  be  protected  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  benefits  if  the  yield  of  the 
frying  process  is  satisfactory,  and  if  not,  not." 

Mr.  Lyman  J.  Gage,  while  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  received  a 
letter,  dated  June  5th,  1897,  from  Mr.  A.  B.  Hepburn,  of  the  National 
City  Bank  of  New  York,  (Eockefeller),  asking  for  government  de- 
posits in  his  bank.  In  this  letter  occurred  'this  passage :  "  Of  course 
the  bank  is  very  strong,  and  if  you  will  take  the  pains  to  look  at  our 
list  of  directors  you  will  see  that  we  also  have  great  political  claims 
in  view  of  what  was  done  in  the  campaign  last  year."  Boiled  down 
this  meant:  Mr.  Rockefeller's  bank  believes  it  has  earned  the  right 
to  the  use  of  the  government's  money  because  its  directors  have  given 
money  to  put  your  party  in  power.  To  the  victor  belong  the  spoils, 
and  he  should  divide  with  all  his  henchmen. 

In  "  Frenzied  Finance  "  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Lawson  tells  how,  about  a 
week  before  the  election  of  President  McKinley,  Mark  Hanna  con- 
fided to  some  half-dozen  of  Wall  Street's  biggest  financiers  his  belief 
that  unless  something  radical  were  done  to  turn  at  least  five  of  the 
doubtful  States,  Bryan  would  surely  be  elected.  The  something,  de- 
cided upon  was  the  raising  of  a  five  million  dollar  corruption  fund 
through  the  agency  of  the  "  System."  This  enormous  contribution, 
we  are  told,  was  actually  made,  and  we  are  given  to  understand  that 
it  was  this  which  caused  Bryan's  defeat. 

The  unblushing  effrontery  with  which  corporations  seek  to  defeat 
the  wishes  of  the  people  could  not  be  better  illustrated  than  by  the 
telegram  signed  by  John  D.  Eockefeller,  Jr.,  and  sent  on  Feb.  ,6, 
1903,  to  six  United  States  Senators.  It  ran:  "We  are  opposed  to 
any  anti-trust  legislation.  Our  counsel  will  see  you.  It  must  be 
stopped." 

Upon  the  same  day  John  D.  Archbold,  vice-president  of  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company  and  chairman  of  its  Board  of  Trustees,  sent  the 
following  telegram  to  U.  S.  Senator  Matthew  S.  Quay  of  Pennsyl- 
vania :  — 

''Yesterday's  letter  received.  We  are  unalterably  opposed  to  all 
proposed  so-called  trust  bills,  except  the  Elkins  bill  already  passed 
by  the  Senate,  preventing  railroad  discriminations';  everything  else  is 
utterly  futile,  and  will  result  only  in  vexatious  interference  with  the 

132 


LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  CONDITIONS 

industrial  interests  of  the  country.  The  Nelson  bill,  as  all  others  of 
like  character,  will  be  only  an  engine  for  vexatious  attacks  against  a 
few  large  corporations.  It  gives  the  right  of  Federal  interference 
with  business  of  State  corporations,  without  giving  any  Federal  pro- 
tection whatever.  There  is  no  popular  demand  for  such  a  measure. 
If  any  bill  is  passed,  it  should  apply  to  all  individual  partnerships 
and  corporations  engaged  in  inter-State  business,  and  it  should  be 
made  mandatory  on  all  as  to  making  reports  of  their  business  to  the 
commerce  department.  Am  going  to  Washington  this  afternoon. 
Please  send  word  to  the  Arlington  where  I  can  see  you  this  evening." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  passing  that  this  Elkins  bill,  which 
the  Standard  Oil  interests  favoured  as  an  amendment  of  the  Inter- 
State  Commerce  Act,  had  "  had  its  claws  cut "  in  a  way  to  render  it 
pleasantly  harmless  to  the  great  lawbreaking  octopus.  The  penalty  of 
imprisonment,  stipulated  in  the  original  act,  had  quietly  been  ex- 
punged from  the  amendment  so  that  railroads  could  break  the  Elkins 
law  as  much  as  pleased  them  with  only  the  remote  possibility  of  fine, 
this  possibility  hinging  on  the  United  States  Attorney  General  being 
induced  to  prosecute  them,  in  the  first  place,  and  their  being  found 
guilty,  in  the  second. 

How  prettily  the  foregoing  matches  on  to  the  Clark  Episode  re- 
lated by  Mr.  Lawson  in  Part  III.,  Chapter  XIX.,  of  his  "  Frenzied 
Finance."  It  fits  it  with  a  close  joint.  After  relating  how  the  Mon- 
tana Legislature  sent  William  A.  Clark  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
and  how  "  Standard  Oil "  caused  an  investigation  to  be  made  result- 
ing in  Mr.  Clark's  resignation,  Mr.  Lawson  goes  on  to  relate  how, 
in  the  temporary  absence  of  Governor  Smith  of  Montana,  Mr.  Clark's 
resignation  was  filed  with  Lieutenant-Govemor  Spriggs  who,  he  says, 
"was  one  of  Clark's  henchmen"  and  who,  therefore,  "immediately 
appointed  the  Copper  King  to  fill  the  vacancy  created  by  his  own 
resignation."  Mr.  Lawson  then  continues :  "  The  plot  was  so  ob- 
vious, so  crude,  so  foul  smelling,  that  even  the  courageous  Copper 
King  —  who  is  certainly  not  easily  abashed  —  did  not  dare  to  present 
himself  before  the  Senate  to  be  'sworn  in,  but  decided  to  take  his 
chances  at  the  next  election.  The  recital  of  the  details  of  this  im- 
modest mess  may  well  bring  to  the  cheeks  of  all  American  patriots 
the  blush  of  shame,  that  the  institutions  of  this  great  country  should 
be  so  befouled  and  prostituted  in  order  that  a  millionaire  upstart 
might  satisfy  a  vulgar  desire  for  political  and  social  prominence.  By 
order  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Montana,  Clark's  counsel  was  put  on 
trial  for  bribing  the  Legislature,  and  in  the.  ensuing  proceedings 
Clark's  own  methods  were  exposed  in  the  open.  Among  other  facts, 
it  was  developed  that  the  high-water-mark  price  for  a  seat  in  the  most 
expensive  club  in  the  world,  the  honorable  United  States  Senate,  had 
been  touched  in  Montana ;  that  Clark  had  paid  $500,000  to  obtain  it ; 
that  fifty  votes  were  bought  at  an  average  price  of  $10,000  apiece,  and 
that  the  dickering  for  these  votes  was  conducted  as  openly  as  are  the 
buying  and  selling  of  lean  and  overfat  boars  and  sows  at  a  hog  mart. 
State  Senator  Whiteside,  an  educated,  honest  man  of  the  passing 
school,  described  how  the  business  of  buying  a  seat  in  the  United 
States  Senate  was  conducted,  and  said  that  he  had  turned  over  to  the 

133 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

legislative  committee  three  envelopes.  When  the  envelopes  were 
opened  they  were  found  to  contain  thirty  fresh,  crisp  $1,000  bills. 
The  money  was  surrendered  to  the  State  Treasury  of  Montana,  where 
it  lies  to-day. 

"  In  due  course  election  time  came  round  again,  and  the  delectable 
combination  of  Clark  and  Heinze  again  fought  shoulder  to  shoulder. 
In  spite  of  the  strenuous  opposition  of  Mr.  Rogers,  in  spite  of  all 
(  Standard  Oil '  could  do  to  defeat  the  outfit,  it  scored  another  victory, 
and  the  Copper  King  was  triumphantly  rechosen  United  States  Sena- 
tor. Before  Clark  presented  himself  for  admittance  to  the  Senate, 
Rogers  prevailed  on  him  to  enter  a  conference,  and  the  two  went  at  it 
hammer  and  tongs.  Rogers  intimated  that  as  long  as  the  Montanan 
remained  the  ally  of  Heinze  he  could  not  enter  the  Senate,  that  the 
cards  were  again  stacked  for  his  expulsion,  and  that  he  had  better 
patch  up  with  '  Standard  Oil '  before  it  was  too  late.  Clark  did 
not  believe  that  even  the  Master  of  *  Standard  Oil '  could  actually 
'  deliver '  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  bluntly  he  told  Rogers 
that  he  believed  he  .was  bluffing.  He  was  willing  to  put  the  threat  to 
a  test  —  if  Rogers  could  show  him  a  majority  of  the  United  States 
Senate  pledged  in  writing  to  refuse  him  admittance,  he  would  concede 
defeat,  drop  Heinze,  and  join  '  Standard  Oil/  On  the  other  hand, 
if  Rogers  failed,  'Standard  Oil'  should  cease  its  opposition  to  his  ad- 
mittance to  the  Senate. 

"  In  making  this  proposition  Clark  imagined  that  he  had  imposed 
an  impossible  condition  on  Rogers,  for,  at  that  time,  he  had  no  concep- 
tion of  the  immense  power  of  dollar  royalty.  He  did  not  realise  how 
completely  and  absolutely  the  ruling  forces  of  this  great  country  of 
ours  rest  in  the  hands  of  a  small  band  of  millionaires.  Thinking 
that  he  had  the  great  wholesaler  of  dollars,  lives,  and  liberties  hung 
on  his  own  spit,  he  came  to  a  halt ;  but  his  weasel  eyes  opened  wide 
when  Mr.  Rogers  quietly  but  pointedly  said :  *  It's  a  bargain.  If  I 
don't  give  you  the  proof  as  I  say  one  week  from  to-day,  I  will  not 
trouble  you  again  in  connexion  with  our  Heinze  affairs.' 

"At  the  appointed- time  the  great  manipulator  of  men,  as  calmly 
as  though  he  were  exhibiting  a  bill  of  sale  for  a  car-load  of  barreled 
petroleum,  allowed  Clark  to  inspect  a  list  of  two  over  a  majority  of 
our  grave  and  reverend  seigniors. 

"  Clark. delivered  his  goods  like  the  conservative  business  man  he  is, 
and  from  that  time  until  to-day  has  occupied  the  No.  1  niche  in 
Heinze's  gallery  of  (  To  be  Slaughtered.' 

"  I  should  be  loath  to  deny  to  the  Prince  of  Butte  and  Bunco  any 
quality  properly  belonging  to  him,  and  eloquence  in  vituperation  is 
among  his  accomplishments.  One  hearing  him  describe  his  quondam 
partner  and  ally  might  well  believe  that  Heinze  had  unearthed  the 
most  extraordinary  rascal  and  traitor  of  all  time  —  a  human  muck- 
worm uniting  in  its  chill  and  shrunken  soul  the  perfidy  of  Judas, 
the  treachery  of  Benedict  Arnold,  and  the  ingratitude  of  the  wicked 
daughters  of  King  Lear.  However,  Clark  has  gone  untroubled  on  his 
way,  and  from  that  time  to  this  has  faithfully  performed  his  obei- 
sances before  the  great  Oil  Throne." 

In  an  excellent  article  in  "  The  Cosmopolitan  "  of  March.  1906.  Mr. 

134 


LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  CONDITIONS 

Ernest  Crosby  calls  the  United  States  Senate  "  The  House  of  Dollars." 
He  says :  "  Money  makes  the  Senate  go.  It  was  the  intention  of  our 
simple-minded  ancestors  to  have  a  House  of  Representatives  to  rep- 
resent the  people,  and  a  Senate  to  represent  the  states.  We  have 
changed  all  that.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  has  ceased  to  exist, 
and  in  its  stead  we  have  the  House  of  Dollars.  Of  course  we  don't 
call  it  that.  We  very  rarely  do  call  things  by  their  right  names. 
They  had  a  Senate  in  Rome  which  at  one  time  was  a  patriotic,  public- 
spirited  and  independent  body,  but  the  emperors  gradually  took  away 
all  its  powers  and  it  became  finally  a  mere  figurehead.  Still  it  went 
on  talking  as  if  it  were  the  whole  state,  and  the  emperors  went  on 
treating  it  with  the  greatest  respect  in  form.  It  was  still  in  appear- 
ance the  great  Roman  Senate,  but  in  fact  it  was  an  empty  shadow  of 
power.  The  history  of  our  Senate  is  precisely  the  opposite  of  this 
on  the  surface,  and  precisely  like  it  underneath,  and  I  will  show  you 
how."  .  .  . 

"  The  Senate  has  acquired .  this  great  power  on  the  surface  be- 
cause it  has  ceased  to  speak  in  the  name  of  its  own  Constitutional 
rights,  but  represents  instead  a  vast  ultra-constitutional  influence 
which  has  gradually  ousted  the  states  from  their  function.  The 
Senate  is  now  the  agent  of  the  money  power  —  the  representative  of 
Wall  Street.  It  is  the  House  of  Dollars.  It  has  drawn  to  itself  the 
powers  of  government,  because  it  has  itself  abdicated  its  own  powers 
to  the  lords  of  finance,  and  now  confines  its  activities  to  registering 
their  decrees.  It  has,  in  fact,  no  more  real  power  of  its  own  than  the 
degenerate  Roman  Senate  had,  but  it  is  strong  in  the  strength  of  its 
imperator,  and  its  imperator  is  high  finance.  Like  the  Romans,  we 
keep  up  the  good  old  forms.  The  president  of  the  Senate  still  ad- 
dresses the  members  as  "  the  Senator  from  the  State  of  New  York," 
or  "  the  Senator  from  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,"  when  everybody 
knows  he  means  "  the  Senator  from  the  New  York  Central  Railroad," 
and  "  the  .Senator  from  the  Standard  Oil  Trust."  Our  political  sys- 
tem was  originally  a  fair  expression  of  the  real  life  of  the  country, 
but  it  is  to-day  altogether  outgrown  and  serves  only  as  a  veil  behind 
which  the  power  of  monopoly  disports  itself."  .  .  . 

"  And  so  the  trusts  have  gradually  sent  their  lawyers  and  managers 
to  the  Senate,  where  they  continue  to  earn  their  gratitude,  and  pos- 
sibly other  more  substantial  evidences  of  esteem.  They  have  many 
opportunities  of  usefulness  to  their  employers.  They  can  prevent 
any  alteration  of  an  iniquitous  tariff  which  robs  the  poor  to  pay  the 
rich.  They  can  perpetuate  a  telegraph  franchise  which  makes  us  pay 
forty  cents  for  ten  cent  telegrams.  They  can  refuse  to  allow  our  post- 
office  to  carry  parcels  (thus  making  our  service  inferior  to  that  of 
any  third-rate  power)  at  the  command  of  extortionate  express  com- 
panies. They  can  throw  the  public  money  away  in  paying  the  rail- 
ways absurd  sums  for  carrying  the  mails.  In  dozens  of  ways  they 
can  serve  their  real  masters  by  opposing  the  obvious  interests  of  the 
people. 

"  They  have  carried  the  trust  principle  into  politics.  In  forming  a 
trust  it  is  usual  to  shut  down  all  unnecessary  plants  and  continue  only 
those  that  are  needed.  So  in  the  political  trust,  the  House  of  Repre- 

135 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

sentatives  is  treated  as  an  unnecessary  plant  and  it  has  virtually  been 
shut  down  for  years.  Then  again  the  Senate  itself  is  unnecessarily 
large,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Equitable  board  of  directors  and 
other  such  institutions,  a  small  executive  committee  has  been  formed 
consisting  of  four  of  the  ablest  friends  of  monopoly,  and  this  un- 
official cabal  determines  what  legislation  shall  take  effect  and  what 
shall  not.  The  political  trust  is  thus  modeled  upon  the  industrial 

trust/' 

Continuing  Mr.  Crosby  strongly  urges  the  election  of  United  .States 
Senators  by  the  direct  vote  of  the  people,  saying  in  support  thereof, 
"  Even  the  trusts  cannot  yet  purchase  the  voters  of  a  whole  state. 
Public  opinion  is  ripe  for  this  change.  On  the  Pacific  slope  they 
are  beginning  to  put  United  States  Senators  in  prison,  and  in  the 
state  of  New  York  they  are  loudly  calling  for  the  resignation  of  the 
unworthy  representatives  of  that  state." 

Mr.  Paul  Morton,  who  for  a  time  was  Secretary  of  the  Navy  un- 
der President  Eoosevelt,  was  formerly  second  vice-president  and 
traffic  manager  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe  Railway.  In 
that  capacity  he  was  brought  before  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Com- 
mission. Referring  to  this  examination  Henry  George,  Jr.,  says  in 
"The  Menace  of  Privilege":  "On  May  18,  1896,  Paul  Morton, 
for  the  Southern  California  Railway  Company,  the  western  division  of 
the  Santa  Fe  system,  and  J.  C.  Stubbs,  third  vice-president  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  Company,  signed  a  pooling  agreement  for  the  two 
roads  for  all  manner  of  freight  to  and  from  .Southern  California, 
which  territory  the  roads  divided  between  them  as  if  it  was  a  con- 
quered province." 

Testifying  in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  at  Los  Angeles,  the 
same  Mr.  Morton  said:  "We  (the  Santa  Fe  road)  made  several 
endeavors  —  we  tried  the  costly  experiment  of  being  honest  in  this 
thing  —  living  up  to  the  law  as  we  understood  it  and  declining  to 
pay  rebates;  and  we  lost  so  much  business  that  we  found  we  had  got 
to  do  as  the  Romans  did." 

Again  the  same  gentleman  testified  relative  to  .a  rebate  contract 
with  one  of  the  Beef  Trust  packers.  "  Yes,  sir ;  it  is  an  illegal  con- 
tract. It  was  illegal  when  we  made  it,  and  we  know  that." 

In  President  Roosevelt's  message,  December,  1904,  occurs  •  this 
passage :  "  Above  all  else  we  must  strive  to  keep  the  highways  of 
commerce  open  to  all  on  equal  terms,"  yet  we  find  that  Mr.  Mor- 
ton's confessed  deliberate  violations  of  the  law  devised  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  keeping  "the  highways  of  commerce  open  to  all 
on  equal  terms  "  did  not  prevent  President  Roosevelt  from  inviting 
him  into  his  Cabinet.  Nor  for  a  long  time  did  it  appear  that  Mr. 
Morton's  political  fortunes  had  been  to  the  slightest  degree  overcast 
by  his  confessions  of  crime.  When  Mr.  Robert  Baker,  of  New  York, 
offered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  two  resolutions  of  inquiry, 
these  were  quietly  strangled.  Later,  however,  public  opinion  was 
so  aroused  that  Mr.  Morton  "conveniently  had  a  call  to  adjust  the 
flagrantly  inequitable  affairs  of  the  Equitable  Assurance  Society  — 
at  a  very  large  salary,"  and  resigned  from  the  Cabinet. 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Russell  in  his  most  excellent 

136 


LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  CONDITIONS 

work,  "  The  Greatest  Trust  in  the  World,"  *  is  to  the  same  effect. 
Everywhere  corruption,  extortion,  and  defiance  of  the  law.  Speak- 
ing of  "the  effect  of  the  money  mania  upon  individual  consciences 
in  high  places,"  Mr.  Eussell  says :  "  But  when  the  general  man- 
ager, the  general  auditor,  and  other  general  officers  of  a  great  rail- 
road system,  men  of  the  highest  standing  and  repute,  are  willing,  as 
I  shall  show  hereafter,  to  go  upon  the  witness-stand  and  swear  to 
statement  after  statement  absolutely  untrue,  and  proved  to  be  untrue 
from  their  own  records,  what  kind  of  moral  tone  shall  we  expect 
of  subordinates  who  hold  their  positions  from  day  to  day  and  with 
fear  and  trembling  ? 

"  The  fact  is  that  no  one  can  give  close  heed  to  this  subject  with- 
out getting  a  distinct  impression  of  general  depravity.  The  Trust 
robs  the  railroads,  the  railroads  in  innumerable  thievish  ways  gouge 
the  shippers,  the  shippers  pass  over  to  the  public  the  crushing  burden 
of  the  illegal  tribute,  the  laws  are  violated  a  thousand  times  every 
day  by  every  railroad,  until  to  mention  law  is  to  cause  the  initiated  to 
laugh,  the  traffic  of  the  country  is  rotten  with  forbidden  rebates 
and  scandalous  discriminations,  railroad  executives  risk  the  peni- 
tentiary to  pile  up  their  traffic  figures,  and  behind  all  is  the  Bandit  of 
Commerce,  taking  toll." 

Elsewhere  in  the  same  series  of  articles  Mr.  Eussell  says :  "  In 
the  free  republic  of  the  United  States  of  America  is  a  power  greater 
than  the  government,  greater  than  the  courts  or  judges,  greater 
than  legislatures,  superior  to  and  independent  of  all  authority  of 
state  or  nation. 

"It  is  a  greater  power  than  in  the  history  of  men  has  been  exer- 
cised by  king,  emperor,  or  irresponsible  oligarchy.  In  a  democracy 
it  has  established  a  practical  empire  more  important  than  Tambur- 
laine's  (sic)  and  ruled  with  a  sway  as  certain.  In  a  country  of  law, 
it  exists  and  proceeds  in  defiance  of  law.  In  a  country  historically 
proud  of  its  institutions,  it  establishes  unchecked  a  condition  that 
refutes  and  nullifies  the  significance  of  those  institutions.  We  have 
grown  familiar  in  this  country  with  many  phases  of  the  mania  of 
money-getting,  and  the  evil  it  may  work  to  mankind  at  large;  we 
have  seen  none  so  strange  and  alarming  as  this  of  which  I  write. 
Names  change,  details  change;  but  when  the  facts  of  these  actual 
conditions  are  laid  bare,  it  will  puzzle  a  thoughtful  man  to  say 
wherein  the  rule  of  the  great  power  now  to  be  described  differs  in 
any  essential  from  the  rule  of  a  feudal  tyrant  in  the  darkness  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

"  Three  times  a  day  this  power  comes  to  the  table  of  every  house- 
hold in  America,  rich  or  poor,  great  or  small,  known  or  unknown ;  it 
conies  there  and  extorts  its  tribute."  .  .  . 

."  Its  lightest  word  affects  men  On  the  plains  of  Argentina  or  the 
by-streets  of  London."  .  .  . 

"  At  every  step  of  its  progress  it  has  violated  national  or  state 
law,  or  both,  and  with  impunity.  It  has  been  declared  by  federal  and 
state  courts  to  be  an  outlaw  and  to  have  no  right  to  exist.  It  has 

•Published  in  "  Everybody's  Magazine  "  beginning  March,  1905. 

137 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

gone  steadily  on,  strengthening  its  hold,  extending  its  lines,  and 
multiplying  its  victims."  .  .  . 

"True,  all  rebates,  all  special  advantages,  all  concessions,  reduc- 
tions, and  variations  from  published  tariff  rates,  all  preferences  of 
one  shipper  over  another,  are  condemned  and  forbidden  in  the  Inter- 
State  Commerce  Act  of  the  United  States ;  no  prohibition  was  ever 
written  into  law  more  expressly  and  positively  than  this.  In  spite  of 
all,  the  American  Beef  Trust  from  its  initial  stage,  as  a  'gentle- 
men's agreement/  received  rebates  on  all  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States,  is  receiving  them  to-day,  and  will  continue  to  receive  them 
for  many  days  to  come,  law  or  no  law.  Does  this  suggest  any  re- 
flections to  your  mind  ?  Here  is  the  law  as  clear,  as  emphatic  as 
any  law  ever  written,  and  here  is  the  plain  fact  of  its  incessant  vio- 
lation, and  from  that  violation  has  come  the  most  oppressive  and 
most  exacting  tyranny  of  our  commerce.  Probably  in  this  year  of 
grace  the  railroads  of  this  country  will  pay  to  the  American  Beef 
Trust  $25,000,000  in  the  rebates  that  are  prohibited  by  law ;  everybody 
that  knows  anything  of  the  subject  will  know  that  they  are  paid; 
it  will  appear  on  the  books  of  the  various  railroad  companies  that 
they  are  paid;  and  there  will  not  be  raised  one  hand  anywhere  to 
enforce  the  law  and  stop  the  payments. 

"  This  is  the  literal  fact.  There  is  no  attempt  to  disguise  the 
lawlessness  except  in  the  matter  of  names.  The  rebates  are  not 
called  rebates;  they  are  called  Private  Car  charges,  but  they  are  re- 
bates, pure  and  simple,  and  by  their  means,  and  none  other,  this 
Imperial  Power  has  been  created." 

Writing  of  the  abortive  attempts  to  secure  legal  relief  from  this 
all-devouring  Minotaur  Mr.  Eussell  says :  "  For  reasons  that  here- 
after I  hope  to  explain  in  detail,  the  net  result  of  all  this  to  date  is  — 
nothing.  In  Missouri  the  state  courts  found  the  packers  guilty,  and 
fined  them  $5,000  each,  a  sum  rather  less  to  them  than  five  cents  to 
the  average  citizen.  The  eleven  indictments,  under  instructions  from 
Washington,  were  never  pressed.  The  bills  in  Congress  were  never 
passed.  The  resolutions  and  petitions  fell  unheeded.  The  federal 
court  at  Chicago,  by  Judge  Grosscup,  did,  on  February  18,  1903,  hand 
down  a  sweeping  decision  declaring  the  operations  of  the  Trust  to  be 
illegal  and  criminal,  and  perpetually  enjoining  it  from  doing  cer- 
tain specific  things.  It  has  continued  to  do  those  things  six  days 
in  every  week  since,  and  the  injunction  has  peacefully  slumbered. 

"  But  while  the  shippers,  the  producers,  and  the  consumers  of  the 
country  have  been  unable  to  secure  any  attention  from  Congress,  the 
Trust  has  easily  secured  in  the  Elkins  bill  a  clause  that  removes  its 
refrigerator  car  traffic  from  the  law  of  common  carriers,  and  in  the 
opinion  of  its  lawyers  it  can  now  snap  its  fingers  at  the  Inter- State 
Commerce  Commission,  or  at  any  other  authority.  It  does  that  any- 
way, law  or  no  law,  but  it  probably  feels  it  more  seemly  to  have 
the  snapping  definitely  endorsed  by  national  legislation." 

It  is  needless  to  consider  further  the  utter  indifference  of  this 
"Greatest  Trust  in  the  World"  to  the  will  of  the  people  as  ex- 
pressed in  legislation.  The  whole  story  is  so  ably  told  by  Mr.  Kus- 

138 


LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  CONDITIONS 

sell  that  any  one  wishing  an  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  subject  has 
but  to  read  what  he  has  written. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  free  pass  bribery  system  by  which 
the  railways  corrupt  our  legislatures  and  subvert  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple. 

The  causes  for  the  high-handed  effrontery,  inefficiency  and  dis- 
honesty of  our  railroad  systems  are  more  than  hinted  at  in  the 
following  extract  which  we  take  from  a  series  of  articles,  which 
should  not  only  be  read  but  carefully  studied  by  every  liberty-loving 
American  who  has  the  good  of  his  country  at  heart.  We  refer  to  Mr. 
Charles  Edward  Russell's  "  Soldiers  of  the  Common  Good/'  now  run- 
ning in  "Everybody's  Magazine."  In  the  March,  1906,  installment 
of  this  series  Mr.  Eussell  says :  "  Where  the  rebate  enters  the  English 
railroad  system  is  chiefly  through  the  convenient  loophole  called  '  un- 
derbilling/  a  thing  extremely  common  in  our  own  country  when 
railroad  companies  wish  to  grant  secret  favours  to  heavy  shippers. 
Underbilling,  you  understand,  is  shipping  goods  under  one  classifica- 
tion when  they  belong  under  another.  The  American  Beef  Trust 
underbills  about  one-third  of  the  freight  it  ships.  Dressed  beef  has 
a  higher  rate  by  the  hundred  pounds  than  the  rates  charged  for 
lard  and  the  other  things  called  '  packing-house  products.'  There- 
fore, whenever  it  can,  the  Trust  ships  its  dressed  beef  as  '  lard '  or 
'  packing-house  products/  The  same  thing  is  done  in  England  and 
wherever  else  are  railroad  companies  competing  for  business.  We 
have  much  more  of  it  than  England  has  and  for  a  simple  reason. 
Both  countries  seek  to  suppress  the  practice ;  but  in  England  the 
law  is  enforced  upon  offenders  when  they  are  caught;  with  us  it  is 
not.  While  I  was  in  London  one  of  the  courts  had  before  it  a  citi- 
zen of  an  eminent  respectability  charged  with  shipping  bird-cages  as 
*  hardware ' — hardware  taking  a  lower  rate.  He  was  convicted  in 
less  than  an  hour,  if  I  remember  correctly,  and  the  fine  assessed  upon 
him  would  make  an  American  rebate-grabber  gasp. 

"  The  English  Government  insists  upon  regulating  the  railroads, 
not  being  regulated  by  them.  It  can  order  the  railroads  to  reduce  any 
rate  that  seems  excessive,  and  the  reduction  goes  without  any  injunc- 
tion tagged  to  it. 

"  I  have  in  mind  now  a  hearing  by  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Com- 
mission of  some  charge  involving  the  whole  great  principle  of  trans- 
port equality  —  keeping  the  highways  open,  you  know.  One  of  the 
commissioners  slumbers  gently,  his  mouth  agape,  his  head  tilting 
rearward.  Mr.  Marchand,  the  attorney  for  the  commission,  has  on 
the  stand  a  witness  that,  having  committed  perjury  five  times  in  the 
last  ten  minutes,  has  fleeting  glimpses  of  the  penitentiary  and  is 
exceedingly  uneasy  in  consequence.  The  course  of  the  examination 
drives  toward  the  extent  of  the  rebate  system.  Mr.  Marchand  is  ex- 
tracting it  bit  by  bit.  We  are  on  the  verge  of  finding  out  why  the 
highways  are  not  open,  when  some  commissioner  suddenly  pipes  up : 

'  Mr.  Marchand,  what  do  you  expect  to  prove  by  all  this  ? ' 

Mr.  Marchand  says  he  expects  to  prove  so-and-so. 

'  Well,'  says  the  commissioner,  '  I  think  it  is  unimportant.  The 
witness  has  already  answered  your  questions.  We  will  proceed  to 
something  else/ 

139 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

"  They  would  not  understand  that  in  England  where  the  useful  use 
of  making  a  loud  noise  and  doing  nothing  would  seem  to  lack  the 
development  and  finish  we  have  given  to  it.  In  England  inquiries 
about  railroad  charges  are  conducted  in  the  manner  of  an  English 
court  —  short,  sharp,  thorough,  and  impartial.  The  Government  not 
only  believes  that  the  highways  of  the  nation's  commerce  should  be 
kept  open  to  all  on  equal  terms,  but  with  the  deeds  that  back  up 
words  it  keeps  them  open  in  that  fashion.  Hence  the  British  public 
fares  with  its  railroads  immensely  better  than  we  fare.  The  British 
railroad  system  has  its  faults,  but  they  look  like  virtues  when  com- 
pared with  the  knock-down  and  drag-out  methods  we  tolerate  from 
American  railroads." 

"  Our  government,"  said  Beecher,  "  is  built  upon  the  vote.  But 
votes  that  are  purchasable  are  quicksands,  and  a  government  built  on 
them  stands  upon  corruption  and  revolution." 

Mr.  Robert  Baker,  congressman  from  the  sixth  New  York  district, 
made  himself  very  unpopular  by  his  persistent  attacks  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  upon  the  free  pass  evil.  His  colleagues,  with  their 
pockets  stuffed  with  railroad  "courtesies,"  did  not  relish  his  attacks 
upon  this  time  honoured  system  of  corruption. 

In  his  public  spirited  and  most  excellent  work,  entitled  "  The  Free 
Pass  Bribery  System,"  Mr.  George  W.  Berge  says :  "  Railroad  gov- 
ernment maintains  itself  through  the  free  pass  conspiracy,  partly  by 
the  direct  demands  which  it  makes  on  the  free  pass  holders,  but  very 
largely  by  means  of  such  shrewd  manipulation  of  the  men  against 
each  other,  that  the  pass  holders  themselves  are  all  the  time  uncon- 
scious of  the  conspiracy  against  representative  government,  in  which 
they  are  only  little  dumb  figures  on  the  corporation  chess  board." 

Mr.  Berge  shows  in  a  most  lucid  manner  how  the  railway  lobbyists 
control  the  State  legislatures,  and  through  them  and  their  ability 
materially  to  influence  or  control  nominations  and  elections,  how  they 
secure  the  "  safe  and  sane  "  constituency  of  the  national  Congress. 
Apropos  of  this  state  control  he  says :  "  There  is  not  a  state  west 
of  the  Mississippi  River  where  representative  government  exists  ex- 
cept in  form.  Every  Western  state  has  its  free  pass  machine,  main- 
tained by  the  railroads,  directed  by  their  general  managers  and  at- 
torneys, and  operated  in  detail  by  experienced  lobbyists." 

"  It  is  useless  for  the  people  in  these  railroad-ridden  states  to  look 
to  the  President  and  the  National  government  for  relief."  ..  .  . 

"  Can  the  President  force  the  National  Congress  into  any  action  that 
will  drive  railroad  control  out  of  the  government  at  Washington,  and 
out  of  these  various  state  governments?  The  American  Congress,  as 
now  (1905)  constituted,  is  a  railroad  congress.  The  members,  with 
perhaps  a  few  exceptions,  were  picked  out  and  put  up  by  the  railroad 
bosses.  It  is  true  that  they  were  elected  by  the  votes  of  the  people, 
but  congressmen  have  learned  that  the  influence  which  can  dictate 
nominations  is  the  power  that  they  must  look  to  for  future  nomina- 
tions, and  the  effect  of  this  view  upon  the  congressman  makes  him 
afraid  to  oppose  the  corporations  and  afraid  to  trust  his  political 
fortunes  to  the  people. 

"The  railroad-procured  congressman  talks  glittering  generalities 

140 


LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  CONDITIONS 

to  the  people  in  public,  but  he  talks  business  with  the  railroad  boss  in 
private." 

That  this  is  not  confined  to  the  Western  States  nor  to  the  present 
time  is  instanced  by  the  following  remark  of  Roscoe  Conkling: 
"  Chauncey  Depew  ?  Oh,  you  mean  the  man  that  Vanderbilt  sends 
to  Albany  every  winter  to  say  '  haw '  and  '  gee '  to  his  cattle  up 
there/' 

This  awful  condemnation  is,  we  regret  to  say,  only  too  just.  The 
American  Congress  as  now  constituted  is  indeed  a  Congress  repre- 
senting special  privilege  rather  than  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
When  we  consider  that  President  Roosevelt,  like  several  of  his  predeces- 
sors, has  made  use  not  only  of  private  cars  but  of  free  trains,  we  can 
scarcely  wonder  that  the  bribing  railroad  pass  has  come  to  be-  con- 
sidered a  legitimate  perquisite  of  office. 

There  is  no  ambiguity  in  the  law  upon  this  point.  The  Inter- 
State  Commerce  Commission  has  interpreted  it  to  forbid  the  issuance 
of  passes  to  anyone.  •. 

Chapter  382,  Act  of  Congress,  March  2,  1889,  reads:  "And  when 
any  such  common  carrier  shall  have  established  and  published  its 
rates,  fares  and  charges  in  compliance  with  the  provisions  of  this 
section,  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  such  common  carrier  to  charge,  de- 
mand or  collect,  or  receive  from  person  or  persons,  a  greater  or  less 
compensation  for  the  transportation  of  persons  or  property,  or  for  any 
services  in  connexion  therewith,  than  is  specified  in  such  published 
schedule  of  rates,  fares  and  charges  as  may  be  at  the  time  in  force." 

This  has  been  the  law  now  for  more  than  sixteen  years,  yet  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  discontinued  the  free  transportation  practice  only  to- 
ward the  end  of  his  first  term,  and  the  Congressmen,  with  exceptions 
about  as  rare  as  white  blackbirds,  have  never  stopped  it  at  all. 

"With  the  pass  bribery  nuisance,"  says  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Rus- 
sell,* "  France  deals  in  summary  fashion.  Railroads  have  no  chance 
to  win  the  good-will  of  French  deputies  and  senators  by  surreptitious 
favours.  Every  French  senator  and  deputy  has  by  law  an  annual  pass 
on  every  railroad.  This  the  Government  compels  the  railroads  to 
furnish.  Then  the  Government  deducts  for  the  pass  ten  francs  a 
month  from  the  pay  of  the  senator  or  deputy.  The  railroads  get 
nothing.  That  is  the  extent  of  that  performance.  The  passes  are 
provided  to  afford  the  senators  and  deputies  opportunity  to  acquaint 
themselves  with  conditions  in  the  country  and  every  part  of  it. 

"  The  President  of  the  republic  must  be  transported  on  public  busi- 
ness at  the  expense  of  the  railroads.  That  is  the  law,  and  the  service 
entails  no  kind  of  obligation  on  the  President's  part.  Even  if  the 
companies  were  to  furnish  him  with  a  special  train  of  beautiful  cars, 
that  would  mean  nothing,  because  they  are  obliged  to  transport  him 
with  their  best  devices  anyway." 

Nor  does  the  free  pass  bribery  stop  with  the  politician,  the  legis- 
lator and  the  judge.  Its  influence  corrupts  the  press.  It  forms  a 
club  which,  along  with  the  advertising  club,  goes  far  to  dominate 
the  utterances  of  a  supposedly  free  press.  We  have  seen  a  Fall  River 
Line  boat  disgraced  by  scenes  of  college  rowdyism  too  coarse  and 

*"  Soldiers  of  the  Common  Good  " — Everybody's  Magazine. 

HI 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

brutal  for  description.  We  have  known  of  ladies  and  children  hav- 
ing to  spend  a  long  night  within  easy  ear-shot  of  half-drunken  col- 
lege vulgarity  and  obscenity.  We  have  been  a  personal  witness  to 
the  neglect  of  porters  to  answer  bell-calls  from  this  section  of  the 
boat,  doubtless  through  fear  of  the  treatment  they  might  receive  from 
the  college  "  men/'  and  have  seen  the  respectable  patrons  of  this  line 
thus  practically  placed  at  the  mercy  of  rowdies.  We  know  that  at 
least  one  victim  of  this  outrage  sent  a  letter  of  protest  to  the  public 
press,  but  it  was  never  published  for  reasons  already  made  plain. 

In  March,  1902,  there  was  a  severe  accident  on  the  Southern  Rail- 
way. Train  No.  38,  leaving  Spartanburg  at  6 :15  Saturday  night,  was 
derailed  in  a  deep  defile  about  four  o'clock  the  next  morning.  Some 
were  killed  and  some  terribly  injured.  The  train  immediately  took 
fire  and  everything  forward  of  the  last  cars  was  consumed.  The  acci- 
dent was  caused  by  a  landslide  which  only  the  grossest  negligence  ren- 
dered possible.  A  few  dollars'  worth  of  fencing  would  have  pre- 
vented it.  Did  the  press  criticise  the  corporation  for  thus  needlessly 
risking  the  lives  of  its  patrons?  To  be  sure  not.  The  accident  re- 
ceived but  the  merest  skeleton  news  note  and  not  one  word  of  criti- 
cism, so  far  as  we  are  aware,  was  ever  visited  by  the  press  upon  the 
Southern  Eailway  for  its  negligence.  Why  was  this?  Can  anyone 
doubt?  Free  passes  and  advertising,  these  are  the  explanation.* 

The  following  portion  of  an  address,  given  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  at  St.  Louis,  is  so  singularly 
true  that  it  constitutes  in  the  light  of  recent  events  one  of  the  re- 
markable prophecies  of  history.  He  says:  "If  I  stand  in  the  city 
of  New  York  and  look  southward  I  see  a  railroad,  the  Pennsylvania 
Central,  that  runs  across  the  continent  with  all  its  connexions.  Its 
leases  and  branches  represent  a  capital  of  some  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars.  If  I  turn  my  eyes  to  the  north  I  see  the  Erie,  where 
many  hundreds  of  millions  lie.  If  still  further  to  the  north,  I  see 
the  great  New  York  Central,  that  represents  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars.  These  three  roads  represent  thousands  of  millions  of  con- 
solidated capital.  Now,  suppose  in  an  emergency  the  railroad  inter- 
est demands  more  legal  privileges;  suppose  there  was  some  great  na- 
tional question  which  demanded  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  should  be  a  man  and  the  Senate  should  be  composed  of  men 
playing  into  the  hands  of  the  great  national  railroads'  consolidated 
capitalists,  what  power  is  there  on  the  continent  that  could  for  a 
moment  resist  them?  It  is  not  a  great  many  years  since  it  would 
seem  atrocious  to  have  suggested  that  thought.  But  legislatures  have 
been  bought  and  sold,  until  we  think  no  more  about  it  than  of  selling 
so  many  sheep  and  cattle.  Does  anybody  suppose  that,  if  it  were  a 
national  interest  that  these  vast  corporations  were  seeking  to  sub- 
serve, there  is  any  legislation  on  this  continent  that  could  not  be 
crushed  or  bought  out  by  this  despot,  compared  with  which  even 
slavery  itself  were  a  small  danger  ?  One  of  the  greatest  humiliations 

*  Since  writing  the  above  there  has  been  another  fearful  railroad  ac- 
cident to  be  added  to  the  long  list  chargeable  to  the  inefficiency  and  gross 
mismanagement  of  the  Southern  Railway.  In  this  instance  Samuel 
Spencer,  the  President  of  the  road,  was  among  the  slain. —  See  Appendix  B, 

142 


LEGISLATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL  CONDITIONS 

as  a  nation  that  is  so  justly  proud  of  so  many  things  is  that  which 
has  fallen  upon  our  Congress.  When  we  see  the  slimy  track  of  the 
monster  we  may  justly  ask:  What  are  we  coming  to?  There  has 
got  to  be  a  public  sentiment  created  on  this  subject  or  we  will  be 
swept  away  by  a  common  ruin. 

"  I  tell  you  that  the  shadow  that  is  already  cast  upon  the  land  is 
prodigious.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  sociologist,  in  the  international, 
nor  the  communist;  but  when  I  see  what  the  rich  men  as  classes  are 
doing  with  our  legislatures,  what  laws  they  have  passed,  what  disre- 
gard there  is  to  great  common  interests,  I  fear  that  the  time  will 
come  when  the  working-men  will  rise  up  and  say  that  they  have  no 
appeal  to  the  courts;  no  appeal  to  the  legislatures;  that  they  are 
bought  and  sold  by  consolidated  capital,  and  when  the  time  comes, 
unless  it  brings  reformation,  it  will  bring  revolution.  If  any  such 
time  does  come,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  I  will  stand  by  the  common 
people,  and  against  the  consolidated  capital  of  the  land." 


143 


10 


145 


The  courts  of  the  United  States  are  learning  to  breathe  through  the 
lungs  of  Privilege. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  confides  the  carrying  of  intelligence  to  the  Fed- 
eral Government.  It  is  the  duty  of  an  agent  to  use  the  best  means  for 
the  accomplishment  of  the  work  entrusted  to  him.  It  is,  therefore,  the 
positive  duty  of  Congress  to  provide  for  the  use  of  the  telegraph  as  part 
of  the  postal  service. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons, 
In  Telegraph  Monopoly. 

EMINENT  Statesmen  and  leading  committees  of  House  and  Senate 
have  declared  it  to  be  the  duty  of  Congress,  under  the  constitution  to 
use  the  Telegraph  as  part  of  the  postal  system  for  transmitting  the  peo- 
ple's correspondence. 

Public  sentiment  overwhelmingly  favors  the  plan  —  Henry  Clay,  Chas. 
Sumner,  Gen.  Grant,  Morse,  the  inventor,  James  Russell  Lowell,  Phillips 
Brooks,  Francis  A.  Walker,  John  Wanamaker,  Lyman  Abbott,  Richard 
T.  Ely,  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  Judge  Clark  of  Supreme  Bench  of  N.  C.,  Justice 
Brown  of  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court  and  many  other  men  and  women  of 
the  highest  character  have  advocated  the  measure  or  expressed  sympathy 
with  it.  Only  the  Telegraph  Monopolists  oppose  it. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons. 

Uncle  Sam's  letters  go  on  foot,  on  horseback,  in  wagons,  stages,  steam- 
boats, railway  cars,  and  pneumatic  tubes,  but  the  telegraph  wire  he  can- 
not have,  for  that  is  sacred  to  Wall  Street.  The  "  common  people  "  may 
use  foot-power,  horse-power,  steam-power,  and  wind-power,  but  electricity, 
the  best  and  swiftest  of  all,  is  reserved  for  the  use  of  monopoly  and  those 
who  can  pay  its  extravagant  rates.  .  .  .  Statistics  from  seventy-five 
of  the  principal  nations  of  the  world  show  that  the  government  owns  and 
operates  the  telegraph  in  all  except  Bolivia,  Cuba,  Cyprus,  (Hawaii,) 
Honduras,  and  the  UNITED  STATES. 

How  do  you  like  the  company,  Uncle  Sam?  China  is  the  only  country 
in  the  world  that  allows  the  post-office  to  be  conducted  by  private  par- 
ties, and  Canada  and  the  United  States  are  the  only  countries  of  conse- 
quence that  permit  the  telegraph  to  be  so  conducted. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons. 


146 


CHAPTEE  III 
HOW   THE    POISON   WORKS 


HOTJLD  the  reader  desire  still  further  proof  than 
that  adduced  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  debauching 
influence  of  special  privilege  upon  the  Legislature  we 
have  only  to  consider  the  persistent  attitude  of  the 
Government  toward  the  express  companies,  and  the 
all  but  unbelievable  postal  graft  it  offers  to  the  rail- 
roads year  in  and  year  out. 

Henry  George,  Jr.,  states  the  matter  so  well  in  "  The  Menace  of 
Privilege"  that  we  cannot  do  better  than  quote  his  exact  language. 
Speaking  of  the  government's  purblindness,  he  says:  "It  gives  $160 
a  ton  to  the  railroads  for  carrying  mail  an  average  haul  of  442  miles, 
while  on  occasion  the  private  express  companies  have  their  matter  car- 
ried by  the  railroads  the  same  length  of  haul  for  $8  a  ton!  The 
Government  pays  the  railroads  8  cents  a  pound  for  doing  only  about 
half  the  service  for  which  the  Government  receives  one  cent!  And, 
as  has  often  been  stated,  the  transportation  lines  charge  the  Govern- 
ment every  year  for  the  use  of  the  postal  cars  (besides  the  8  cents 
a  pound)  more  than  it  would  cost  to  build  the  cars!  The  charge 
upon  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  for  inland  railroad  transpor- 
tation is  now  approximately  $40,000,000  yearly ! 

"  If  this  is  not  a  scandal  of  first  magnitude,  what  is  it?  Yet  Con- 
gress, or  rather  a  majority  in  Congress,  under  the  railroad  spell,  will 
allow  no  reduction  of  its  annual  payment  for  mail  transportation. 
Year  after  year  the  monstrous  robbery  continues,  and  all  the  while 
various  departments  of  the  Government  are  called  to  detect  petty  mail 
thefts  when  suspicion  is  aroused,  and  to  meet  with  condign  punish- 
ment any  small  defalcations  in  the  postal  administration  or  over- 
charge for  supplies. 

"  The  express  companies  of  this  country,  being  originally  offshoots 
of  the  railroads  and  now  working  in  close  harmony  with  them,  for 
years  have  by  hypnotic  suggestion  induced  Congress  to  refuse  to  in- 
stitute as  part  of  the  postal  system  a  parcels  delivery  service  such  as 
even  most  of  the  third-rate  nations  of  the  world  have  been  enjoying 
for  a  generation.  The  refusal  of  Congress  to  do  this  enables  the 
private  express  companies  to  levy  highway-robbery  charges  upon  an 
enormous  volume  of  business  which  the  Post-Office  Department  could 
profitably  and  much  more  efficiently  conduct  at  a  fraction  of  the 
present  rates." 

Comparing  the  French  management  of  railroads  with  our  own, 
Mr.  Charles  E.  Russell  says,  in  "  Everybody's  Magazine  "  for  March. 

147 


1906  :     "  They  must  also  do  one  other  thing  of  notable  and  instructive 
interest  to  every  American. 

"  They  must  transport  the  mails  practically  free  of  charge. 

"  I  suppose  I  have  not  the  space  here  to  go  fully  into  that  rottenest 
of  all  American  grafts,  the  swindles  perpetrated  by  the  railroads  in 
their  mail  contracts,  but  to  the  uninitiated  I  can  at  least  give  an  out- 
line of  the  iniquity. 

"  The  United  States  Government  loses  every  year  millions  of  dol- 
lars to  the  railroads  of  the  country  by  a  process  that  is  till-tapping  on 
a  huge  scale  —  till-tapping  with  a  touch  of  stealing  from  the  person 
and  something  of  the  '  kinchin  lay '  exploited  in  Mr.  Fagin's  school  of 
crime. 

"  In  the  United  States,  I  need  hardly  say,  the  Government  pays  the 
railroads  for  transporting  the  mails,  and  every  mail  contract  with 
every  railroad  is  a  fraud  and  a  steal. 

"  The  railroads  charge  the  Government  of  the  United  States  two 
and  one-half  times  as  much  as  they  would  charge  any  private  person 
or  corporation  for  exactly  the  same  service.  And  the  Government 
pays  the  thieving  charge.  Year  after  year  it  pays  it.  And  not  a 
Congressman  will  dare  to  raise  a  protest  against  the  robbery. 

"  The  whole  thing  is  of  record.  In  1896  the  whole  swindle  was 
laid  bare  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Noth- 
ing has  been  done,  and  nothing  will  be  done  so  long  as  in  this  country 
we  regard  a  thief  as  anything  but  a  thief. 

"  From  the  mass  of  available  illustrations  of  these  matters,  I  select 
these : 

"  1.  I  had  in  my  possession  once  the  affidavit  of  a  Colorado  rail- 
road man,  explaining  part  of  the  mail  contract  game.  Once  every 
four  years  the  Government  weighs  the  mail  carried  on  each  railroad. 
The  weighing  goes  on  every  day  for  thirty  days,  and  on  the  resulting 
average  the  price  is  made  for  the  next  four  years.  The  time  of 
the  weighing  is  well  known  to  all  concerned.  This  witness,  a  station 
agent,  swore  that  at  weighing  time  on  his  road  he  used  to  send  old 
city  directories,  pieces  of  coupling-pins,  old  bolts,  and  bits  of  paving 
stone  day  by  day  to  the  division  headquarters  of  his  road  and  get 
them  all  back.  A  slice  of  a  grindstone,  he  said,  had  made  the  round 
trip  thirteen  times  in  the  thirty  days.  All  the  stations  on  his  road 
performed  the  like  tricks,  with  the  result  that  for  the  next  four  years 
the  Government  paid  for  a  weight  of  mails  more  than  ten  times  as 
great  as  was  ever  carried. 

"  2.  The  case  is  well  known  of  a.  Western  Congressman  who,  in 
the  weighing  season  of  the  railroad  that  elected  him,  used  to  frank 
50,000  copies  of  his  speeches  to  St.  Louis  one  day  and  back  to  his 
home  the  next. 

"3.  A  few  years  ago  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Rail- 
road was  charging  the  Government  $80,000  and  the  American  Express 
Company  $30,000  a  year  for  the  use  of  its  cars  in  South  Dakota. 
The  accommodations  given  to  the  Government  and  the  express  com- 
pany were  exactly  the  same.  But  the  weight  hauled  for  the  express 
company  was  ten  times  the  weight  hauled  for  the  Government. 

"4.    The  railroad  companies  own  the  postal  cars  and  the  express 

148 


HOW   THE    POISON    WORKS 

cars.  They  charge  the  Government  from  twice  to  four  times  as  much 
for  hauling  a  postal  car 'as  they  charge  the  express  companies  for 
hauling  an  express  car  the  same  distance,  and  express  cars  are  usually 
the  heavier. 

"  These  are  mere  examples.  You  can  pick  up  a  hundred  like  them 
if  you  go  to  Washington.  The  Government  is  a  good  thing  to  the 
railroads. 

"  Not  in  France.  The  French  people  do  not  care  to  have  the  taxes 
they  pay  diverted  to  the  pockets  of  money-grabbers." 

In  his  little  booklet,  entitled  "  The  Parcel  Post,"  Mr.  Elbert  Hub- 
bard  states  that  there  is  not  another  country  on  the  face  of  the  globe 
which  divides  up  its  post-office  business  with  express  companies  as  we 
do.  He  points  out  that  our  postal  treaty  with  Belgium  allows  that 
country  to  mail  packages  to  the  United  States  at  a  less  rate  than  we 
can  send  packages  for  at  home,  and  that  the  weight  limit  of  the 
package  instead  of  being  four  pounds  is  twenty.  "  So  you  see,"  he 
says,  "  we  really  have  the  Parcel  Post  now,  but  to  avail  ourselves  of  it 
we  have  to  go  over  to  Belgium  to  mail  our  packages." 

The  United  States  is  far  behind  most  civilised  countries  in  the  mat- 
ter of  postal  facilities.  In  England  the  Post-office  Department  oper- 
ates a  Postal  Telegraph  and  delivers  messages  of  ten  words  at  a  uni- 
form fee  of  twelve  cents.  It  carries  on  a  Life  Insurance  and  Savings 
Bank  system,  and  practically  carries  all  the  merchandise  that  is  here 
carried  by  Express  Companies  at  an  average  of  one-half  the  rates 
we  pay. 

New  Zealand  has  hadT  a  parcels  post  since  1887.  The  regulations 
admit  of  parcels  up  to  eleven  pounds  and  not  over  three  and  one-half 
feet  long,  nor  more  than  six  feet  in  length  and  girth  combined. 

The  rates  are  less  than  half  those  made  by  our  express  companies 
for  similar  service.  In  addition  to  this  the  government  will  insure 
parcels  for  a  very  moderate  fee.  .  On  January  1,  1901,  New  Zealand 
established  the  first  "Universal  Penny  (2-cent)  Post"  ever  intro- 
duced by  any  country  in  the  world. 

She  sends  a  half-ounce  letter  12,000  miles  to  England  for  two 
cents,  and  at  the  same  rate  to  any  other  part  of  the  British  Empire, 
and  to  many  foreign  countries  — 128  countries  and  states  all  told. 
She  sends  a  ten  pound  package  12,000  miles  to  London  for  75  cents. 
Our  express  companies  charge  from  Boston  to  London,  one-quarter  the 
distance,  one  dollar  for  such  parcel. 

New  Zealand  has  a  postal  savings  bank  and  a  system  by  which  cer- 
tain of  its  citizens  may  vote  by  mail.  The  post-office  department  oper- 
ates the  telegraph  and  telephone  lines,  carries  on  a  life  and  accident 
insurance  business,  a  tax-collection  agency,  and  an  old-age  pension  sys- 
tem. The  post-office,  furthermore,  is  an  open  door  to  the  govern- 
ment loan  office,  the  public  trustee  and  the  public  employment  bureaus, 
while  our  postal  system  has  got  no  further  than  carrying  mails  and 
selling  money  orders.  New  Zealand  makes  a  good  profit  on  her 
postal  business,  despite  the  fact  that  she  sends  a  twelve-word  tele- 
gram, counting  address  and  signature,  1,000  miles  for  twelve  cents, 
where  we  are  charged  50  cents  with  a  thirty-cent  night  rate,  and  has 
a  uniform  telephone  charge  of  $25.00  a  year. 

149 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Mr.  Elbert  Hubbard  thus  sums  up  the  difficulties  which  beset  the 
American  in  his  struggle  for  a  rational,  serviceable,  up-to-date  postal 
system.  "  When  John  Wanamaker,  the  man  who  inaugurated  the  one- 
price  system,  and  the  greatest  merchant  of  his  time,  was  Postmaster- 
General  of  the  United  States,  he  was  asked  his  opinion  of  the  Parcel 
Post.  • 

'.Splendid/  was  his  reply,  'splendid  —  I  wish  we  might  have  it 
here ! ' 

'  Well,  Mr.  Wanamaker,  why  cannot  you  inaugurate  it  ? ' 

'There  are  five  insurmountable  obstacles/ 

'  Will  you  name  them,  please? ' 

'First,  there  is  the  American  Express  Company;  second,  the 
United  States  Express  Company;  third,  the  Adams  Express  Com- 
pany ;  fourth,  the  Wells-Fargo  Express  Company ;  fifth,  the  Southern 
Express  Company.' 

"  If  we  ask  for  the  Parcel  Post,  and  ask  in  faith,  we  will  get  it. 
Work  and  pray  —  hustle  and  supplicate  —  there  is  nothing  finer. 

"  Farmers  everywhere  pray  for  the  Parcel  Post. 

".Sixty-nine  per  cent  of  our  population  lives  in  cities  of  ten  thou- 
sand and  under.  Sixty-nine  per  cent  of  our  population  is  urban  or 
suburban. 

"  We  want  the  Parcel  Post. 

"  Tom  'Platt  plays  Mephisto  and  keeps  the  stage  waiting  while  he 
stuffs  his  weasel  skin. 

"  Soon  Tom  Platt  will  be  consigned  to  Limbus  —  he  blocks  the 
gangway. 

"  Express  companies  practically  serve  only  one-third  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  rest  of  us  they  prey  upon. 

"  The  Eural  Free  Delivery  has  educated  the  party  that  inaugurated 
it.  Every  good  thing  begins  as  something  else,  and  no  one  seemed  to 
anticipate  the  R.  F.  D.  would  be  an  object  lesson  in  applied  socialism." 


"What  good  are  the  express  companies?     . 

"None  at  all.  Everything  they  do  and  every  service  they  rendei 
could  be  done  safer,  better  and  one-half  cheaper  by  the  Postroffice 
Department. 

"  We,  the  people,  pay  tribute  to  Platt,  because  fifty-one  per  cent 
of  the  men  we  send  to  Congress  to  make  our  laws  are  .controlled  by 
his  lobby." 

Wherever  we  look  it  is  the  same  story  of  legislative  corruption. 
The  people  are  suffering  for  the  parcels  post  and  they  must  con- 
tinue to  suffer  simply  because  it  is  for  the  interests  of  special  privilege 
to  exploit  them. 

Not  only  is  the  passing  of  the  American  ideal  emphasised  by  the 
prevalence  of  graft  and  other  forms  of  dishonesty,  but  it  is  also  made 
manifest  by  the  rapid  progress  which  our  chief  executives  are  mak- 
ing toward  the  expensive  grandeur  of  the  kingly  court.  On  June 
7,  1906,  Mr.  Stephen  Brundidge,  Jr.,  member  of  Congress  from  the 
sixth  Arkansas  district,  adverted  to  certain  expenses  of  several  recent 
executives.  According  to  press  reports  he  stated  that  under  the 
Cleveland  administration  there  was  expended  for  the  executive  de- 

150 


HOW   THE   POISON   WORKS 

partment,  inclusive  of  the  President's  salary,  $137,200.  Under  the 
McKinley  administration  there  was  expended  $143,500,  while  the 
bill  which  called  forth  his  remarks  carried  for  the  executive  depart- 
ment, including  the  care  of  the  White  House  greenhouse,  $253,340. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  member  from  Arkansas  said  there  were  forty 
policemen  detailed  to  the  care  of  the  White  House  and  grounds  at  an 
additional  expense  of  $40,000,  making  a  total  of  nearly  $300,000 
which  he  denominated  as  extravagance  run  mad.  Eeferring  to  this 
speech  a  Boston  paper  prints  a  half  column  News  Eeport  from  which 
we  extract  the  following :  "  He  criticised  the  item  appropriating 
$25,000  for  the  traveling  expenses  of  the  President,  and,  incident 
thereto,  said  it  was  probably  made  for  the  purpose  of  providing  for  a 
repetition  of  the  '  muck-rake  speech/ 

'  As  for  myself/  he  said,  *  and  I  believe  for  a  large  proportion 
of  the  people  of  this  government,  we  have  heard  enough  of  this 
muck-rake  nonsense  and  tomfoolery,  and  we  are  disgusted  with  it. 

'  No  wonder,  in  view  of  present  appropriations  and  present  ex- 
penditures —  no  wonder  the  President  should  hold  up  to  public  ridi- 
cule magazines  and  newspapers  of  this  country  and  public  men  and 
private  citizens  who  dare  to  criticise. 

'  I  entertain  the  hope  and  belief  that  the  time  will  never  come 
in  the  history  of  politics  of  this  government  when  any  man  occupy- 
ing a  position  of  public  trust  and  public  office  will  rise  so  high  and 
become  so  great  that  the  humblest  citizen  and  the  humblest  newspaper 
to  the  largest  may  not  justly  and  properly  criticise  his  official  con- 
duct and  actions/ }i 

The  abuse  of  injunctions  in  Federal  Courts  is  of  the  same  piece 
with  their  misuse  in  State  courts,  and  we  shall  reserve  treatment  of 
both  divisions  for  a  later  chapter,  merely  calling  attention  at  this 
juncture  to  the  effect  which  the  rapid  growth  of  this  legal  fungus 
has  upon  the  time-honored  institution  of  trial  by  jury. 

Mr.  Joseph  Henry  Beale,  Jr.,  Professor  of  Law  in  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, has  said :  "  The  right  to  a  trial  by  jury  in  a  criminal  case  is 
justly  regarded  as  most  important  to  popular  liberty.  It  is  often 
erroneously  supposed  that  it  was  secured  by  Magna  Charta;  it  really 
grew  up  accidentally,  in  imitation  of  the  method  of  determining  cer- 
tain issues  in  civil  cases,  and,  later,  subordinate  issues  in  criminal 
cases.  The  method  of  trial  by  jury  in  criminal  cases  has  in  the  last 
hundred  years  been  adopted,  with  some  modifications,  in  other  coun- 
tries. 

"The  distinguishing  feature  of  trial  by  jury,  according  to  our  law, 
is  the  requirement  of  a  unanimous  verdict." 

That  power  grows  by  what  it  feeds  on  is  one  of  the  best-attested 
facts  known  to  man.  The  tendency  of  the  judiciary  is  ever  to  draw 
more  and  more  power  to  itself.  The  abuse  of  the  injunction  and  the 
recent  treatment  of  juries  by  more  than  one  judge  are  cases  in  point. 
It  seems  to  be  very  easy  for  some  judges  to  imagine  themselves  the 
whole  court,  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  the  jury.  In  such  cases  they 
have,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  insulted  jurors  and  indulged  in 
language  tending  to  intimidate  them,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  render 
them  mere  facile  mouthpieces  of  the  Bench,  on  the  other. 

151 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Said  that  keen  French  observer  of  American  life,  De  Tocqueville : 
"  To  look  upon  the  jury  as  a  mere  judicial  institution,  is  to  confine 
our  attention  to  a  very  narrow  view  of  it ;  for,  however  great  its  in- 
fluence may  be  upon  the  decisions  of  the  law-courts,  that  influence  is 
very  subordinate  to  the  powerful  effects  which  it  produces  on  the 
destinies  of  the  community  at  large.  The  jury  is  above  all  a  political 
institution,  and  it  must  be  regarded  in  this  light  in  order  to  be  duly 
appreciated. 

"By  the  jury,  I  mean  a  certain  number  of  citizens  chosen  indis- 
criminately, and  invested  with  a  temporary  right  of  judging.  Trial 
by  jury,  as  applied  to  the  repression  of  crime,  appears  to  me  to  in- 
troduce an  eminently  republican  element  into  the  government,  upon 
the  following  grounds : 

"  The  institution  of  the  jury  may  be  aristocratic  or  democratic,  ac- 
cording to  the  class  of  society  from  which  the  jurors  are  selected ;  but 
it  always  preserves  its  republican  character,  inasmuch  as  it  places  the 
real  direction  of  society  in  the  hands  of  the  governed,  or  of  a  portion 
of  the  governed,  instead  of  leaving  it  under  the  authority  of  the  gov- 
ernment. Force  is  never  more  than  a  transient  element  of  success; 
and  after  force  comes(  the  notion  of  right.  A  government  which 
should  only  be  able  to  crush  its  enemies  upon  a  field  of  battle,  would 
very  soon  be  destroyed.  The  true  sanction  of  political  laws  is  to  be 
found  in  penal  legislation,  and  if  that  sanction  be  wanting,  the  law 
will  sooner  or  later  lose  its  cogency.  He  who  punishes  infractions  of 
the  law  is,  therefore,  the  real  master  of  society.  Now,  the  institu- 
tion of  the  jury  raises  the  people  itself,  or  at  least  a  class  of  citizens, 
to  the  bench  of  judicial  authority.  The  institution  of  the  jury  con- 
sequently invests  the  people,  or  that  class  of  citizens,  with  the  direc- 
tion of  society. 

"In  England  the  jury  is  returned  from  the  aristocratic  portion 
of  the  nation;  the  aristocracy  makes  the  laws,  applies  the  laws,  and 
punishes  all  infractions  of  the  laws;  everything  is  established  upon  a 
consistent  footing,  and  England  may  with  truth  be  said  to  constitute 
an  aristocratic  republic.  In  the  United  States  the  same  system  is 
applied  to  the  whole  people.  Every  American  citizen  is  qualified 
to  be  an  elector,  a  juror,  and  is  eligible  to  office.  The  system  of  the 
jury,  as  it  is  understood  in  America,  appears  to  me  to  be  as  direct  and 
as  extreme  a  consequence  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  as  universal 
suffrage.  These  institutions  are  two  instruments  of  equal  power, 
which  contribute  to  the  supremacy  of  the  majority.  All  the  sover- 
eigns who  have  chosen  to  govern  by  their  own  authority,  and  to  direct 
society  instead  of  obeying  its  direction,  have  destroyed  or  enfeebled 
the  institution  of  the  jury.  The  monarchs  of  the  House  of  Tudor  sent 
to  prison  jurors  who  refused  to  convict,  and  Napoleon  caused  them  to 
be  returned  by  his  agents. 

.  .  .  The  jury  is  pre-eminently  a  political  institution;  it 
must  be  regarded  as  one  form  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people ;  when 
that  sovereignty  is  repudiated,  it  must  be  rejected  —  or  it  must  be 
adapted  to  the  laws  by  which  that  sovereignty  is  established." 

Judge  Story,  a  most  eminent  authority,  has  characterised  trial  by 
jury  in  criminal  cases  as  "  essential  to  political  and  civil  liberty/' 

152 


HOW   THE    POISON   WORKS 

Secretary  Taft,  however,  in  an  address  to  the  graduating  class  of 
the  Yale  law  school,  on  June  26,  1905,  made  an  attack  upon  the  in- 
stitution of  trial  by  jury.  He  considers  jury  trial  a  fetich,  and  con- 
demned its  adoption  in  Porto  Eico  and  approved  of  its  exclusion  from 
the  Philippines.  Commenting  upon  Mr.  Taft's  utterance,  "  The  Pub- 
lic "  remarks  editorially : 

"  True  to  that  judicial  instinct  which  found  its  most  faithful  ex- 
emplification in  the  career  of  Jeffreys,  Mr.  Taft  regards  '  miscarriages 
of  justice'  and  acquittals  as  synonymous  terms.  .  .  .  Let  jury 
trial  in  criminal  cases  be  abolished,  or  the  absolute  rights  of  the  jury 
be  curtailed  by  judges,  and  personal  liberty  would  soon  depend,  as  it 
did  in  the  past  in  similar  circumstances,  upon  the  grace  of  rulers  or 
the  mercy  of  judges." 

A  very  clever  satirist,  who  writes  trenchant  truths  under  the  caption 
of  "  Uncle  Sam's  Letters  to  John  Bull,"  sums  up  the  Taft  episode 
as  follows :  "  Nature  keeps  on  a  repeatin'  herself.  Blamed  if  I  don't 
turn  up  Tories  now  and  then  that  I  licked  hard  and  fast  in  the  Bevo- 
lution,  just  as  I  used  to  turn  up  Indian  flints  with  the  plow !  Seems 
to  me  my  whole  Eepublican  party  has  turned  tory  and  imperialistic. 
There's  my  boy,  Taft,  home  from  the  Philippines.  He's  been  lecturin' 
the  law  class  down  at  Yale.  On  liberty,  you  guess?  Nay,  Sarah! 
Against  the  jury  system.  It's  amazin'  how  popular  the  king  business 
is  with  the  kings,  and  a  judge  who  can  hang  a  man  on  his  own  sayso 
is  no  slouch  of  a  king. 

"  Now,  I  ain't  a  sayin',  John,  that  the  cadi  system  don't  have  its 
advantages.  The  cadi  sees  that  the  man  ought  to  be  executed,  so 
what's  the  use  of -gettin'  the  consent  of  twelve  other  men,  the  jury  of 
his  peers,  required  under  the  Charter  of  John,  which  is  your  Charter 
and  mine,  and  our  protection? 

"  Taft  says  there  wouldn't  be  so  many  lynchings,  if  men  who  com- 
mit crime  were  promptly  arrested  and  convicted;  an'  I  guess  that's 
so.  Likewise,  two  times  two  is  four;  but  what's  that  got  to  do  with 
the  jury  system?  It's  the  judges  that  let  out  the  rich  and  powerful 
criminals,  not  the  juries.  Do  the  juries  quash  indictments,  and  grant 
new  trials,  and  impose  light  sentences  ?  Nixie !  The  jury  system  is 
not  perfect,  but  it's  the  best  the  world's  got  up  to  date;  and  it  keeps 
fellows  like  Taft  from  doin'  things  without  proper  meditation  and 
reference  to  the  Charter  rules.  Why,  they  tell  me  the  '  English  State 
Trials'  are  big  books  full  of  trials  after  some  rebellion  or  uprisin', 
when  bloodthirsty  British  judges  traveled  circuit  and  murdered  people 
right  and  left  by  abusin'  the  jury  system.  When  the  jury  wouldn't 
bring  a  man  in  guilty,  the  judge  sent  'em  back  till  they  did.  No,  the 
jury  system  is  all  right,  and  I'm  a-thinkin'  of  extendin'  it  to  women. 
Why  should  a  woman  be  hanged  without  a  jury  of  her  peers?  Why 
should  a  woman  be  hanged  at  all  ?  Think  of  it !  I'm  ashamed  of  my 
boys  in  some  things." 

In  "  Ethics  of  Democracy  "  Mr.  Louis  F.  Post  says :  "  Those  who 
oppose  the  system  of  jury  trial  would  have  accused  persons  tried  by 
judges,  by  experts  in  the  law,  who  are  skilled  in  unraveling  tangled 
evidence.  And  this  is  what  such  conduct  as  that  of  the  judge  quoted 
above  tends  to.  It  is  the  tendency  of  all  the  rebuking  of  jurymen 

153 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

which  certain  types  of  judges  indulge  in,  from  the  judge  who  offi- 
ciously probes  the  general  opinions  of  jurors  at  the  beginning  of  the 
term,  and  dismisses  them,  sometimes  insolently,  if  he  doesn't  like 
their  point  of  view,  to  those  who,  like  the  judge  already  quoted, 
chastise  the  juries  that  acquit  prisoners  whom  the  judge  would  have 
convicted.  Whatever  may  be  the  purpose,  the  manifest  effect  is  to 
intimidate  jurors,  thereby  making  them  responsive  to  significant 
words  and  shoulder-shrugs  from  the  bench,  and  constituting  the  judge 
a  thirteenth  juror,  with  the  independence,  the  intelligence  and  the 
conscience  of  the  other  twelve  wrapped  in  the  folds  of  his  silken 
gown.  The  tendency  of  this  reprehensible  course  of  action  is  to  re- 
duce the  jury  system  to  a  barren  formality,  and  for  juries  drawn  from 
the  people  to  substitute  an.  autocratic  bench  of  experts."  .  .  . 

"So  long,  therefore,  as  the  independence  of  the  jury  can  be  pre- 
served, individual  liberty  cannot  be  quite  destroyed.  All  other  free  in- 
stitutions might  go,  even  the  suffrage  might  be  restricted  to  the  very 
rich  or  the  highly  educated,  yet,  if  the  penal  law  were  administered 
by  independent  juries  drawn  from  the  body  of  the  people,  the  grosser 
forms  of  tyranny  would  still  be  held  in  check. 

"  That  explains  the  tendency  to  minimise  the  function  of  juries. 
With  the  jury  system  out  of  the  way  or  become  a  mere  form,  and  ex- 
perts invested  with  power  to  punish  infractions  of  the  law,  our  gov- 
ernment would  go  on  developing  into  a  government  by  experts  until 
it  had  reached  the  inevitable  climax,  government  by  a  single  expert 
born  to  his  place  and  specially  educated  to  his  function  —  the  govern- 
ment of  a  czar." 

On  the  20th  of  April,  1905,  Judge  Barnes,  of  Illinois,  insulted  a 
jury  for  finding  a  verdict  of  not  guilty  in  the  case  of  a  man  charged 
with  larceny. 

Kef  erring  to  this  a  Chicago  weekly  remarks :  "  And  thereupon  this 
judge  denounced  them  from  the  bench  with  language  and  in  a  man- 
ner that  ought  to  subject  him  to  impeachment,  if  indeed  it  would  not. 
The  craze  for  convictions  has  demoralised  policemen,  prosecutors,  some 
juries  and  some  judges." 

Another  case  in  point  is  that  of  the  alleged  kidnapper  of  the  son 
of  a  very  wealthy  and  well-known  man.  After  submitting  to  extor- 
tion and  thus  securing  the  release  of  his  child,  the  father  offered  a 
large  reward  for  the  conviction  of  the  dastardly  criminals. 

The  police  produced  a  man,  let  us  call  him  John  Doe,  and  charged 
him  with  the  crime.  In  due  course  he  was  tried  and  the  jury  returned 
a  verdict  of  "  not  guilty."  The  jurors,  it  is  said,  were  suspicious  that 
the  detectives  had  manufactured  a  case  in  order  to  obtain  the  large 
reward  offered  by  the  father. 

The  judge  forgetting,  as  judges  are  so  prone  to  do,  that  he  was 
but  a  part,  and,  in  the  case  of  this  verdict,  an  inferior  part,  of  the 
Court,  since  the  jury  was  his  judicial  superior,  took  occasion  to  use 
this  insolent  and  abusive  language : 

"  If  John  Doe  had  made  his  own  choice  of  a  jury  he  could  not  have 
selected  twelve  men  who  could  have  served  him  more  faithfully.  If 
the  State  had  made  the  selection,  I  know  of  no  men  it  could  have 
named  who  could  have  been  less  careful  of  its  interests.  The  jury  is 

154 


HOW  THE    POISON   WORKS 

discharged  without  the  compliments  of  the  court,  and  the  prisoner  is 
likewise  released,  as  to  this  trial,  I  presume,  to  continue  the  criminal 
practice  in  which  you  have  failed  to  check  him.  I  do  not  know  what 
motive  actuated  you  in  reaching  this  decision,  but  I  hope  none  of  you 
will  ever  again  appear  in  this  jury-box." 

Is  not  this  the  quintessence  of  judicial  arrogance  and  effrontery? 
It  would  be  interesting  to  know  just  how  it  should  be  characterised. 
Here  is  a  man  tried  and  acquitted  according  to  the  laws  and  usages 
of  the  land. 

It  is  a  legal  maxim  that  all  men  are  to  be  considered  innocent 
until  proved  guilty.  John  Doe,  therefore,  was  never,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law,  guilty  of  the  offence  with  which  he  was  charged.  Not  only  this, 
but  the  jury  in  returning  its  verdict  pronounced  him  legally  innocent. 
Despite  both  this  negative  and  positive  asseveration  of  his  innocence 
before  the  law,  this  judge,  a  mere  servant  of  the  people,  created  with 
the  express  understanding  that  he  should  be  inferior  to  the  jury  in  all 
such  cases,  in  utter  contempt  of  courts  and  of  the  dignity  of  the  law, 
presumes  to  insult  not  only  the  jury,  but  the  prisoner  as  well.  He 
has  the  hardihood  to  set  his  own -personal  opinion  above  that  of  the 
jury,  and  to  brand  the  acquitted  man  as  a  criminal  in  his  august 
opinion.  It  would  seem  as  if  it  were  high  time  that  judges  and  prose- 
cuting attorneys  should  be  estopped  from  utterances  in  the  court- 
room which,  if  made  upon  the  street,  would  be  considered  tantamount 
to  an  assault.  Suppose  this  judge  had,  as  a  private  citizen,  stepped 
up  to  a  man  upon  the  street  and  publicly  shouted,  "  Sir !  You  are,  w 
my  opinion,  a  kidnapper,  a  levier  of  blackmail  and  an  unmitigated 
scoundrel ! "  And  suppose  John  Doe  had  promptly  knocked  him 
down.  Which  one  in  the  last  analysis  would  have  been  guilty  of  as- 
sault ?  Is  the  outrage  any  less  noticeable  when  it  takes  place  directly 
after  John  Doe  is  adjudged  "not  guilty"? 

Commenting  upon  this  incident  Mr.  Post  says  in  "Ethics  of 
Democracy  " :  "  That  insult  to  the  jury  was  worse  than  contempt  of 
court.  It  was  worse  than  a  breach  of  judicial  decorum.  It 
was  a  crime  against  democratic  government.  For  it  was  calcu- 
lated by  intimidating  jurors  to  undermine  the  independence  of 
juries  and  destroy  the  integrity  of  the  system  of  jury  trial.  And  the 
worst  of  it  all  is  that  this  instance  is  only  one  among  many  that  indi- 
cate a  disposition  on  the  part  of  some  judges  to  reduce  trial  by  jury 
to  an  empty  form  with  only  a  curious  historical  meaning." 

In  October  of  1905  Judge  Barnes  of  Chicago  insulted  a  jury  which 
had  simply  performed  its  duty.  At  the  close  of  the>  trial  in  question 
he  lawlessly  invaded  the  jury-box  by  saying,  "  Let  the  jury  go  out 
and  bring  in  its  verdict;  the  guilt  is  obvious."  Despite  this  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  judge  to  reduce  the  jury  to  mere  lay  figures,  a 
verdict  of  "  Not  guilty  "  was  returned,  at  which  this  judge  riotously 
exclaimed:  "What?  Not  guilty?  That  is  a  travesty  on  justice.  It 
is  a  shame  that  such  stupid  and  unintelligent  men  should  be  taken  as 
jurors.  In  this  case  the  evidence  was  so  conclusive  that  I  did  not 
think  it  necessary  to  instruct  you.  Not  guilty!  I  won't  have  such 
a  set  of  men  in  the  jury-seats.  You  are  all  discharged  without  pay. 
You  don't  deserve  a  red  cent.  Such  a  jury  is  a  detriment  to  justice. 

155 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

You  are  about  as  useful  as  a  set  of  ninepins,  so  far  as  brains  and 
common  sense  go." 

Commenting  on  this  outrage,  a  Chicago  weekly  prints  the  follow- 
ing :  "  Such  a  man  is  unfit  to  sit  in  a  court  where  liberty  and  life  are 
at  stake;  and  our  legislature  would  impeach  him  if  it  had  any  regard 
for  judicial  propriety  and  dignity.  Judge  Barnes,  instead  of  studying 
the  landmarks  of  the  law  he  is  assigned  to  administer,  must  be  a  stu- 
dent of  "  Alice  in  Wonderland,"  for  there  we  read : 

'  I'll  be  judge,  I'll  be  jury,' 
Said  cunning  old  Fury  — 
I'll  try  the  whole  case 
And  condemn  you  to  death.' " 

The  treatment  of  Mr.  James  E.  Tyner  by  President  Roosevelt  is  of 
a  similar  stripe.  The  following  extract  from  an  editorial  in  "  The 
Public "  of  Dec.  12,  1903,  will  sufficiently  explain  the  case :  "  Mr. 
James  N.  Tyner,  the  assistant  postmaster-general  of  the  post-office, 
department,  has  just  grounds  of  complaint  against  President  Roose- 
velt and  he  states  them  in  a  dignified  way.  Mr.  Tyner  is  under  in- 
dictment for  fraud  in  connexion  with  his  official  position.  He  is 
entitled,  as  are  all  men  under  indictment,  to  a  fair  trial.  No  official, 
no  newspaper,  no  citizen  has  any  right  to  prejudice  public  sentiment 
against  him.  When  an  indictment  comes  into  court,  public  attack 
upon  the  accused  should  cease.  This  is  only  decent  among  fair- 
minded  men.  But  President  Eoosevelt  takes  advantage  of  his  high 
position  to  gain  the  ear  of  every  possible  juror  with  an  assertion  of 
his  belief  in  Tyner's  guilt.  To  this  unwarranted  mode  of  influencing 
juries  in  criminal  cases,  Mr.  Tyner  very  properly  responds  with  a 
searching  question.  '  Has  it  occurred  to  you/  he  asks  the  President, 
1  that  pending  the  trial  of  the  three  indictments  against  me,  based 
on  the  allegations  of  the  report,  and  without  having  heard  one  word 
from  me  in  my  defense,  your  premature  and  unwarranted  announce- 
ment of  my  assumed  guilt  and  your  call  to  the  court  and  jury  to  in- 
dorse the  same,  is,  to  say  the  least,  extraordinary  and  dangerous  ? ' 

"  Every  man  accused  of  crime  is  entitled  to  certain  rights.  Not  to 
condone  his  crime  if  he  is  guilty,  but  to  shield  him  from  injustice  if 
he  is  innocent  or  excusable.  One  of  those  rights  is  that  the  jury  must 
regard  him  as  innocent  until  his  guilt  is  affirmatively  proved  beyond 
reasonable  doubt.  Of  this  right,  President  Roosevelt  has  done  much 
to  deprive  Mr.  Tyner.  With  the  President's  denunciation  in  mind, 
many  a  juror  would  go  into  the  box  convinced  of  the  defendant's  guilt. 
So  Mr.  Tyner  would  have  to  prove  his  innocence  instead  of  challenging 
the  prosecution  to  prove  him  guilty.  Courts  sometimes  punish  news- 
papers for  doing  what  President  Roosevelt  has  done  in  this  case." 

It  were  easy  enough,  would  space  permit,  to  cite  many  other  cases 
showing  unauthorised  and  abusive  treatment  by  judges  and  prosecut- 
ing attorneys,  but  they  would  only  extend  the  proof  of  what  the  un- 
biased and  well-informed  reader  must  already  fully  realise,  namely, 
that  this  is  but  another  symptom  indicating  that  the  general  trend  of 
affairs  in  the  United  States  is  away  from  the  liberty, —  the  de- 
centralising democracy  of  Jefferson  and  Franklin,  and  toward  the 

156 


HOW   THE    POISON   WORKS 

bondage,  the  undemocratic  centralisation  of  Hamilton  and  Taft,  hav- 
ing its  ripest  fruitage  in  the  Eooseveltian  imperialism  of  the  dominant 
political  party. 

It  is  the  old  story  over  again.  While  we  are  kept  too  preoccu- 
pied to  correctly  read  the  signs  of  the  times, —  while  the  mad  chase 
for  the  dollar  obliterates  all  other  concerns,  we  are  being  insidiously 
and  inch  by  inch  robbed  of  our  liberties  as  men  and  at  American 
citizens. 

The  Italian  proverb,  "Public  money  is  like  holy  water;  everyone 
helps  himself  to  it,"  is  fairly  descriptive  of  present  conditions. 
Wealth,  however  gotten,  is  a  better  passport  to  social  distinction  than 
any  amount  of  impoverished  virtue.  The  saying,  "  When  honour  grew 
mercenary,  money  grew  honourable,"  fitly  characterises  the  ethical 
status  of  the  great  mass  of  our  politicians,  statesmen,  and  legislators ; 
of  our  executives,  judges  and  lawyers ;  of  our  clergymen,  press  writers, 
political  economists,  educators  and  business-men. 

The  history  of  decadent  Greece  and  Rome  shouts  its  warnings  to 
us  across  the  centuries  but  their  voices  are  drowned  in  the  clink  of 
coin  or  lost  in  the  self-satisfied  cat-like  purr  of  optimism. 

We  used  to  suppose  that  the  United  States  Constitution  was  an 
invulnerable  safeguard  of  our  rights  and  our  liberties,  but  of  late 
years  the  converse  of  this  has  been  forced  upon  us.  There  has  been 
so  much  "  interpreting  "  of  this  document  that  the  uninitiated  might 
easily  fancy  it  another  "  Eevelations."  In  England  the  will  of  the 
people  as  expressed  by  parliament  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  is  a  far  more  salutary  provision, 
so  far  as  the  liberty  of  the  people  is  concerned;  than  a  constitution 
which  is  the  plaything  of  the  Supreme  Court.  This  interpretation 
of  the  meaning  of  legislative  acts  gives  a  power  to  the  tribunal  which 
performs  that  office  scarcely  second  to  that  which  makes  the  enact- 
ments. In  this  way  is  the  will  of  the  people  subverted. 

In  his  work  "  On  the  Constitution/'  J.  Story  says,  "  No  man  in  a 
republican  government  can  doubt  that  the  will  of  the  people  is  and 
ought  to  be  supreme." 

In  New  Zealand,  when  a  law  is  enacted,  every  term  contained 
therein,  about  the  definition  of  which  there  could  possibly  be  two 
opinions,  is  clearly  defined.  This  is  as  great  an  advance  upon  our 
system  as  is  the  New  Zealand  abolition  of  legal  precedent  and  the  try- 
ing of  all  cases  on  their  merits,  upon  our  ridiculous  system  of  inter- 
minal  citations  of  former  decisions. 

In  order  to  see  clearly  how  like  putty  our  Constitution  has  be- 
come in  the  hands  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  how  easy  it  is  for  party 
politics  with  the  aid  of  the  Chief  Executive  to  control  its  decisions 
and  through  them  the  Constitution  itself,  let  us  consider  the  facts 
for  a  moment. 

The  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  are  nominated  and  appointed  by 
the  President  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  and 
nominally  hold  office  during  good  behaviour. 

Let  us  suppose  now  that  the  question  arises  as  to  whether  or  not 
the  Constitution  follows  the  flag,  and  that,  coincident  with  this  issue, 

157 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

there  are  vacancies  upon  the  Supreme  Bench.  What  will  be  likely  to 
occur? 

An  unscrupulous  Executive  might  easily  bargain  with  a  would-be- 
judge  to  rule  as  he  and  his  party  might  desire,  as  the  price  of  his  ap- 
pointment, but  such  dishonesty  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  the  at- 
tainment of  the  same  end.  Nothing  further  is  required  than  that 
the  honest  convictions  of  the  various  persons  eligible  shall  be  known 
or  ascertained,  in  order  for  the  Executive  to  make  sure  that  the  de- 
cisions of  the  appointees  shall  be  but  a  replica  of  his  own  views. 
Nothing  is  more  natural,  more  in  accord  with  human  nature  as  at 
present  organised,  than  that  we  should  consider  those  most  eligible 
to  an  office  who  hold  our  own  views  in  regard  thereto.  It  could 
hardly  be  expected,  for  example,  that  Mr.  Eoosevelt  would  nominate 
for  the  Supreme  Bench  a  Jeffersonian  democrat  to  whom  imperialism 
was  avowedly  a  national  crime. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connexion  that  Justice  Brown,  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  has  announced  his  purpose  to  retire  next  Oc- 
tober, (1906)  while  Justices  Fuller  and  Harlan  both  passed  the  age 
at  which  they  might  retire  three  years  ago,  and  Justices  Peckham  and 
Brewer  will  attain  that  age  next  year.  The  ages  of  the  Justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court  are  as  follows : 

Chief  Justice  Fuller  73  years  old 

"          "        Harlan    73  «  " 

"          "       Brewer 69  "  " 

"          "       Brown     70  «  «  " 

"          "       White 61  "  " 

"          "       Peckham     68  "  " 

McKenna    63  "  " 

Holmes 65  "  " 

«          "       Day 57  "  " 

The  last  two  members  were  appointed  by  President  Eoosevelt.  Jus- 
tice Brown's  successor  will  make  the  third  appointed  by  the  present 
Executive.  Should  two  more  retire  during  'Pres.  Roosevelt's  term  of 
office,  as  seems  more  than  likely,  Mr.  Roosevelt  will  probably  enjoy 
the  singular  distinction  of  appointing  a  majority  of  the  highest  court 
in  the  land. 

What  such  power  vested  in  a  single  individual  means  in  a 
Democracy  none  who  are  well-informed  will  need  be  told.  The  Su- 
preme Court,  as  well  as  the  United  States  Senate,  was  primarily  cre- 
ated that  it  might  subvert  the  will  of  the  common  people,  and  to-day 
it  is  used  to  read  into  our  Constitution  sentiments  which  the  original 
framers  thereof  never  for  a  moment  endorsed. 

Thus  is  it  that  our  Constitution,  primarily  intended  as  a  demo- 
cratic safeguard,  has  come  of  late  to  be  one  of  our  gravest  menaces. 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution  was 
adopted  for  the  purpose  of  securing  certain  results  of  the  Civil  War 
and  of  allaying  certain  race  evils  growing  out  of  it.  No  one  at  the 
time  of  its  adoption  considered  it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  means 
for  the  protection  of  negro  citizens  from  hostile  State  legislation. 

158 


HOW   THE    POISON   WORKS 

On  April  17th,  1905,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  made 
a  decision  pronouncing  a  New  York  statute,  limiting  labour-time  in 
bakeries  to  ten  hours  a  day,  unconstitutional  and  contrary  to  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  This,  too,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  same  court  had  held  the  eight-hour  law  for  work  in 
mines  to  be  valid. 

Here  once  again  we  see  the  tendency  of  judges  to  draw  to  them- 
selves unwarranted  power  aptly  illustrated,  and  we  should  not  lose 
sight  of  the  significant  fact  that  this  decision  regarding  labour  in 
bakeries  was  arrived  at  by  a  five  to  four  decision,  Judges  Harlan, 
White,  Day  and  Holmes,  dissenting,  so  that  we  are  confronted  with 
the  fact  that  a  single  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  is  able  effectively 
to  declare  that  the  State  of  New  York  is  not  competent  to  determine 
within  its  own  territory  how  many  hours  a  day  a  baker  may  work 
without  jeopardising  his  health.  This  is  a  direct  and  palpable  in- 
fringement of  a  state's  right  to  police  regulation. 

And  now  comes  the  cream  of  the  episode.  The  tool  used  by  the 
Court  to  bring  about  this  decision  in  favour  of  capital  and  against 
labour  is  that  "same  Fourteenth  Amendment,  made  with  a  view  to  negro 
rights,  in  which  intended  capacity  it  is  the  most  dismal  of  failures. 
It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  certain  States  deny  the  colored  the  rights 
expressly  guaranteed  by  this  Amendment,  and  that  negroes,  though 
they  have  tried  desperately,  have  never  yet  been  able  to  get  the  ear 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  for  relief.  Here,  then, 
we  have  the  highest  tribunal  of  the  land,  while  negligently  disregard- 
ing the  plain  intent  of  this  Amendment,  reading  into  it  something  it 
was  never  intended  to  contain,  and  then  using  that  something  to 
abridge  the  rights  of  statehood. 

What  wonder  that  Philosopher  Dooley  remarks  regarding  the  Su- 
preme Court  decision  to  the  effect  that  "  th'  constitution  don't  follow 
th'  flag :  "  " '  An'  there  ye  have  th'  decision,  Hinnissy,  that's  shaken 
th'  intellicts  iv  th'  nation  to  their  very  foundations,  or  will  if  they  thry 
to  read  it.  'Tis  all  r-right.  Look  it  over  some  time.  'Tis  fine  spoort 
if  ye  don't  care  f'r  checkers.  Some  say  it  laves  th'  flag  up  in  th' 
air  an'  some  say  that's  where  it  laves  th'  constitution.  Annyhow, 
something's  in  th'  air.  But  there's  wan  thing  I'm  sure  about. 

'  What's  that  ?  '  asked  Mr.  Hennessy. 

'  That  is,"  said  Mr.  Dooley,  '  no  matther  whether  th'  constitution 
follows  th'  flag  or  not,  th'  supreme  coort  follows  th'  iliction  returns.' '' 

Such  Supreme  Court  decisions  call  to  mind  the  story  of  the  little 
girl  who,  after  hearing  a  quartet  of  boys  tell  what  they  were  going  to 
do  when  they  grew  up,  and  refusing  to  express  her  own  ambitions, 
finally  made  the  following  very  private  confession  to  her  favourite 
aunt: 

"  I  wouldn't  tell  before  them"  she  said  scornfully.  "  They  couldn't 
understand.  But,  aunty,  I  want  to  be  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  " —  her  voice  became  solemn  — ''  beyond  human  control." 

As  we  write,  the  following  editorial  note  in  "  The  Public "  of 
March  17,  1906  apropos  of  corrupting  judges  comes  to  our  notice: 
"  An  investigation  of  public  corruption  is  in  progress  in  Cincinnati, 
which  gives  promise  as  it  proceeds  of  scandalous  revelations,  The 

159 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Republican  leader,  Boss  Cox,  already  known  to  be  unfit,  notwithstand- 
ing the  respectability  of  his  associates,  has  been  shown  to  have  regu- 
lated decisions  of  the  judiciary  as  well  as  the  distribution  of  public 
plunder.  And  the  developments  thus  far  point  to  higher  game  than 
Boss  Cox." 

Space  does  not  permit  even  of  mentioning  many  of  the  national 
legislative  and  judicial  evils  which  have  come  upon  us  with  the  general 
breaking  down  of  civic  and  commercial  morality  resulting  from  the 
deification  of  the  dollar. 

A  few  of  the  most  glaring  must  still  be  adverted  to. 

Among  these  mention  should  be  made  of  the  general  tendency  to- 
ward governmental  concentration  and  the  increasing  frequency  and 
boldness  of  utterances  questioning  the  wisdom  of  universal  suffrage. 
The  hand  of  Hamilton  seems  to  reach  from  the  grave,  seise  upon  the 
tiller  of  the  Ship  of  State,  and  head  her  toward  those  rocks  of  ruin 
which  always  seemed  to  his  aristocratic  mind  her  ideal  harbor  of 
refuge. 

Alexander  Hamilton  wanted  the  President  chosen  for  life,  and  re- 
cently politicians,  who  certainly  should  and  probably  do  know  better, 
have  advocated  a  great  increase  in  the  presidential  term  of  office. 

Along  with  this  has  gone  an  agitation  for  increase  of  official  salaries, 
on  the  part  of  those  who  seem  to  think  the  chief  executive  should  be 
as  nearly  as  possible  like  a  king,  not  only  in  the  duration  of  his  term 
of  office,  but  in  the  undemocratic  and  princely  splendour  for  his  life. 
They  see  no  reason  why  he  should  not  keep  thirty  blooded  horses  and 
a  retinue  of  officials  and  servants  to  match.  They  would  have  these 
officials  salaried  so  liberally  that  they  too  could  afford  to  indulge  in  that 
un-American  ostentation  which  they  believe  duly  impresses  other  na- 
tions with  our  real  worth.  All  this,  of  course,  is  but  an  inevitable 
corollary  of  that  spirit  of  Hamiltonianism  with  which  we  have  so 
soon  to  reckon,  once  for  all,  if  we  are  to  preserve  in  the  United  States 
anything  worthy  the  name  of  liberty.  The  issue  is  clearly  joined. 
If  we  cannot  raise  ourselves  to  the  level  of  Jeffersonian  ideals,  our 
children  and  our  children's  children  will  be  slaves,  with  nought  of 
freedom  but  an  ever  dimming  memory  of  bygone  greatness.  Along 
with  the  general  trend  of  affairs  noted  above  is  the  proposition,  which 
has  been  seriously  made  by  men  in  high  places,  that  gold  be  made  the 
only  legal  tender. 


160 


CHAPTER  IV 

CONTRACTION  OF  CURRENCY  AND  EX- 
PANSION OF  STATISTICS 


161 


Money  is  the  common  denominator  of  all  desires. 

Social  bodies,  in  common  with  all  other  bodies,  are  subject  to  the  laws 
of  motion.  They  have  an  inertia  which  prevents  their  instant  mobilisa- 
tion. Hence  it  follows  that  a  sensible  period  of  time  must  always  elapse 
before  society  can  adjust  itself  to  the  new  conditions  arising  out  of  a 
change  in  the  volume  of  currency.  From  this  social  lag  the  creditor- 
class  reaps  many  a  golden  harvest.  The  debtor-class  cannot  return  the 
compliment  since  it  lacks  the  power  to  controlthe  currency. 

To  loan  a  thousand  dollars  when  it  represents  two  hundred  barrels  of 
flour  and  then  so  to  manipulate  national  finances  that  at  time  of  pay- 
ment it  shall  mean  three  hundred  barrels  of  the  same  commodity,  that 
is  the  trick,  and  they  who  play  it  are  yclept  financiers  and  bedecked  with 
the  purple  of  public  opinion. 

Rational  money  —  a  national  currency  intelligently  controlled  in  the 
interests  of  the  whole  people  and  carefully  regulated  in  reference  to  the 
true  commodity  basis,  the  real  constant  of  exchange,  by  means  of  the 
multiple  standard  in  such  a  way  that  the  dollar  shall  remain  constant 
in  its  purchasing  power  from  month  to  month  and  year  to  year,  repre- 
senting always  the  same  average  amount  of  commodities  and  services 
and  giving  to  its  possessor  at  all  times  the  same  average  command  over 
the  world  of  purchasable  things. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons. 

For  six  hundred  years  Venice  had  no  money  panic.  In  this  country 
as  many  as  ten  disastrous  panics  have  occurred  within  a  single  life  — 
a  rate  that  would  have  given  Venice  over  a  hundred  panics  during  the 
life  of  her  credit  bank.  .  .  . 

The  Bank  of  Venice  lasted  longer  than  any  other  money  system  known 
to  history,  and  it  clearly  proved  that  an  "  irredeemable  "  legal  tender,  re- 
ceivable in  the  revenues  and  enforced  in  the  payment  of  debts,  may  have 
far  greater  convenience,  safety  and  stability  than  coin  or  any  money  re- 
deemable in  coin.  .  .  . 

One  of  the  main  causes  of  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  the 
appreciation  of  the  precious  metals  used  as  money. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons, 

Rational  Money. 

The  most  striking  display  of  monetary  power  is  shown  by  the  action 
of  the  foreign  syndicate  in  stopping  the  gold  drain  of  a  million  or  more 
a  week  from  the  Treasury.  It  seems,  with  the  gain  in  gold  and  some 
expansion  by  the  banks,  to  have  restored  confidence  and  revived  busi- 
ness, and  to  show  that,  under  a  gold  system,  a  few  men  hold  National 
prosperity  on  tap  to  be  sold  to  the  highest  bidder.  In  this  view  the  six 
or  eight  millions  profit  paid  by  Mr.  Cleveland  seems  reasonable.  Terror 
is  reported  at  Washington  and  a  stock  decline  in  Wall  Street  from  fear 
that  these  bankers  will  not  protect  the  United  States  till  October.  A 
great  nation  grovels  at  the  feet  of  a  foreign  syndicate. 

Major  Winn. 

"  Figures  won't  lie,  but  liars  will  figure." 

Truth  is  a  relation,  wherefore  it  happens  that  by  so  arranging  statistics 
as  to  make  comparisons  impossible  she  may  be  concealed  indefinitely. 

The  verdict  acquits  the  raven,  but  condemns  the  dove. 

Juvenal  —  Satirae. 


162 


CHAPTER  IV 

CONTRACTION  OF  CURRENCY  AND  EX- 
PANSION OF  STATISTICS 


HE  effect  of  currency  manipulation  upon  the  social 
well-being  of  the  community  can  hardly  be  exagger- 
ated in  importance.  Any  change  in  this  regard  is 
bound  to  affect  unjustly  all  parties  to  contracts.  This 
iniquity  will  be  beneficial  to  one  side  and  harmful  to 
the  other,  whichever  way  the  circulating  medium  is 
manipulated.  If  legal  tender  be  contracted  it  will  tend  unjustly  to 
benefit  the  rich  while  it  unjustly  hardships  the  poor.  The  rich  will 
get  more  of  the  products  of  labour  for  each  of  their  dollars,  while  the 
worker  will  have  to  give  more  for  each  dollar  he  receives.  The  farmer 
buys  money  with  wheat  just  as  truly  as  the  broker  buys  wheat  with 
money. 

As  will  be  seen  by  the  perusal  of  the  following  facts,  the  course 
of  the  party,  at  present  dominant,  has  ever  been  toward  currency  re- 
striction, notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  noblest  representative  of 
that  party,  Abraham  Lincoln,  said,  if  memory  serves  us,  that  he  knew 
of  no  political  crime  worse  than  the  contraction  of  the  currency. 
Tjere-  have  been  slight  temporary  set-backs  to  this  policy,  but  they 
have  sen'H.  only  to  emphasise  the  persistent  trend  toward  that  cur- 
rency restriction  which  serves  more  and  more  to  place  the  debtor 
absolutely  \t  the  creditor's  mercy  in  times  of  financial  stress.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  realise  how  those  who  have  loaned  money  desire  to 
get  all  they  can  in  way  of  payment.  Under  proper  conditions  this 
desire  would  be  checked  by  the  contrary  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
debtor  to  pay  as  little  as  possible  for  the  loans  made  to  him.  But 
as  things  are,  the  moneyed  class  who  make  loans  also  make  laws,  and 
the  result  is  that  they  have  persistently  squeezed  the  borrower.  Any 
restriction  of  currency  is  but  an  added  weapon  to  this  end,  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  already  over-armed  capitalistic  class.  It  is  a  fine 
ihing,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  money-lender,  to-day  to  make  a  loan, 
say,  to  a  miller,  payable  in  five  years,  for  an  amount  of  money  which 
is  now  the  equivalent  value  of  one  thousand  barrels  of  flour,  and  then, 
before  the  five  years  expire,  so  to  manipulate  the  national  currency 
that  the  miller  will  have  to  give  up  two  thousand  barrels  of  flour  to 
discharge  his  indebtedness. 

This  is  in  kind  precisely  what  has  occurred  again  and  again.  This 
is  the  real  definition  of  that  high  sounding  and  seductive  term  "  honest 
money" 

Let  us  consult  history  for  a  moment.  Under  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution no  state  can  make  anything  except  gold  and  silver  a  legal  ten- 

163 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

der.  ('engross,  on  the  contrary,  is  without  limit'  in  this  regard,  and 
could  constitutionally  declare  rimllen  leaves  legal  tender  at  the  rate  of 
a  hundred  dollars  a  leaf,  should  it  so  desire. 

Were  all  debts  merely  obligations  of  honor  and  not  subject  to  en- 
forced legal  collection, 'there  would  be  no  such  thing  as  the  money 
question,  for  then,  in  times  of  financial  stress,  no  advantage  would 
accrue  to  the  loaning  class  by  attempting  to  "  squeeze  "  the  borrowing 
class.  Debtors  would  simply  reply  to  demands  for  payment  of  their 
loans, — "  We  will  meet  our  obligations  as  soon  as  this  crisis  has  passed, 
and  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  wait  till  then,  since  we  shall  not 
permit  you  to  ruin  us  by  extortion." 

The  proposition  that  laws  for  the  collection  of  debt  be  repealed 
altogether  is  by  no  means  without  many  cogent  arguments.  The  most 
famous  advocate  of  this  means  for  the  settlement  of  the  money  ques- 
tion is  Jeremy  Bentham,  whose  arguments  are  not  to  be  brushed  aside 
in  the  flippant  spirit  which  the  money  powers  would  fain  have  us 
believe. 

Now,  while  Congress  has  no  power  to  repeal  laws  for  the  collection 
of  debt  by  direct  legislation,  it  can  arrive  at  practically  the  same 
result  by  making  intrinsically  valueless  things,  in  unlimited  volume, 
legal  tender.  This  would  prevent  the  ruin  of  the  debtor-class  in  times 
of  financial  stringency,  because  it  would  make  impossible  that  cor- 
nering of  the  money  market  which  is  the  first  turn  of  the  screw  of 
extortion. 

Nor  would  such  a  course  on  the  part  of  Congress  be  the  unprece- 
dented thing  the  creditor-class  would  like  us  to  believe.  Here  are 
some  of  the  things  which  have  been  used  at  various  times  as  money. 
From  1828  to  1845  Russia  used  platinum.  The  Burman  Empire  used 
lead,  and  the  Lacedemonians,  iron.  England  under  James  II.  used 
tin,  gun  metal  and  pewter;  South  Sea  Islanders,  axes  and  hammers; 
Ancient  Britons,  cattle,  slaves,  brass  and  iron;  the  Carthaginians, 
leather;  China,  in  1200,  bark  of  the  mulberry  tree;  ancient  Jews, 
jewels;  Africa  and  Indian  Islands,  cowrie  shells;  Iceland  and  New- 
foundland, codfish;  ancient  Eussia,  skins  of  wild  animals;  Massa- 
chusetts Indians,  wampum  and  musket-balls;  Virginia  in  1700,  to- 
bacco; West  India  Islands  in  1500,  cocoanuts;  British  West  India 
Islands,  pins,  snuff  and  whisky;  Central  South  America,  soap,  choco- 
late and  eggs;  ancient  Eomans,  cattle;  Greece,  nails  of  copper  and 
iron ;  Rome,  under  Numa  Pompilius,  wood  and  leather,  and  under  the 
Caesars,  land.  In  other  cases,  copper  wire,  cakes  of  tea,  pieces  of  silk, 
salt,  coonskins  and  cotton  shirts  have  been  used,  and  in  1574  Holland 
used  pieces  of  pasteboard. 

In  his  excellent  work  entitled  "  Rational  Money  "  Prof.  Frank  Par- 
sons says:  "The  ideal  dollar  is  one  that  will  not  mulct  either  the 
debtor  or  creditor,  nor  encourage  speculation,  nor  depress  industry  — 
a  dollar  of  constant  purchasing  power,  commanding  the  same  average 
amount  of  commodities  and  services  from  year  to  year  and  age  to 
age  —  an  ethical,  impartial,  democratic  dollar,  a  dollar  that  will  act 
as  a  fly  wheel  to  keep  the  national  engine  working  smoothly  all  the 
time,  instead  of  producing  or  aggravating  industrial  disaster  and  ex- 

164 


CONTRACTION    OF   CURRENCY 

plosion.     The  price  line  must  become  a  safe  horizontal  instead  of  the 
dangerous  zigzag  of  a  bolt  of  lightning."     .     .     . 

"  Since  1773  the  chain  lightning  of  prices  has  been  golden,  before 
that  time  it  was  bimetallic.  Neither  of  these  monetary  thunderbolts 
appear  to  have  much  affection  for  the  safe  and  honest  horizontal." 

We  reproduce  on  the  following  pages  the  two  cuts  which  Mr.  Par- 
sons uses  to  graphically  illustrate  the  "  golden  "  and  the  "  bi-metallic  " 
chain  lightning  of  prices. 

Commenting  on  these  diagrams  Mr.  Parsons  says :  "  If  the  weekly 
or  even  the  quarterly  variations  had  been  noted,  the  lines  in  both  of 
these  diagrams  would  have  been  full  of  saw  teeth.  If  the  maximum 
and  minimum  price  levels  had  been  marked  instead  of  the  yearly 
average,  the  extremes  would  have  been  far  greater  than  those  shown 
—  the  drop  in  a  panic  being  sometimes  more  than  double  that  shown 
by  the  yearly  averages.  If  actual  prices  had  been  taken  (instead  of 
metallic  prices),  we  should  have  found  that  during  the  war  period  of 
unregulated  issue  of  imperfect  legal  tender  paper,  the  price  line  would 
have  soared  76  points  above  the  top  of  the  diagram.  Altogether  these 
diagrams,  full  of  ruin  and  injustice  as  they  are,  are  yet  mild  repre- 
sentatives of  the  present  money  system.  They  tell  part  of  its  evils, 
but  by  no  means  all,  nor  do  they  give  full  emphasis  to  what  they  do 
tell!"  .  .  .. 

"  Our  prime  financial  duty  is  the  intelligent  public  regulation  of 
the  money-volume  so  as  to  give  the  dollar  a  constant  purchasing 
power,  yielding  the  creditor  the  same  average  command  over  com- 
modities and  services  that  he  gave,  curtailing  reckless  speculation, 
preventing  panic,  and  exercising  a  beneficent  and  impartial  influence 
upon  wealth  production  and  distribution." 

Although  having  constitutional  authority  enabling  it  to  come  to 
the  relief  of  the  debtor-class,  Congress  has  for  the  past  forty  or  fifty 
years  served  the  interests  of  the  creditor-class  by  contracting  more  and 
more  the  possible  volume  of  legal  tender. 

Upon  the  organisation  of  our  Government  a  mint  was  established. 
This  was  by  Congressional  Act  of  Apr.  2,  1792,  making  the  dollar  416 
grains  of  standard  silver  (or  371*4  pure)  the  unit  of  value,  and  pro- 
viding for  the  coinage  not  only  of  this  unit  dollar,  but  of  gold  eagles, 
half-eagles,  quarter-eagles,  silver  half-dollars,  quarter-dollars,  dimes, 
half-dimes,  and  of  copper  cents  and  half-cents.  The  coinage  was  upon 
the  ratio,  pure  silver  to  pure  gold,  of  15  to  1,  and  was  to  be  made 
free  of  expense  for  any  person  who  might  bring  gold  or  silver  bullion 
to  the  mint  for  that  purpose.  This  was  the  first  legal  tender  law 
under  our  Constitution  and  it  made  all  gold  and  silver  coins  "  a  lawful 
tender  in  all  payments  whatsoever." 

On  Feb.  9,  1793,  certain  foreign  gold  and  silver  coins  were  also 
made  legal  tender. 

On  June  28,  1834,  the  original  ratio  was  altered  from  15  to  1  to 
16  to  1  and  this,  being  an  undervaluation  of  silver,  caused  that  metal 
to  be  withheld  from  coinage,  a  condition  which  was  accentuated  by 
the  gold  discoveries. 

On  June  18,  1837,  an  act  was  passed  making  the  alloy  uniform  for 
both  gold  and  silver,  that  is,  one  hundred  parts  of  alloy  to  nine  hun- 

165 


PRICE  LINE  1666- 1698-  GOLD  PRICES 

ALOMCH  DATA    !fl«6- 1691  "AFRICAN"  DATA  1691-8. 
1660  1670  1600  1890 


--•100 


-90 


-80 


The  gold  lightning  that  has  stricken  our  industries. 


PRICE  LINE  1837- 1873    B I  METALLIC  PRICES 
ALDRICH  DATA    1640- 1873.^1837- 1&40    BROAO  ESTIMATE  r*oM 

DATA    OF   W*    G.  5UMNER  St  MUUHALL'S     CITATIONS. 


1850 


I860 


1C    THUN  3EJRC 


1870  1873 

-140 


-130 


-100 


-  90 


The  Bimetallic  Thunderbolt  with  4  Terrific  Panics  in  36  years. 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

dred  parts  of  pure  metal.  Under  this  standard  the  silver  dollar  was 
to  contain  4121/*  grains  of  standard  silver  and  the  gold  coins  at  the 
rate  of  25.8  grafns  of  standard  gold.  All  denominations  coined  were 
made  legal  tender,  according  to  their  nominal  value,  for  any  sum  what- 
"*<  H  *  Y(  i  r 

By  act  of  Mar.  3,  1849,  double  eagles  and  single  gold  dollars  were 
first  authorised  and  made  legal  tender. 

On  Mar.  3,  1851,  an  act  was  passed  authorising  the  coinage  of  the 
one-fourth  copper,  three-fourths  silver  three-cent  piece.  This  was 
the  first  coin,  other  than  copper  coins,  which  was  not  given  a  full  legal 
tender  value. 

On  Feb.  21,  1851,  all  other  subsidiary  silver  coinage  was  debased 
by  reducing  the  weight  of  standard  silver  from  4121/2  to  384  grains 
to  the  dollar's  worth.  Not  satisfied  with  this  onslaught  upon  the  white 
metal,  the  act  abolished  the  legal  tender  quality  of  silver  for  all  .debts 
in  excess  of  five  dollars.  .Six  years  later  on  Feb.  21,  1857,  came  the 
next  step  toward  the  contraction  of  legal  tenders.  This  was  the  re- 
peal of  all  acts  which  had  made  certain  foreign  coins  legal  tender. 

Then  came  the  civil  war  when  the  government  was  forced  to  avail 
itself  of  its  constitutional  power  to  create  legal  tender.  The  govern- 
ment issued  non-interest-bearing  treasury  notes  which,  while  not  legal 
tender  for  private  debts,  were  yet  "receivable  in  payment  of  public 
dues." 

These  were  not  and  could  not  be  redeemed  in  specie,  for  the  gov- 
ernment had  suspended  specie  payment,  having  no  specie  to  spare,  yet 
they  were  quoted  at  times  at  about  the  same  premium  as  for  gold. 
This  was  because  they  were  applicable  to  the  payment  of  public  debts, 
and  had  they  also  been  legal  tender  for  private  debts  before  an  issue 
of  greenbacks  had  been  made  for  their  retirement,  they  would  prob- 
ably have  answered  the  fiat  money  question  for  all  time  so  far,  at 
least,  as  this  country  is  concerned. 

On  Mar.  17,  1862,  the  treasury  notes  were  made  legal  tender  for 
private  debts,  but  several  weeks  previously  greenbacks  had  been  issued 
for  their  retirement,  and  we  are  told  by  Mr.  Knox,  in  "  United  States 
Notes/'  that  by  July,  1863,  $56,000,000  had  been  retired. 

The  greenback  was  legal  tender  for  private  debt,  but  was  shorn  of 
its  par-preserving  quality  by  not  being  applicable  to  the  payment  of 
public  dues. 

On  Apr.  12,  1866,  began  a  series  of  Acts,  pleasing  to  the  creditor- 
class,  for  the  rapid  retirement  of  the  greenback. 

Then  came  the  act  providing  for  the  cancellation  of  the  greenbacks, 

after  which  the  creditor-class  had  only  gold  and  silver  for  legal  tender. 

Under  these  circumstances  what  did  they  do?     They  proceeded 

straightway  to  get  silver  out  of  the  way,  so  that  the  volume  of  legal 

tender  should  be  narrowed  to  the  uttermost. 

On  Feb.  12,  1873,  an  act  was  passed  reducing  the  legal  tender 
quality  of  all  subsequent  silver  coinage  to  sums  of  five  dollars  in  any 
one  payment. 

On  May  31,  1878,  after  the  awful  panic  and  the  great  greenback 
agitation,  the  process  of  retiring  greenbacks  was  checked,  leaving  an 
out-standing  volume  of  $346,681,016. 

168 


CONTRACTION    OF   CURRENCY 

On  Feb.  28,  1878,  an  act  was  passed  over  the  President's  veto  by 
a  two-thirds  vote  of  each  House,  reviving  the  silver  coinage  clause  of 
the  act  of  1837  and  restoring  to  the  silver  dollar  the  legal  tender 
function  of  which  the  act  of  1873  had  divested  it.  The  act  further 
directed  the  purchase  of  from  two  to  four  million  dollars'  worth  of 
silver  monthly  and  its  prompt  coinage  into  dollars. 

The  act  of  July  14,  1890,  was  passed  as  a  bimetallism  law  in  com- 
pliance with  a  public  sentiment  so  strong  as  to  influence  both  parties, 
but,  by  a  ruse  less  honest  than  clever,  the  will  of  the  people  was  once 
more  subverted,  and  it  was  made  a  gold  redemption  law.  This  was 
accomplished  in  this  way.  The  act  provided  for  the  repeal  of  the 
bullion  purchase  clause  of  1878  and  the  substitution  in  its  stead  of  a 
provision  for  the  purchase  of  4,500,000  ounces  of  silver  bullion  with 
treasury  notes  redeemable  "  on  demand  in  coin."  The  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  having  the  option  of  redeeming  these  notes  either  in 
gold  or  silver,  transferred  this  option  to  the  holders  of  the  notes  who 
preferred  gold. 

This  act  of  1890  was  subsequently  repealed. 

Then,  as  a  fitting  climax  to  this  creditor-legislation,  came  the 
Fowler  Act,  one  of  the  purposes  of  which  was  to  provide  for  the  "  re- 
demption in  gold  coin  of  all  legal  tender  money  of  the  government, 
including  the  silver  dollar,  as  well  as  the  United  States  and  treasury 
notes  and  the  subsidiary  coins." 

We  have  considered  this  subject  of  legislative  corruption  in  the 
matter  of  legal  tender  contraction  thus  at  length  because,  on  the  one 
hand,  it  is  a  matter  of  the  most  vital  import  to  all  who  have  the  wel- 
fare of  our  country  at  heart,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  because  it* is 
still  fashionable  in  some  quarters,  for  those  who  prate  of  what  they  are 
pleased  to  call  "honest  money,"  to  pose  as  superior  intelligences, 
tried  and  true  friends  of  the  working  man,  "  safe  and  sane  "  legisla- 
tors,—  saviours  of  the  public  conscience ! 

The  views  of  such  great  Americans  as  Jefferson,  Franklin,  Lincoln, 
Wendell  Phillips,  Horace  Greeley,  Peter  Cooper  and  the  like  are  of  no 
account  to  them. 

To  the  reader,  however,  who  has  not  replaced  thinking  with  fetich- 
worship,  it  may  be  interesting  to  know  that  in  Dec.  of  1864  President 
Lincoln  said,  in  a  letter  to  Col.  Edmund  Taylor :  "  Chase  thought 
it  a  hazardous  thing,  but  we  finally  accomplished  it,  and  gave  to  the 
people  of  this  Eepublic  the  greatest  blessing  they  ever  had  —  their 
own  paper  to  pay  their  own  debts." 

"  The  greatest  blessing  they  ever  had  —  their  own  paper  to  pay  their 
own  debts!  " 

In  closing  this  subject  of  legal  tender  contraction  in  response  to  cor- 
rupt legislative  influence  on  the  part  of  the  creditor-class,  we  cannot 
refrain  from  quoting  one  of  the  greatest  orators,  grandest  characters 
and  sanest  men  who  ever  lived,  Wendell  Phillips.  He  said :  "  The 
first  question,  therefore,  in  an  industrial  nation,  is  where  ought  the 
control  of  the  currency  to  rest?  In  whose  hands  can  this  almost 
omnipotent  power  be  trusted?  Every  writer  on  political  economy, 
from  Aristotle  to  Adam  Smith,  from  Ricardo  to  Calhoun,  allows  that 
a  change  in  the  currency  alters  the  price  of  every  ounce  and  yard  of 

169 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

merchandise  and  every  foot  of  land.  Whom  can  we  trust  with  this 
despotism  ? 

"At  present  the  banks  and  the  money-kings  wield  this  power. 
They  own  the  yardstick,  and  can  make  it  shorter  or  longer  as  they 
please,  and  when  they  will.  They  own  the  pound-weight  and  can 
make  'it  heavier  or  lighter  as  they  choose. 

"  This  explains  the  riddle,  so  mysterious  to  commen  men,  why  those 
who  trade  in  money  always  grow  rich,  even  while  those  who  trade  in 
other  things  go  into  bankruptcy. 

"This  is  the  issue  of  to-day.     Who  shall  make  the  yardstick? 

"  To-day  we  are  fighting  to  secure  what  Jefferson,  in  1813,  advised, 
that '  the  circulation  be  restored  to  the  nation  to  whom  it  belongs/ 

"  This  is  the  reason  why  the  banks  and  money-kings  hate  this  move- 
ment so  bitterly,  and  pour  out  their  money  like  water  to  kill  it.  They 
feel  and  know  it  is  a  hand-to-hand  fight  between  themselves  and  the 
people  —  one  of  the  last  battles  between  aristocracy  and  democracy." 

The  dishonest  railway  concessions  made  by  our  government  may  be 
considered  as  indicative  of  the  degree  of  influence  exercised  over  Con- 
gress by  the  railroad,  banking,  telephone,  telegraph  and  express  sys- 
tems. 

The  treatment  of  the  railroads  is  typical  in  kind,  and  a  brief  men- 
tion of  a  few  of  the  succulent  plums  they  were  able  to  shake  from  the 
Congressional  tree,  will  suffice  for  the  matter  in  hand. 

In  an  article  entitled  "  Our  System  of  Distributing  tKe  Public 
Lands/'  *  J.  L.  McCreery  says :  "  There  would  seem  to  have  been 
small  temptation  to  railroad  companies  to  defraud  the  government  of 
its  land.  They  have  been  able  to  get  about  all  they  wanted  as  a  gift." 
Later  Mr.  McCreery  adds :  "  Occasionally  it  has  occurred  that  Con- 
gress, or  a  state  legislature,  as  the  case  may  be,  has  refused  to  do  for 
a  railroad  company  all  that  it  askt.  A  majority  were  opposed  to  con- 
ferring any  further  favors.  In  such  case  it  was  necessary  for  some 
of  the  adverse  majority  to  be  '  convinced/  They  generally  were. 
Any  one  who  imagines  that  all  the  arguments  used  on  such  occasions 
are  to  be  found  recorded  in  full  in  the  columns  of  the  '  Congressional 
Record'  are  probably  labouring  under  a  hallucination.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  notwithstanding  earnest  efforts  and  a  heavy  expense  for  '  white- 
wash/ faint  indications  to  the  contrary  ooze  to  the  surface  of  history. 
In  May,  1863,  a  joint  stock  company  was  organised,  entitled  '  The 
Credit  Mobilier  Company  of  America/  with  a  capital  of  $2,500,000. 
In  January,  1867,  the  charter  having  been  purchased  by  a  company 
organised  for  the  construction  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  the  stock 
was  increast  to  $3,750,000  and  afterwards  rose  to  great  value,  paying 
enormous  dividends.  In  1872,  in  the  course  of  legal  proceedings  in- 
volving the  ownership  of-  the  stock,  it  was  disclosed  that  several  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  the  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  and  one  of 
the  candidates  for  the  Vice-Presidency,  were  stockholders.  The  fact 
that  these  high  officials  were  pecuniarily  interested  in  a  concern  re- 
garding which  they  had  been  and  would  be  called  upon  to  legislate, 

*See  "  The  Land  Question  from  Various  Points  of  View,"  published  by 
C.  F.  Taylor,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

170 


CONTRACTION    OF   CURRENCY 

created  intense  public  excitement,  followed  by  a  Congressional  investi- 
gation in  the  winter  of  1872-3.  On  February  27,  1873,  the  Senate 
Committee  made  a  report,  which  closed  with  a  recommendation  that 
one  Senator,  named  therein,  be  expelled ;  but  no  action  was  taken,  and 
five  days  later  his  term  expired.  In  the  House  of  Representatives 
resolutions  were  past  censuring  two  of  its  members." 

Mr.  McCreery  publishes  extracts  from  a  long  series  of  letters  from 
one  of  the  managers  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  to  General  Colton 
the  object  of  the  letters  being  to  bribe,  "  fix,"  or  "  convince,"  certain 
Congressmen  necessary  to  the  dishonest  legislation  desired  by  the  rail- 
road. Mr.  McCreery  remarks  in  a  foot-note :  "  And  yet  there  are  per- 
sons who  object  to  the  government  owning  and  operating  the  railroads, 
lest  they  might  become  engines  of  political  corruption ! " 

The  Federal  Government  granted  the  Southern  Pacific  alternate  sec- 
tions (a  section  is  a  square  mile  in  United  States  land-measurement) 
of  a  belt  of  land  sixty  miles  wide  in  California  and  one  hundred  miles 
wide  in  the  territories  some  of  which  are  now  States.  The  Northern 
Pacific  got  "  alternate  sections  in  a  belt  of  land  one  hundred  twenty 
miles  wide  running  from  the  western  boundary  of  Minnesota  to  Puget 
Sound  and  the  Columbia  River." 

Nor  was  this  all.  In  addition  to  land,  the  Federal,  State  and 
Municipal  governments  made  enormous  grants  in  the  shape  of  money 
and  bonds.  The  five  Pacific  railroads  received  in  this  way  enough, 
not  only  to  build  the  roads,  but  to  put  large  fortunes  into  the  pockets 
of  their  managing  promoters  as  well. 

Commenting  upon  these  shocking  legislative  crimes,  Henry  George, 
Jr.,  says  in  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege  " : 

"  The  total  railroad  land-grants  have  amounted  to  approximately 
200,000,000  acres,  or  312,500  square  miles. 

"  Can  the  significance  of  this  be  easily  realised  ?  This  gift  of  pub- 
lic domain  to  our  Western  railroad  companies  was  sufficient  to  have 
made  2,000,000  American  farms  of  100  acres  each.  It  would  have 
made  more  than  33,000,000  farms  such  as  in  Belgium  support  a  fam- 
ily each. in  happy  independence. 

"  Or  consider  the  matter  in  another  way.  This  land  gift  of  the 
railroads  is  equal  to  the  combined  areas  of  the  States  of  Maine,  Ver- 
mont, New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
West  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  It  is  nearly  as  large  as  the  terri- 
tories of  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  France,  taken  together, 
which  support  a  population  of  at  least  75,000,000." 

And  as  a  return  for  all  this  how  have  these  fattened  beneficiaries 
of  special  legislation  treated  the  American  people?  .Have  they  ever 
failed  to  charge  the  general  public  "all  that  the  traffic  will  bear?" 
No;  and  in  the  meantime  they  have  given  a  service  as  poor  as  they 
considered  desirable  from  their  own  selfish  viewpoint:  they  have  pub- 
lished and  still  do  publish  upon  the  backs  of  their  tickets,  lying 
interpretations  of  their  legal  responsibility,  intended  to  discourage 
any  they  may  wrong  from  seeking  legal  redress;  they  have  neglected 
reasonable  precautions  for  the  safeguarding  of  life  and  limb,  until  the 
editor  of  "  The  Outlook  "  remarks  in  this  connexion :  "  It  is  be- 

171 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

coming  as  perilous  to  live  in  the  United  States  as  to  participate  in 
actual  warfare";  they  have  maintained  an  elaborate  system  of  bribery, 
have  controlled  primaries,  corrupted  legislatures  and  made  Congress 
their  pliant  tool  and,  in  general,  comported  themselves  not  as  public 
servants  but  rather  as  autocrats  in  relation  to  whom  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  no  rights  which  they  are  in  the  least  bound  to 
respect. 

Concerning  discriminating  rates,  Supreme  Court  Justice  William 
Jay  Gaynor,  of  New  York,  said  in  a  recent  address : 

"  The  greatest  crime  of  our  day  and  generation  is  the  favouritism 
in  freight-rates  on  our  public  highways.  I  say  crime,  for  more  wrong 
has  been  done  by  it  than  by  all  the  crimes  defined  by  our  statutes.  It 
has  crushed  and  beggared  thousands  all  over  the  land.  And  I  say 
public  highways,  because  our  railroads  are  our  public  highways.  That 
the  public  highways  of  a  country  should  be  used  to  aggrandise  some 
and  destroy  others  is  so  infamous  and  so  heartless  that  we  will  be 
looked  back  upon  as  a  generation  lost  to  moral  sense  for  having  al- 
lowed it  so  long." 

Were  one  to  assert  that  the  statistics  of  Eussia  or  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire were  occasionally  "  cooked,"  the  average  American  would  content 
himself  with  some  such  reply  as,  "  Well,  what  can  you  expect  of  half- 
civilised  countries  ?  "  Tell  him,  however,  that  the  national  statistics 
of  his  own  country  are  purposely  falsified  in  order  that  th6  people  may 
be  politically  deceived,  and  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  he  will  not 
believe  you. 

That  such  is  precisely  the  case  we  shall  take  occasion  briefly  to 
demonstrate.  Space  does  not  permit  of  our  taking  up  many  specific 
instances, —  though  the  abundance  of  material  is  enticing  and  a  bit 
disconcerting, —  and  we  shall  confine  ourselves  to  a  thorough  and  con- 
clusive proof  of  a  small  portion  of  the  subject. 

The  saying,  "  Figures  won't  lie  but  liars  will  .figure,"  usually  refers 
to  garbled  facts, —  to  the  presentment  of  one  side  of  an  issue  without 
showing  due  attention  to  the  other  side.  This  is  unfair  and  very 
reprehensible,  but  it  is  not  morally  in  the  same  category  with  deliber- 
ately falsified  "  statistics."  In  the  one  case,  certain  truths  are  given 
an  undue  weight;  in  the  other,  lies  are  offered  as  truths. 

Americans  are  a  practical  people,  and  sooner  or  later, —  usually 
the  latter, —  they  come  to  judge  of  the  policy  of  a  party,  as  they  judge 
of  that  of  a  person,  by  what  they  believe  to  be  its  result.  Lincoln's 
dictum,  "  You  can  fool  some  of  the  people  all  of  the  time,  and  all 
of  the  people  sometime,  but  it  is  impossible  to  fool  all  of  the  people 
all  of  the  time,"  holds  true  here  as  elsewhere.  Spell-binders  may 
orate  themselves  hoarse,  and  partisan  papers  may  "  scare-head  "  pov- 
erty into  seeming  affluence,  but  there  comes  a  time  when  hungry  Labour 
takes  up  the  last  hole  in  its  belt.  When  this  is  reached,  the  sufferers 
and  their  sympathisers  begin  to  get  unpleasantly  inquisitive.  You 
cannot  fill  an  empty  stomach  with  a  song  of  praise,  and  hunger  and 
doubt  are  first  cousins.  Questions  are  asked.  If  replies  are  unsatis- 
factory, more  questions  follow,  and  after  a  little  a  great  doubt  finds  its 
tongue.  Something  must  then  be  done.  The  day  for  uncomplimen- 
tary, flippant  or  evasive  retort  is  passed.  The  people  must  be  made 

172 


CONTRACTION    OF   CURRENCY 

to  think  themselves  in  the  wrong.  Wherever  a  complaint  is  made, 
the  sufferer  must  be  made  to  believe  his  case  individual  and  unusual, 
rather  than  general  and  typical.  The  professional  politician,  usually 
bred  a  lawyer,  is  a  past  master  in  this  sort  of  thing,  and  he  knows  just 
how  to  accomplish  this  result.  He  gets  out  his  pencil  and  pad  and 
betakes  him  to  figures.  "  Statistics  are  like  sausage,  in  that  confidence 
in  them  depends  upon  who  makes  them."  For  this  reason,  in  times 
of  great  political  stress,  the  authority  should  be  as  nearly  as  possible 
like  Caesar's  wife, —  above  suspicion.  Now  a  few  years  ago  it  became  a 
"  political  necessity,"  if  confidence  in  a  certain  party  were  to  be  saved, 
to  convince  the  people  that  the  United  .States  of  America  were  in  a 
most  prosperous  condition.  The  twelfth  census  was  soon  to  be  taken, 
—  and  carping  critics  would  immediately  compare  it  with  the  eleventh, 
just  to  see  which  way  the  country  was  going.  Should  it  appear  that 
we  were  not  as  prosperous  as  they  had  claimed, —  in  short,  should 
the  truth  be  known  —  but  there !  It  need  not  be  known !  The  peo- 
ple could  easily  be  once  more  finessed.  The  sensation  would  not  be 
novel  enough  to  be  noticeable. 

The  first  step  toward  the  attainment  of  this  end  consisted  in  so 
altering  the  classification  of  the  twelfth  census  as  to  make  it  impos- 
sible to  compare  it  with  the  eleventh.  This  prevented  the  two  from 
being  put  in  deadly  parallel  in  a  way  to  show  the  trend  of  affairs  dur- 
ing the  preceding  ten  years.  Having  prevented  the  inquisitive  from 
ascertaining  by  this  comparison  whether  or  not  conditions  had  been 
improving  since  the  last  census,  all  that  remained  was  so  to  order 
things  that  our  present  status  should  appear  most  gratifying.  This 
done  and  comparison  estopped  as  aforesaid,  it  would  be  easy  to  make 
the  people  believe  they  were  on  the  steady  up-grade  toward  affluence 
for  all. 

One  of  the  several  means  used  to  attain  this  end  was  so  to  fix 
things  that  the  census  enumeration  should  make  a  fine  agricultural 
showing.  The  farmers  are  the  backbone  of  the  country.  If  they  are 
prosperous  other  classes  ought  to  be  and  normally  are.  The  census 
places  the  wealth  of  our  farmers  at  over  twenty  billions  of  dollars. 
Commenting  upon  this,  the  "  New  York  Financier  "  decides  that  the 
farmer  is  the  actual  capitalist  of  the  United  States.  It  goes  on  to 
state  that,  while  the  increase  in  value  of  railway  property  as  indicated 
by  total  capitalisation  rose  from  $10,029,000,000  in  1890  to  11,892,- 
000,000  in  1900,  or  an  increase  of  18.5  per  cent,  this  was  nearly  10 
per  cent  less  than  the  increase  in  the  value  of  farm  lands. 

Now,  pausing  only  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are  two 
kinds  of  farmers,  viz.,  those  who  farm  farms  and  those  who  farm 
farmers,  and  pointing  out  that  the  Financier's  conclusions  are  en- 
tirely misleading,  because  in  arriving  at  them  no  account  has  been 
taken  of  this  important  fact, —  a  system  of  juggling  which  might  have 
been  made  to  show  the  Irish  tenant-farmers  prosperous  in  the  worst 
days  of  English  landlordism, —  let  us  pass  to  the  consideration  of  how 
these  figures  were  obtained. 

We  quote  below  from  the  report  of  a  special  committee  of  enquiry 
appointed  by  the  National  Board  of  Trade.  Among  the  members  of 
this  committee  were  the  editors  of  the  "  Chicago  Daily  Trade  Bulle- 

173 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

tin,"  and  the  "  Cincinnati  Price  Current/'  and  the  statistician  of  the 
"New  York  Produce  Exchange."  This  committee  found  appalling 
errors  in  the  Census  report  of  farm-areas,  with  corresponding  inac- 
curacies in  the  amount  of  crops  harvested.  The  Reader  will  probably 
find  it  difficult  to  believe  that  city  pavements  make  good  farm-land, 
and  quite  impossible,  we  trust,  to  assume  that  a  district  can  contain 
more  farm-land  than  it  contains  of  any  kind  of  land.  The  report 
states  that : — "  Features  of  inconsistency  in  the  census-bureau  work 
are  to  be  found  in  comparisons  of  area  in  instances  where  the  agri- 
cultural returns  make  the  farm  areas  equal  to  or  exceed  the  land  sur- 
face, according  to  survey  records  as  presented  by  the  twelfth  census. 
There  appear  many  such  instances.  In  20  states,  in  which  there  are 
1,490  counties,  there  are  101  counties  made  to  appear  as  having  farm 
lands  equal  to  or  in  excess  of  the  entire  surveyed  land  surface.  This 
number  includes  a  few  which  by  a  small  fraction  of  one  per  cent,  are 
under  100  in  the  comparison,  but  which  practically  represent  the  entire 
land  surface.  The  excesses  over  an  equal  extent  of  area  range  up  to 
40  per  cent.,  the  aggregate  number  of  acres  indicated  in  the  farm 
returns  for  these  101  counties  being  five  per  cent,  greater  than  their 
entire  surface,  without  allowances  for  highways,  towns,  railroads,  etc. 
Of  the  101  counties  there  are  69  which  appear  to  have  more  farm 
acres  than  the  surveyed  land  records  indicate  within  their  boundary 
lines;  there  are  23  having  over  five  per  cent,  excess  of  such  area; 
there  are  13  having  over  ten  per  cent,  of  such  excess;  ten  having  over 
15  per  cent,  of  such  excess ;  eight  having  over  20  per  cent,  of  excess, 
in  comparison  with  the  reported  actual  land  surface.  For  Ohio,  19 
per  cent,  of  the  number  of  counties  are  shown  to  represent  100  per 
cent,  or  more  of  the  entire  surface  as  in  farm  lands;  in  Iowa  17  per 
cent.;  Kansas  12  per  cent.;  Kentucky  nine  per  cent.;  Missouri  nine 
per  cent. ;  Tennessee  six  per  cent. ;  Indiana  six  per  cent.,  etc. 

"  In  addition  to  these  101  counties  found  by  analysis  of  census-bur- 
eau data  to  reflect  returns  of  farm  lands  equal  to  or  in  excess  of  the 
surveyed  land  surface  of  such  counties,  there  are  700  other  counties 
showing  90  per  cent,  or  more,  of  which  335  represent  95  per  cent,  or 
more,  in  such  comparison.  Thus  over  28  per  cent,  of  all  the  2,800 
counties  of  the  country  represent  farm  areas  reported  as  90  per  cent, 
or  more  of  the  surveyed  land  surface. 

"  Whether  these  conditions,  reflecting  a  large  extent  of  farm  acre- 
age in  excess  of  what  can  be  accepted  as  the  true  position,  are  due  to 
overestimates  in  returns  of  enumerators,  or  to  duplications  in  the  me- 
chanical operations  incident  to  the  methods  of  the  census-office  in  the 
tabulating  work,  or  to  both  of  these,  with  inconsistent  work  in  editing 
the  schedules,  and  other  causes,  cannot  be  stated  by  the  committee,  but 
they  are  evidences  of  erroneous  work,  the  measure  of  which  in  in- 
fluence on  results  cannot  be  satisfactorily  estimated. 

"  While  there  are  the  large  number  of  instances  of  inconsistencies 
and  excesses  in  the  comparisons  of  farm  returns  of  areas  and  survey 
records  herein  mentioned  and  demonstrable  by  the  available  data,  it 
does  not  follow  that  all  the  census  exhibits  of  farm  areas  not  having 
such  evidences  of  inconsistency  are  free  from  errors,  or  exaggerations, 
in  the  statements  of  farm  areas.  For  instance,  a  county  which  may 

174  * 


CONTRACTION   OF   CURRENCY 

have  only  60  per  cent,  of  its  area  actually  in  farm  lands  may  be  exag- 
gerated 50  per  cent.,  and  not  appear  to  be  over  90  per  cent,  in  the  com- 
parison with  the  land  surface  of  such  county.  Again,  a  county  which 
may  have  only  45  per  cent,  of  its  area  in  farm  lands  may  be  doubled 
in  the  crop  exhibit  without  going  over  the  90  per  cent,  relation  to  ac- 
tual land  area.  It  is  therefore  impossible  to  determine  or  to  suggest 
the  limit  to  which  such  exaggerations  or  errors  may  exist  in  portions 
of  the  work  wherein  the  conditions  do  not  admit  of  such  demonstra- 
tion as  in  such  cases  as  are  herein  specifically  stated.  Exaggerations 
or  errors  which  enlarge  the  area-basis  correspondingly  affect  unduly 
the  results  in  regard  to  production  of  crops  represented." 

Commenting  upon  the  unfair  reception  given  this  report  by  the 
Census  authority,  Mr.  Henry  L.  Bliss  says,  in  a  signed  article  printed 
in  "  The  Public"  of  Dec.  6,  1902 : 

"  In  reply  to  this  report  Mr.  Powers,  the  United  States  statistician- 
in-chief  for  agriculture,  has  given  out  a  statement  maintaining  the 
substantial  correctness  of  the  census  reports,  in  which,  among  other 
things,  he  declares  that  the  Board  of  Trade  committee  in  making  its 
report  did  not  possess  statistics  of  surveyed  lands  for  a  single  State. 

"  It  is  true  that  the  data  of  areas  published  in  the  twelfth  census, 
which  was  used  by  the  committee,  are  not,  as  the  committee  seems  to 
have  supposed,  statistics  of  surveys  of  the  land-office.  They  are,  how- 
ever, the  data  of  areas  adopted  by  the  census-office  at  both  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  censuses  and  are  shown  to  vary  from  the  surveys  of  the 
land-office  by  less  than  one-tenth  of  one  per  cent.  That  being  so,  the 
answer  of  the  agricultural  statistician  seems  but  a  contemptible  eva- 
sion." 

In  another  part  of  the  same  article  Mr.  Bliss  says : 

"  This  enumeration  as  farms  of  cabbage  and  potato  patches  on 
city  lots,  while  it  accounts  for  much  of  the  apparent  increase  in  farm 
acreage,  does  not  account  for  the  wide  discrepancy  between  the  figures 
of  the  department  of  agriculture  and  those  of  the  census  as  to  the 
production  of  wheat  and  other  staple  products.  According  to  the 
estimates  of  the  department  of  agriculture  the  amount  of  wheat  pro- 
duced during  the  census  year  was  547,303,846  bushels,  and  according 
to  the  census  it  was  661,143,657  bushels,  a  difference  of  nearly  114,- 
000,000  bushels.  That  this  discrepancy  is  largely  due  to  the  exag- 
gerated census  figures  appears  from  our  statistics  of  exports,  which 
indicate  that  but  186,096,762  bushels  of  the  wheat  crop  of  the  census 
year  were  exported.  This,  if  we  accept  the  census  figures,  would  show 
that  in  this  year  our  people  consumed  nearly  6^4  bushels  of  wheat  per 
capita,  or  from  40  to  50  per  cent,  more  than  the  usual  amount  as  in- 
dicated by  official  estimates  for  other  years.  This  increase  might  be 
taken  as  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  prosperity  of  the  consumers, 
were  not  the  prosperity  theory  conclusively  disproved  by  census  wage 
statistics,  which,  when  honestly  compared,  show  a  decided  decrease  in 
average  earnings  during  the  last  decade. 

"  This  important  fact  the  census-office  has  sought  to  conceal  by  an 
adroit  juggling  of  the  data." 

We  might  go  on  to  show  how  a  similar  kind  of  official  deception  was 
indulged  in  in  order  to  make  the  public  believe  that  the  working 

175 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

man's  cost  of  living  had  not  materially  increased  since  1896.  The 
Bureau  of  Labour  supplied  statistics  supposed  to  prove  that  position. 
Under  date  of  Aug.  8,  1904,  "  The  Commoner  "  prints  the  following : 
"  The  indications  are  that  Mr.  Carrol  D.  Wright,  chief  statistician  of 
the  government  in  general  and  of  the  Eepublican  party  in  particular, 
will  be  the  busiest  man  in  the  country  for  the  next  three  months.  As 
chief  juggler  of  figures,  Mr.  Wright  will  be  called  upon  by  the  G.  0.  P. 
management  to  show  that  labour  is  better  rewarded  and  has  more  left 
after  paying  living  expenses  than  ever  before  in  its  history.  If  any- 
body can  juggle  the  figures  so  as  to  make  a  showing,  Mr.  Wright  is 
the  man.  Not  long  ago  he  proceeded  to  show  that  the  average  cost  of 
living  was  lower  now  than  it  was  ten  years  ago,  and  did  it  by  showing 
that  while  such  things  as  bacon  and  flour  had  increased  something 
like  40  per  cent.,  nutmegs  and  spices  had  decreased  something  like 
60  per  cent.,  showing  a  clear  decrease  of  20  per  cent,  in  the  cost  of 
living.  And  in  his  estimates  of  the  cost  of  living  Mr.  Wright  forgot 
to  include  the  important  item  of  rent,  which  takes  fully  19  per  cent, 
of  the  average  workingman's  income.  Mr.  Wright  will  have  to  work 
at  a  desperate  rate  if  he  would  do  what  his  employers  expect  him  to 
do  for  the  G.  0.  P.  campaign." 

In  an  article  entitled  "  More  Cooked  Statistics,"  published  •  in 
"  The  Public  "  of  Dec.  5,  1903,  Mr.  Henry  L.  Bliss  makes  a  critical 
analysis  of  the  data  submitted.  In  the  course  of  his  article  Mr.  Bliss 
says: 

"  That  it  is  the  studied  purpose  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labour  to 
conceal  rather  than  reveal  facts  unfavourable  to  existing  economic  and 
social  conditions  is  shown  by  numerous  reports  and  tables  of  statistics 
of  the  Bureau  of  Labour,  besides  those  of  Bulletin  38,  in  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  increase  in  "  real  wages  "•  is  measured  by  the  de- 
crease in  the  price  of  steel  rails  and  other  commodities  of  which  the 
wage  earner  is  never  a  purchaser." 

Space  does  not  permit  a  further  pursuit  of  this  subject  of  falsified 
statistics.  Enough  has  been  written  to  convince  any  fair-minded  and 
intelligent  reader  of  the  truth  of  our  original  contention,  to  wit, 
national  statistics  are  falsified  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  pub- 
lic as  to  real  conditions.  Should  any  one  desire  to  pursue  the  subject 
further  he  will  find  "  Our  Juggled  Census,"  a  pamphlet  by  Mr.  Henry 
L.  Bliss,  an  excellent  point  at  which  to  attack  the  subject. 


176 


.       CHAPTER  V 

THE    RUSSIANISING   OF   UNCLE    SAM 


177 


When  I  see  a  workingman  voting  an  old  party  ticket  it  makes  me  think 
of  the  popular  song,  "  Nothing  from  Nothing  Leaves  You." 

Appeal  to  Reason. 

They  have  cheveril  consciences  that  will  stretch. 

Burton, 
Anatomy  of  Melancholy. 


178 


CHAPTER  V 
THE    RUSSIANISING   OF   UNCLE    SAM 

E  trust  the  facts  in  the  preceding  chapter  will  not  lead 
the  Reader  to  imagine  that  the  United  .States  enjoys 
a  monopoly  in  the  line  of  "  cooked  statistics."  Such 
is  far  from  being  the  case.  In  Russia,  where  statistics 
are  manufactured  to  suit  the  needs  of  the  autocracy,  it 
has  been  found  expedient,  in  the  opinion  of  said  autoc- 
racy, to  prevent  as  far  as  possible  troublesome  truths  from  getting  to 
the  people  either  by  spoken  or  written  word.  What  is  the  use  of 
labouriously  "  cooking  "  a  fine  mess  of  "  statistics  "  if  some  meddle- 
some crank  is  to  be  allowed  to  tell  the  people  they  are  false  and  so 
prevent  their  being  thankfully  swallowed  ?  To  prevent  this  untoward 
condition  of  affairs  in  Russia  they  maintain  a  most  active  censorship. 
The  censor  is  a  sort  of  intellectual  nurse,  and  the  people  in  his  charge 
are,  if  you  please,  bottle-babies  to  be  fed  with  such  pap  as  he  thinks 
best  to  give  them.  Like  all  officialdom  he  obeys  the  law  of  self- 
preservation,  and  secures  the  perpetuity  of  his  office  by  starving  his 
babies  till  they  are  too  weak  to  feed  themselves.  Soon  they  are  glad 
to  take  anything  he  may  give  them  without  question. 

This  is  Russia,  and  we  have  now  to  consider  whether  the  United 
States,  having,  as  we  have  seen,  copied  her  in  the  matter  of  "  cooked 
statistics,"  is  also  following  her  lead  in  the  matter  of  stifling  freedom 
of  utterance. 

We  shall  prove  that  this  is  precisely  what  is  taking  place  in  the 
United  States.  Not  that  we  have  as  yet  degenerated  to  the  servile 
depths  of  intellectual  slavery  which  obtains  in  Russia,  but  that  we 
have  deliberately  turned  our  back  upon  our  high  ideals  of  liberty  of 
speech  and  thought,  that  we  have  repudiated  with  insistence  the  very 
axioms  for  which  the  founders  of  our  Republic  unremittingly  con- 
tended, and  that  we  are  now  being  hurried  as  fast  as  our  ideals  can  be 
broken  down  by  the  greed  for  money,  called  commercialism,  and  the 
greed  for  territory  called  imperialism, —  down  to  the  abject  level  of 
czarism. 

We  are  quite  aware  that  this  is  a  severe  indictment,  yet  it  is  a  true 
bill. 

In  his  "'Principles  of  Ethics,"  Vol.  II.,  Chapter  XVIII,  Herbert 
Spencer  says : 

"  As  belief,  considered  in  itself,  does  not  admit  of  being  controlled 
by  external  power  —  as  it  is  only  the  profession  of  belief  which  can 
be  taken  cognisance  of  by  authority  and  permitted  or  prevented,  it 
follows  that  the  assertion  of  the  right  to  freedom  of  belief  implies  the 
right  to  freedom  of  speech.  Further,  it  implies  the  right  to  use 

179 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

speech  for  the  propagation  of  belief ;  seeing  that  each  of  the  proposi- 
tions constituting  an  argument  or  arguments,  used  to  support  or  en- 
force a  belief,  being  itself  a  belief,  the  right  to  express  it  is  included 
with  the  right  to  express  the  belief  to  be  justified." 

Now,  since  freedom  of  belief  means  freedom  to  express  belief,  an 
attempt  to  prevent  free  expression  of  belief  is  an  attempt  to  do  the 
utmost  that  can  be  done  against  freedom  of  belief.  In  the  darkest 
days  of  the  Dark  Ages " the  veriest  inquisitorial  despot  could  do  no 
more  in  his  attempt  to  coerce  belief  than  to  coerce  its  manifestation, 
and  any  attempt  to-day  to  coerce  the  expression  of  beliefs  or  of  opin- 
ions is  part  and  parcel  of  the  brutish  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the 
Dark  Ages. 

Says  Mr.  John  .Stuart  Mill,  one  of  the  greatest  philosophers  and 
most  marvelous  minds  of  any  age : 

"  The  time,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  is  gone  by,  when  any  defence  would 
be  necessary  of  the  ' liberty  of  the  press'  as  one  of  the  securities 
against  corrupt  or  tyrannical  government.  No  argument,  we  may 
suppose,  can  now  be  needed,  against  permitting  a  legislature  or  an 
executive,  not  identified  in  interest  with  the  people,  to  prescribe  opin- 
ions to  them,  and  determine  what  doctrines  or  what  arguments  they 
shall  be  allowed  to  hear.  This  aspect  of  the  question,  besides,  has 
been  so  often  and  so  triumphantly  enforced  by  preceding  writers,  that 
it  needs  not  be  specially  insisted  on  in  this  place.  ...  If  all  man- 
kind, minus  one,  were  of  one  opinion,  and  only  one  person  were  of  the 
contrary  opinion,  mankind  would  be  no  more  justified  in  silencing 
that  one  person,  than  he,  if  he  had  the  power,  would  be  justified  in 
silencing  mankind.  Were  an  opinion  a  personal  possession  of  no  value 
except  to  the  owner,  if  to  be  obstructed  in  the  enjoyment  of  it  were 
simply  a  private  injury,  it  would  make  some  difference  whether  the 
injury  was  inflicted  only  on  a  few  persons  or  on  many.  But  the 
peculiar  evil  of  silencing  the  expression  of  an  opinion  is,  that  it  is 
robbing  the  human  race,  posterity  as  well  as  the  existing  generation ; 
those  who  dissent  from  the  opinion,  still  more  than  those  who  hold 
it.  If  the  opinion  is  right,  they  are  deprived  of  the  opportunity  of 
exchanging  error  for  truth ;  if  wrong,  they  lose,  what  is  almost  as  great 
a  benefit,  the  clearer  perception  and  livelier  impression  of  truth,  pro- 
duced by  its  collision  with  error." 

That  the  founders  of  this  government  held  these  same  ideals  re- 
specting freedom  of  utterance  is  too  well  known  to  require  more  than 
passing  notice.  In  his  first  inaugural  address,  Thomas  Jefferson,  the 
author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  gave  the  Eepublic  this 
splendid  ethical  yardstick  with  which  to  measure  itself  in  times  of 
darkness  and  of  doubt.  And  how  we  have  used  it! 

"  Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men,  of  whatever  state  or  persuasion, 
religious  or  political ;  peace,  commerce,  and  honest  friendship  with  all 
nations, —  entangling  alliances  with  none;  the  support  of  the  State 
governments  in  all  their  rights  as  the  most  competent  administrations 
for  our  domestic  concerns,  and  the  surest  bulwarks  against  anti- 
republican  tendencies;  the  preservation  of  the  general  government  in 
its  whole  constitutional  vigour,  as  the  sheet  anchor  of  our  peace  at 
home  and  safety  abroad;  .  .  .  freedom  of  religion;  freedom  of 

180 


THE    RUSSIANISING   OF   UNCLE    SAM 

the  press ;  freedom  of  person  under  the  protection  of  the  habeas  corpus ; 
and  trial  by  juries  impartially  selected, —  these  principles  form  the 
bright  constellation  which  has  gone  before  us,  and  guided  our  steps 
through  an  age  of  revolution  and  reformation/' 

On  the  14th  day  of  October,  1903,  John  Turner,  the  English  com- 
munist anarchist,  arrived  in  this  country.  The  gentleman  was  at  that 
time  chief  organiser  of  the  retail  clerks'  union  of  Great  Britain,  and 
a  member  of  the  London  Trades  Council.  He  came  to  New  York 
to  arrange  for  an  organisation  of  the  retail  clerks  of  this  country  in 
an  international  union  with  those  of  Great  Britain. 

Mr.  Turner  is  not  a  believer  in  violence,  nor  did  he  indulge  in 
incendiary  speeches.  He  is  simply  a  disbeliever  in  all  organised 
government.  All  this  may  be  said  of  Tolstoy,  the  greatest  living  Bus- 
sian  and  the  foremost  of  non-resistants.  It  is  equally  applicable  to 
Kropotkin,  the  famous  Eussian  writer,  and  to  Eeclus,  the  world- 
renowned  geographer.  Mr.  Turner  is  simply  a  peaceable,  well-edu- 
cated, refined  gentleman  with  a  particular  philosophical  belief.  The 
greatest  philosophers  of  the  world  have  declared  again  and  again  that 
that  country  is  best  governed  which  is  least  governed.  Mr.  Turner 
pushes  this  theory  home  and  believes  in  abolishing  government  al- 
together. 

On  Oct.  23,  1903,  while  addressing  a  peaceable  and  orderly  au- 
dience at  the  Murray  Hill  Lyceum,  New  York,  and  while  speaking 
quite  within  the  law,  he  was  arrested  by  United  States  secret  service 
detectives  authorised  by  the  Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labour  at 
Washington;  and  these  detectives,  without  other  authority,  broke  up 
the  meeting  and  conveyed  their  prisoner  to  Ellis  Island,  a  Federal 
government  reservation.  On  the  next  day  a  non-judicial  special  board 
of  inquiry  decided  that  Turner  was  an  "  anarchist "  and  accordingly 
subject  to  deportation  under  the  Federal  law. 

Commenting  upon  this  arrest,  New  York's  most  conservative  news- 
paper, the  "  Evening  Post,"  the  next  day  printed  the  following : 

"  The  first  attempt  at  enforcing  the  anti-anarchist  act,  passed  after 
the  assassination  of  President  McKinley,  is  not  only  ridiculous,  but 
alarming,  to  all  who  hold  to  American  ideals  of  personal  liberty. 
Last  night  .Secretary  Cortelyou's  United  States  marshals  broke  into 
a  meeting  and  arrested  John  Turner  as  '  an  avowed  anarchist.' 
Unquestionably  the  government  means  to  deport  him  —  a  logical  act 
under  an  absurd  law.  Turner  has  made  no  incendiary  utterance  in 
this  country ;  he  has  not,  in  the  words  of  the  law,  '  advocated  the 
overthrow  by  force  or  violence '  of  any  organised  government.  When 
he  preaches  the  gospel  of  anarchy  among  us  it  would  be  time  to  deport 
him.  To  proscribe  him  because-  he  may  have  written  or  talked  else- 
where against  constituted  authority  may  be  legal;  it  certainly  is  re- 
pugnant to  American  ideals." 

Describing  the  extraordinary  and  shameful  treatment  of  Mr.  Tur- 
ner after  his  arrest,  "  The  Public,"  in  its  issue  of  Jan.  23,  1904, 
prints  the  following  editorially :  "  On  Ellis  Island,  New  York,  a 
curious  case  of  imprisonment  may  be  observed.  The  prisoner  is  con- 
fined in  a  cage ;  literally  in  a  cage,  such  as  may  be  seen  in  menageries. 
It  is  about  9  feet  long  by  8  feet  wide;  the  two  ends  are  closed  only 

181 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

with  bars,lo  that  the  prisoner  is  never  concealed  from  view ;  the  whole 
contrivance  stands  in  the  middle  of  the  floor  of  a  basement  room,  and 
about  15  feet  from  the  windows;  and  no  one  is  allowed  to  approach 
it  except  in  the  presence  of  vigilant  guards.  The  involuntary  occu- 
pant of  this  cage  is  not  a  dangerous  lunatic.  He  is  not  a  convicted 
criminal.  He  is  a  sane  gentleman  of  education  and  refinement,  a 
peaceable  subject  of  Edward  VII.,  a  man  of  affairs,  a  retail  clerk 
(shopkeepers'  assistant)  when  at  home  in  London,  and  the  head  of  the 
shop  assistants'  union  of  Great  Britain.  He  came  to  New  York  to 
arrange  for  organising  the  retail  clerks  of  this  country  in  an  inter- 
national union  with  those  of  Great  Britain.  As  soon  as  he  came  he 
was  arrested.  But  not  for  any  crime  known  to  the  laws  of  any  modern 
nation.  He  was  arrested  for  the  medieval  offence  of  '  disbelieving ' 
something.  The  something  which  this  gentleman  does  not  believe  in 
is  organised  government.  It  is  because  he  '  disbelieves  in  organised 
government/  and  for  nothing  else  —  let  us  repeat,  for  nothing  else, 
for  that  is  all  the  official  and  the  judicial  records  show  —  that  this 
man,  John  Turner,  is  confined  like  a  wild  animal  in  that  cage,  upon 
the  mere  say-so  of  a  member  of  President  Eoosevelt's  cabinet.  There 
is  probably  no  place  in  the  civilised  world  to-day  where  such  a  spectacle 
would  be  possible  —  excepting  only  Eussia,  Turkey  and  the  United 
States." 

Mr.  C.  E.  S.  Wood  wrote  as  follows  in  a  Pacific  monthly  for 
March,  1904 :  "  The  Declaration  of  Independence  is  as  much  a  part 
of  our  Constitution  as  is  Magna  Charta  of  the  Constitution  of  Eng- 
land. The  Declaration  of  Independence  says  that  governments  are 
ordained  amongst  men  to  promote  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness, and  'whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  destructive  of 
these  ends  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  it/ 

"  If  the  right  is  inherent  in  the  people  to  abolish  any  form  of  gov- 
ernment (as  it  certainly  is,  with  or  without  any  written  declaration) 
they  certainly  have  the  right  to  discuss  the  abolishing  of  any  form  of 
government.  And  if  this  right  of  discussion  exists,  it  cannot  be  lim- 
ited by  any  person's  notion  of  what  particular  forms  of  government 
or  of  social  union  are  sacred  from  discussion.  If  this  man  Turner 
can  be  deported  for  a  mere  political  opinion,  upon  which  he  has  not 
opened  his  lips,  freedom  of  thought  has  ceased  in  this  country." 

Under  date  of  May  20th,  1904,  the  "  Springfield  Republican  "  pub- 
lished an  editorial  from  which'  we  extract  the  following: 

"Much  as  we  dislike  to  say  it,  the  deportation  of  Turner  is  also, 
in  a  sense,  a  break  with  our  past,  especially  with  the  tradition  of  free 
speech  and  free  thought  which  have  been  our  pride  for  generations. 
.  .  .  Deportation,  even  of  an  anarchist,  smacks  too  much  of  a 
system  that  has  always  characterised  despotisms  rather  than  free  re- 
publics whose  chief  security  has  rested  in  the  affections  of  the  people." 

Judge  Lacombe,  of  the  Federal  court,  ordered  Turner's  deportation. 

Referring  to  the  constitutional  provision  guaranteeing  freedom  of 
speech  and  press,  he  said : 

"  As  to  abridgment  of  the  freedom  of  speech,  that  clause  deals  with 
the  speech  of  persons  in  the  United  States  and  has  no  bearing  upon  the 
question  what  persons  shall  be  allowed  to  enter  therein." 

182 


THE    RUSSIANISING   OF   UNCLE    SAM 

Let  us  consider  this  singular  utterance  a  moment  for  the  light  it 
may  cast  upon  the  labyrinthine  methods  of  the  legal  conscience. 

Were  Turner  an  American  he  would  be  protected  by  the  Constitu- 
tion in  his  utterances. 

All  men  have  certain  rights,  freedom  of  utterance  and  of  belief  be- 
ing among  the  number.  Recognising  the  truth  of  this  assertion,  our 
Constitution  safeguards  and  guarantees  these  rights  to  everyone  with- 
in its  jurisdiction.  Judge  Lacombe,  it  would  seem,  doesn't  propose 
that  our  government  shall  do  right  except  where  it  is  obliged  to.  He 
appears  to  think  that  our  Constitution  gives  to  our  people,  as  an  act  of 
generosity,  a  right  they  did  not  before  possess,  whereas  even  a  cursory 
perusal  of  any  good  philosophy  would  have  shown  him  that  these  rights 
of  free  utterance  and  belief  inhere  in  all  men.  Our  Constitution 
merely  recognises  them,  it  does  not  create  them.  .Such  being  the  case, 
the  fact  that  Turner  could  not  technically  command  the  protection  of 
our  charter  of  liberty  in  no  wise  robbed  him  of  the  rights  which  had 
always  inhered  in  him  quite  irrespective  of  it.  This  judge's  decision, 
therefore,  was  not  only  unchristian  and  invasive,  but  it  put  our  coun- 
try in  the  despicable  position  of  a  predatory  power  ready  to  rob  any 
man  of  his  inherent  rights,  provided  he  were  not  sufficiently  protected. 
It  is  a  pity  we  cannot  at  least  draw  our  Federal  decisions  from  a  higher 
type  of  men. 

On  the  9th  of  April,  1904,  Emma  Goldman  was  advertised  to  speak 
in  a  public  hall  in  Philadelphia,  rented  for  that  purpose.  The  sub- 
ject was  "  The  Tragedy  of  Woman's  Emancipation."  An  orderly 
crowd  gathered  and  sought  to  enter  the  hall.  The  assemblage  was 
perfectly  peaceable  and  law-abiding,  but  the  "  Director  of  Public 
Safety  "  ordered  the  police  to  prevent  the  meeting  from  being  held. 
And  this  for  no  other  reason  than  that  someone  had  told  him  the 
speaker  was  an  "  anarchist."  There  was  not  the  slightest  indication, 
to  say  nothing  of  proof,  of  the  likelihood  of  any  lawlessness.  The 
subject  was  in  no  wise  incendiary  or  offensive.  The  lecturer  and  the 
attendants  were  even  forbiddeji  to  enter  their  own  premises  which 
they  had  hired  for  the  occasion.  Two  of  the  attendants,  Samuel 
Milliken  and  Frank  Stephens,  who  insisted,  though  without  violent 
behaviour,  upon  entering  the  hall,  were  arrested  and  imprisoned. 
This  flagrant  violation  of  one  of  the  most  fundamental  rights  of  citi- 
zenship, perpetrated  in  the  very  city  where  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  signed,  by  officials  who  by  this  act  are  themselves  an- 
archists if  they  are  anything,  received  the  approval  of  the  local  press 
and  of  that  smug  contingent  which  is  pleased  to  regard  itself  the 
"  better  class." 

The  issue  was  so  well  summed  up  by  Mr.  George  G.  Mercer,  a  lead- 
ing lawyer,  in  his  speech  before  the  magistrate  in  behalf  of  the  pris- 
oners, that  we  close  the  subject  with  the  following  extract  therefrom : 

"  According  to  the  primary  meaning  of  the  word  an  anarchist  is 
one  who  advocates  a  social  theory  of  absolute  individual  liberty  and 
who  believes  in  the  beautiful  ideal  of  the  self-government  of  man 
without  the  necessity  of  any  forceful  enforcement  of  the  law.  I  have 
never  seen  Emma  Goldman,  have  never  heard  her  speak,  and  have  no 
belief  in  the  present  practicability  of  her  political  ideal;  but,  if  I 

183 


rightly  understand  her  position,  she  is  the  peaceful  advocate  of  a 
state  of  society  in  which  government,  as  we  understand  it,  would  be 
unnecessary.  In  one  of  this  morning's  newspapers  I  read  her  state- 
ments that  she  had  always  been  permitted  to  speak  on  this  topic  in 
the  city  of  New  York.  As  a  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  who  was  born 
here  and  have  lived  here  all  my  life,  I  hang  my  head  with  shame  to 
think  that  this  woman,  when  she  comes  to  the  city  where  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  made,  is  denied  the  right  of  free  speech  on 
another  topic  simply  because  she  is  known  to  believe  in  anarchy  in 
its  higher  and  better  sense.  In  its  secondary  signification  the  word 
anarchist  means  one  who  promotes  disorder,  who  overturns  by  vio- 
lence constitutional  forms  of  government,  and  who  interferes  with 
the  individual  rights  of  man.  In  this  second  class  we  find  the  po- 
licemen who  made  the  arrests  last  night;  above  them  the  lieutenant 
of  this  district  by  whose  orders  the  arrests  were  made ;  above  him  the 
Director  of  Public  Safety  who  ordered  the  lieutenant  to  deny  the 
right  of  free  speech  and  to  prevent  the  holding  of  a  peaceful  meet- 
ing ;  and  above  the  Director  the  Mayor  of  Philadelphia,  who  has  done 
more,  by  this  one  act,  to  promote  anarchy  in  its  worst  sense  than  all 
the  speeches  of  Emma  Goldman  could  have  done  in  years.  Certainly, 
this  high  handed  outrage  of  the  Police  Department  of  Philadelphia 
shows  that  here,  in  this  American  city,  is  anarchy  in  a  sense  as  bad 
as  it  could  possibly  exist  in  Eussia ;  namely,  a  state  of  society  in  which 
the  functions  of  government  are  performed  badly  or  not  at  all,  and 
in  which  there  is  no  capable  supreme  power." 

While  upon  this  subject  of  free  speech,  there  seems  to  be  no  better 
place  than  this  to  treat  of  our  gradually  augmenting  censorship. 

Long  before  the  foundation  of  our  Federal  government  our  fore- 
fathers noted  the  evils  of  press  censorship  as  it  existed  in  Europe, 
and  they  determined  that,  as  far  as  it  lay  in  their  power  to  prevent 
it,  this  country  should  never  suffer  a  similar  loss  of  liberty.  The  two 
institutions  which  they  prized  above  all  others  were  freedom  of  the 
press  and  trial  by  jury.  It  is  a  singular  commentary  upon  modern 
American  conditions  that  both  these  sacred  institutions  are  now  un- 
dergoing vigorous  assault.  So  vital  did  our  forefathers  consider  this 
principle  of  liberty,  that  the  Federal  party  went  down  to  political 
ruin  because  it  became  responsible  for  the  "  sedition  act,"  which 
made  libels  against  the  President  and  other  Federal  officials  offences 
to  be  tried  before  judges  of  the  President's  own  appointment  and 
juries  selected  by  his  own  appointees.  Indeed,  so  strong  was  this  pub- 
lic sentiment  that  it  continued  with  but  slight  abatement  almost  down 
to  the  present  time.  Even  in  the  heat  and  excitement  of  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation,  at  a  time  when  great  issues  were  trembling  in  the 
balance,  a  Senate  favourable  to  slavery  "revolted  at  the  suggestion 
that  anti-slavery  newspapers  be  made  unmailable." 

In  a  little  booklet  entitled  "  Our  Advancing  Postal  Censorship,"  Mr. 
Louis  F.  Post,  of  Chicago,  states  the  case  so  clearly  and  so  well  that 
we  cannot  do  better  than  to  put  his  thought,  as  briefly  as  possible  be- 
fore you. 

Mr.  Post  states  that  he  believes  American  public  opinion  would 
not  consciously  tolerate  a  censorship,  and  that  were  any  political 

184 


THE   RUSSIANISING   OF   UNCLE    SAM 

party  to  assume  its  advocacy  they  would  surely  be  overwhelmed  with 
the  condemnation  of  an  indignant  people.  But  he  points  out  that  in 
this  case,  as  in  most  instances  where  a  people  loses  its  liberties,  the 
first  inroads  made  upon  the  cherished  principle  are  concealed  behind 
some  plausible  excuse  and  are  usually  offered  as  a  cure  for  some 
condition  exceedingly  distasteful  to  the  people  as  a  whole.  In  this 
way  the  thin  edge  of  the  wedge  of  precedent  is  entered  and  the  public 
lulled  into  silence,  the  few  who  see  the  menace  for  the  most  part 
holding  their  peace,  lest,  in  contending  for  the  principle  assailed, 
they  be  thought  to  be  defending  the  abuse  so  distasteful  to  public 
opinion.  Thus  the  precedent  is  established  and  is  from  time  to  time 
extended  to  include  acts  less  and  less  in  public  abhorrence  until,  in 
the  end,  Liberty  is  bound  hand  and  foot  and  freedom  of  the  press  be- 
comes but  a  memory.  Mr.  Post  says :  "  And  it  is  a  fact,  that  by 
indirect  and  surreptitious  methods  a  censorship  is  gradually  being 
established  over  printing  and  publishing  in  the  United  States.  It 
has  advanced  so  far  that  a  Federal  bureau  at  Washington  already 
possesses  powers  of  press  censorship  sufficient  to  enable  it  to  suppress 
any  periodical  whatever,  in  the  discretion  of  the  officials  who  control 
the  bureau.  .  .  .  By  deciding  as  to  any  periodical  whatever,  and 
however  falsely,  -upon  evidence  satisfactory  to  himself,  that  its  con- 
tents were  offensive  to  public  morals,  the  head  of  this  bureau 
could  effectually  suppress  that  publication.  And  the  mere  fact  that 
he  could  do  this,  would  have  a  powerful  effect  in  influencing  all  peri- 
odicals to  support  or  oppose  public  policies  as  the  persons  or  parties 
controlling  the  censorising  bureau  might  direct. 

"  It  is  by  insidious  steps,  such  as  are  here  suggested  as  possible, 
that  the  public  opinion  of  free  peoples  has  always  been  suppressed, 
and  that  their  other  liberties  have  been  wrested  from  them  in  the  con- 
sequent silence/' 

The  Eeader  will  please  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  literally  true  that 
the  Federal  bureau  at  Washington  may  condemn  any  publication 
which  does  not  please  it;  that  it  may  do  this  without  previous  notice 
to  its  publishers;  that  it  may  do  this  without  even  informing  the 
publisher  wherein  his  publication  is  at  fault;  that  it  may  deny  the 
use  of  the  mails  to  any  concern  without  a  -hearing  of  any  sort,  and 
that  its  action  rests  entirely  upon  its  own  discretion  and  that  its 
verdict  is  final  and  beyond  appeal.  Indeed,  in  one  particular  our 
censorship  is  worse  than  that  of  Eussia,  for  there  the  censor  merely 
lampblacks  the  objectionable  portion  of  a  publication  and  then  per- 
mits it  to  circulate,  while  here  our  censors  confiscate  or  suppress  the 
entire  edition,  and  do  not  even  inform  the  publishers  wherein  they 
offend.  Nor  is  this  all.  As  if  determined  to  shield  themselves  from 
the  indignation  their  high-handed  acts  might  arouse  if  fully  known, 
it  is  provided  by  Act  of  Congress  approved  Sept.  26,  1888,  that 
"  notice  of  any  kind  giving  information,  directly  or  indirectly,  where 
or  how  or  of  whom  or  by  what  means  an  obscene  .  .  .  publica- 
tion of  an  indecent  character  "  .  .  .  "  may  be  obtained/'  is  it- 
self "  non-mailable  matter." 

Should  we  attempt,  therefore,  to  put  before  our  readers  specific 
concrete  instances  where  the  postal  authorities  had  pronounced  per- 

185 


fectly  harmless  matter  indecent,  we  should  subject  this  book  to  sup- 
pression similar  to  that  we  were  criticising.  This,  it  will  readily  be 
seen,  operates  to  protect  this  bureau  from  much  of  the  criticism  it 
richly  merits  and  would  otherwise  secure  from  the  press  of  the 
country. 

After  showing  how  there  might  easily  spring  up  in  this  country 
"a  censorship  which  the  crude  censors  of  Russia  might  envy,"  Mr. 
Post  says :  "  Now,  in  this  country  there  is  just  such  a  bureau  as  we 
have  imagined  above.  It  is  known  as  the  Post  Office  Department. 
That  department  controls  the  delivery  and  receipt  of  almost  all  the 
written  and  printed  matter  of  the  country.  Nearly  all  private  cor- 
respondence, nearly  all  books,  nearly  all  periodicals,  are  circulated 
by  its  machinery.  It  has  gone  so  extensively  into  the  business  of  dis- 
tributing letters  and  periodicals  for  the  people  that  all  business  is 
dependent  upon  it,  and  any  periodical  against  which  it  might  dis- 
criminate could  not  long  continue  publication. 

"  To  invest  this  department  with  power  to  grant  or  refuse  its  dis- 
tributing service  to  periodicals,  with  reference  to  its  own  judgment 
of  the  legitimacy  of  their  printed  contents,  would  be  to  place  at  its 
mercy  every  periodical  which  the  department  might  wish  to  destroy. 

"  But  not  only  have  we  such  a  bureau  in  this  country,  in  the  Post 
Office  Department,  but  that  department  has  been  gradually  invested, 
in  very  much  the  manner  indicated  above,  with  the  censorial  powers 
outlined  above  as  possible.  And  it  has  exercised  those  powers  with 
similarly  aggressive  discretion/' 

"  The  investiture  of  the  Post  Office  Department  with  arbitrary  cen- 
sorship over  the  press,  began  (as  we  have  indicated  in  our  supposi- 
tions that  such  a  censorship  probably  would  begin),  with  legislation 
against  such  postal  matter  as  was  most  intensely  offensive  to  public 
morals.  Obscene  letters  and  papers  were  declared  to  be  unmailable 
and  the  act  of  mailing  them  a  crime.  To  this  innovation  objection 
was  difficult.  No  appeal  to  the  principle  of  freedom  of  the  press 
could  be  made  which  would  not  seem  like  an  attempt  at  shielding 
vile  offences,  with  appeals  to  political  traditions  and  abstractions 
—  like  opposing  "mere  generalisations"  or  theories  of  government 
to  actual  immoralities.  Under  cover  of  the  silence  which  decency 
thus  imposed,  the  postal  censorship  gained  a  foothold. 

"  Then  further  steps  were  taken.  The  ban  of  unmailability  was  ex- 
tended to  mail  matter  in  furtherance  of  frauds.  Decency  did  not 
impose  silence  here,  but  what  could  be  said  against  laws  for  the  sup- 
pression of  fraud?  Nothing  that  would  not  make  the  objector  seem 
to  be  an  apologist  for  actual  crime  on  pretence  of  devotion  to  a  mere 
'  theory  of  liberty/ 

'•'  Nor  was  much  difficulty  encountered  in  extending  the  postal  cen- 
sorship against  obscene  and  fraudulent  mail  matter  to  mail  matter 
in  connexion  with  lotteries.  Public  opinion  had  become  ripe  for  ex-  ' 
eluding  that  business  from  its  old  place  in  the  category  of  the  legiti- 
mate, and  objections  to  this  extension  of  the  censorship  were  rebuked 
as  sympathetic  with  lotteries,  instead  of  being  accorded  a  fair  hear- 
ing in  the  interest  of  freedom  of  the  press. 

"  While  censorial  statutes  were  accumulating,  criminal  prosecutions 

186 


V 
„      THE    RUSSIANISING   OF   UNCLE    SAM 

which  never  got  before  the  highest  court  were  building  up  a  mass 
of  precedents,  and  rules  and  rulings  of  the  Postal  Department  were 
establishing  censorial  lines  of  administrative  procedure  which  have 
crystallised  with  time.  And  so  it  has  come  about  that  the  Postal  De- 
partment has  acquired  and  is  actually  exercising  the  ominous  cen- 
sorial power  to  which  we  invite  attention. 

"  Upon  decrees  sent  out  from  a  bureau  at  Washington,  all  their 
correspondence  is  withheld  from  individuals,  on  the  charge,  estab- 
lished before  no  judicial  tribunal,  that  at  some  time  in  the  past  they 
have  solicited  correspondence  through  the  mails  for  purposes  of 
fraud;  and  legitimate  periodicals  are  suppressed,  on  pretence  that 
they  contain  obscene  language  or  sentiments.  In  none  of  these  cases 
is  the  alleged  offender  given  a  jury  trial,  in  none  does  his  case  come 
before  a  judicial  tribunal;  in  all  his  nearest  approach  to  a  trial  is 
before  attaches  of  the  censoring  bureau  which  makes  the  charge,  and 
in  some  the  specific  accusations  are  withheld  from  him." 

Eeferring  to  a  specific  case,  that  of  the  suppression  of  the  issue 
of  "  Lucifer "  of  Dec.  17,  1903,  Mr.  Post  says,  relative  to  the  arti- 
cle which,  after  great  patience,  he  succeeded  in  getting  the  Postal 
Authorities  to  indicate  to  him  as  the  one  they  considered  objection- 
able :  "  The  phrasing,  considered  by  itself,  is  not  out  of  the  com- 
mon in  the  current  literature  of  fiction.  If  any  well-known  nov- 
elist had  put  these  two  articles,  thought  by  thought  and  word  by 
word,  into  the  mouths  of  characters  in  a  problem  novel,  it  is  almost 
inconceivable  that  any  publishing  house,  other  than  the  American 
Tract  Society,  would  have  suppressed  them;  and  if  the  postal  cen- 
sors had  condemned  them  as  obscene  by  excluding  the  novel  from 
the  mails,  a  cry  of  derision  would  have  echoed  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other. 

"  The  inference  seems  to  us  unavoidable,  that  the  issue  of  '  Lucifer ' 
of  December  17,  1903,  was  excluded  from  the  mails,  not  because  of 
any  violation  of  the  postal  statute,  but  because  it  advocated  doc- 
trines of  social  life  at  variance  with  those  to  which  the  postal  cen- 
sors are  professedly  devoted.  In  other  words,  it  was  suppressed,  not 
for  decency's  sake,  but  for  opinion's  sake."  .  .  . 

"  Power  fattens  upon  what  it  feeds  on.  Little  by  little,  from  sup- 
pressing evil  reading  to  suppressing  that  which  is  doubtful,  it  ad- 
vances to  the  suppression  of  unpopular  opinions,  and  then  to  those 
that  are  popular;  and  it  makes  its  advances  so  insidiously  that  all 
freedom  of  opinion  is  throttled  by  censors  before  the  people  realise 
that  it  has  been  assailed. 

"  That  the  point  of  suppressing  unpopular  opinions  in  one  branch 
of  social  philosophy  has  already  been  reached,  is  evident  from  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  "  Lucifer  "  case  which  we  describe  above. 

"  Here  is  a  publication  depending  for  existence,  as  all  others  do, 
upon  regularity  of  mail  circulation.  Without  notice,  accusation, 
specification,  trial  or  hearing  of  any  sort,  a  regular  issue,  the  full 
edition,  is  confiscated  by  a  local  postmaster  upon  orders  from  the 
censor  at  Washington.  After  this  suppression,  the  publisher  is  noti- 
fied of  it,  but  information  as  to  the  specific  fact  upon  which  the  arbi- 
trary action  was  based  is  withheld.  He  is  told  he  has  violated  a 

187 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

particular  postal  law,  but  he  is  not  told  how  he  has  done  it.  Nor  does 
he  get  a  hearing  even  on  the  vague  general  charge  of  which  he  is  ad- 
vised. The  action  is  as  arbitrary  as  such  actions  are  in  Russia/' 

Mr.  Post  relates  how  he  wrote  various  letters  to  the  Post-Office 
Department  both  at  Chicago  and  at  Washington  in  his  endeavour  to 
ascertain  specifically  what  had  led  the  authorities  to  rule  against 
"  Lucifer."  These  letters  began  on  .Jan.  27,  1904,  and  it  was  not 
till  Aug.  25th,  1904,  that  the  Department,  after  quietly  ignoring  sev- 
eral letters,  vouchsafed  a  portion  of  the  information  requested. 

Referring  to  this  experience,  Mr.  Post  says :  "  And  after  the  edi- 
tion has  been  suppressed,  another  paper,  interested  in  sounding  an 
alarm  if  freedom  of  the  press  has  been  bureaucratically  assailed,  is 
trifled  with  by  the  censors  for  months,  in  its  efforts  to  discover  the 
specific  offence  for  which  the  suppressed  paper  was  suppressed,  only 
to  learn  finally  that  it  was  for  publishing  two  articles,  only  the  titles 
of  which  are  given,  and  in  which,  however  offensive  they  may  be  to 
good  taste,  even  a  prude  could  hardly  find  material  for  specifications 
on  a  charge  of  immorality. 

"  A  censorship  which  can  maintain  this  attitude  toward  freedom  of 
the  press  respecting  one  subject  of  discussion,  will  have  little  diffi- 
culty in  speedily  advancing  its  meddlesome  jurisdiction  to  other  sub- 
jects. 

"  The  real  issue  here,  let  us  repeat  —  and  it  will  bear  repetition 
again  and  again  —  is  not  the  legal  offensiveness  of  the  particular 
articles  noted  above.  That  issue  is  important  only  for  its  bearing 
upon  the  point  of  the  good  faith  of  the  censor.  The  real  issue  is  the 
wisdom  of  allowing  any  official  to  deny  mailing  facilities  to  anything 
whatever  which  is  otherwise  mailable,  merely  upon  his  own  judgment, 
as  a  censor,  of  the  morality  of  the  intelligence  it  conveys  or  the  opin- 
ions it  expresses." 

"  If  opinions  in  this  country  are  to  stand  or  fall  upon  reason  and 
free  discussion,  the  present  postal  censorship  must  be  abolished.  So 
long  as  publication  through  the  mails  can  be  denied  arbitrarily  by  an 
administrative  bureau  of  the  government,  the  discussion  of  conflicting 
opinions  is  hampered. 

"  Even  the  sentiment  of  fair  play,  entirely  apart  from  all  considera- 
tions of  a  free  press,  demands  the  abolition  of  this  censorship.  So 
long  as  an  administrative  officer  can  withdraw  mailing  rights  from 
a  publication  for  any  offence  whatever,  without  an  opportunity  for 
the  publisher  to  be  heard  in  his  own  defence  before  an  impartial  tri- 
bunal, fair  play  is  impossible.  Though  we  deny  mailing  rights  to 
indecent  publications,  fair  play  demands  that  the  person  accused  of 
the  offence,  and  whose  personal  and  property  rights  are  involved  in 
the  accusation,  shall  have  the  opportunity  he  is  guaranteed  in  all  other 
cases  to  convince  his  fellow  citizens  that  his  publication  is  not  inde- 
cent. It  is  his  right  to  be  judicially  heard  in  his  own  defence. 

'  Instances  like  that  of  the  suppression  of  '  Lucifer '  by  postal  cen- 
sorship point  so  directly  and  unmistakably  to  great  injustice  and 
public  danger  that  any  fair-minded  man  may  see  it  and  every  patri- 
otic man  ought  to  resent  it.  No  matter  what  one's  opinion  of  any 

188 


THE    RUSSIANISING   OF   UNCLE    SAM 

paper  and  its  teachings  may  be,  there  should  be  but  one  opinion  of  a 
postal  organisation  which  permits  in  any  case  what  was  done  in  that 
case,  and  this  should  be  an  opinion  of  unqualified  condemnation. 

"  The  confiscation,  by  postal  clerks,  of  any  publication,  for  any 
cause,  without  specific  charges,  without  opportunity  to  the  publisher 
to  be  heard,  without  the  verdict  of  a  jury,  without  appeal,  without 
any  of  the  ordinary  safeguards  of  personal  rights  and  private  prop- 
erty, and  consequently  without  any  assurance  of  guilt,  is  an  ominous 
fact.  No  matter  how  objectionable  or  even  dangerous  a  paper's 
teachings  may  seem  to  the  censors,  no  matter  how  offensive  its  lan- 
guage in  their  estimation,  so  palpable  an  invasion  of  the  commonest 
rights  of  citizenship  is  a  direct  menace  to  the  independent  press  of 
the  country.  Any  law  that  authorises  it  should  be  swept  from  the 
statute  books. 

"  The  only  difference  between  such  a  power  and  that  of  Russian 
censorship  is  a  difference  neither  in  kind  nor  degree.  It  is  a  differ- 
ence only  in  scope  of  execution.  And  scope  of  execution  widens  with 
use. 

"  The  issue  before  us  turns  not  upon  the  propriety  of  excluding  in- 
decent publications  from  the  mails,  but  upon  the  wisdom  and  justice 
of  allowing  administrative  officers  to  hamper  freedom  of  the  press 
and  confiscate  property  rights,  upon  their  own  opinion  of  what  con- 
stitutes indecency,  and  without  an  opportunity  for  the  alleged  of- 
fender to  be  heard  in  his  defence.  Under  the  postal  censorship  pub- 
lications are  denied  mailing  rights,  not  because  they  are  offensive 
to  decency,  but  because  the  censor,  from  whom  there  is  no  appeal, 
chooses  to  think  them  so.  Here  is  the  seed  of  a  mighty  tree  of  ab- 
solutism." 

We  have  devoted  this  space  to  the  "  Lucifer  "  incident  for  the  rea- 
son that  it  i»  typical  of  many  other  cases,  and  vividly  shows  how  rap- 
idly American  ideals  of  liberty  are  being  debased  to  the  Russian 
level.  It  will  be  remembered  that  upon  June  9,  1902,  Miss  Rebecca 
J.  Taylor,  a  clerk  in  the  War  Department,  at  eight  hundred  and  forty 
dollars  per  annum,  was  discharged  on  account  of  some  articles,  not  in 
sympathy  with  the  administration's  imperialistic  policy,  which  she 
wrote  and  which  were  published  in  the  "Washington  Post."  Miss 
Taylor  was  a  clerk  under  the  merit  system,  the  rules  of  which  are 
supposed  to  be  a  guaranty  against  discharge  for  political  or  religious 
convictions  or  their  free  expression, —  in  short  for  anything  other 
than  "just  cause,"  yet,  notwithstanding  all  this,  she  was  summarily 
ousted,  as  one  paper  put  it,  "  Without  a  hearing,  without  a  com- 
plaint of  any  kind,  without  the  slightest  reference  to  the  Civil  Serv- 
ice Commission,  without  the  observance  of  any  of  the  safeguards  of 
the  merit  system,  without  pretence  of  conduct  prejudicial  to  her  offi- 
cial duties,  but  simply  upon  the  President's  order  modifying  the 
civil  service  rules,  they  handed  her  a  notice  of  dismissal  in  the  middle 
of  the  day,  and  requested  her  to  vacate  her  desk  immediately." 

This  is  a  fair  example  of  the  censorial  spirit  which  is  abroad  in 
the  land.  If  this  is  a  sample  of  the  merit  system  of  civil  service,  it 
would  be  interesting  to  the  layman  to  be  told  wherein  the  merit  sys- 
tem differs  from  the  spoils  system. 

189 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

One  thing  is  certain ;  he  will  never  know  until  he  is  told,  for  they 
are  in  all  respects  indistinguishable  to  the  uninitiated. 

Should  the  reader  be  specially  interested  in  this  subject,  we  would 
call  his  attention  to  the  case  of  the  "  Ladies'  Home  Journal,"  of 
Philadelphia,  which  was  arbitrarily  forced  to  discontinue  a  prize- 
guessing  contest  on  pain  of  losing  its  postal  rights. 

"The  Unique  Monthly/'  formerly  "The  Penny  Magazine,"  pub- 
lished at  New  York,  was  another  publication  to  feel  the  heavy  Bus- 
sian  hand  of  our  censors.  The  publisher  of  this  magazine,  we  are  in- 
formed, was  materially  assisted  by  having  "  a  friend  at  court,"  and 
was  only  saved  from  ruin  by  the  "generous  support"  of  the  same 
rich  and  influential  "  friend." 

"  Discontent,"  published  at  Home,  Washington,  was  another  target 
for  postal  injustice.  Several  issues  of  this  paper  were  stopped  in 
bulk  at  the  Tacoma  post-office.  The  postage  was  paid  and  the  pub- 
lishers naturally  supposed  the  papers  had  gone  to  the  subscribers. 
Commenting  upon  this,  "  The  Public  "  says  editorially  in  its  issue  of 
Jan.  4,  1902 : 

"They  were  put  upon  inquiry  only  by  complaints  of  subscribers, 
who  asserted  that  no  copies  had  been  received  by  them  for  weeks. 
Investigation  then  revealed  the  fact  that  orders  had  been  received 
by  the  Tacoma.  post-office  to  hold  the  paper  there,  pending  an  investi- 
gation; though  upon  what  charges  the  postmaster  professes  not  to 
know,  and  the  publishers  are  uninformed.  After  detaining  some  four 
or  five  consecutive  issues  the  Tacoma  postmaster  forwarded  to  the 
respective  subscribers  the  whole  accumulation,  his  orders  having  ap- 
parently been  revoked.  How  much  worse  than  this  is  the  Eussian 
censorship  in  Finland  ?  " 

The  "Appeal  to  Season,"  published  at  Girard,  Kansas,  by  J.  A. 
Wayland,  is  another  case  in  point.  This  socialistic  organ  was  sub- 
jected to  most  exasperating  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  postal 
authorities. 

"Wilshire's  Magazine"  was  held  up  for  two  days  to  enable  the 
Department  to  determine  whether  or  not  one  advertisement  should  be 
censored.  The  authorities  finally  decided  that  the  advertisement 
was  mailable,  but  informed  the  publishers  that,  since  it  related  to  a 
guessing  contest,  their  neglect  to  submit  a  proof  before  publication 
was  a  violation  of  the  rulings  of  the  Department.  Commenting  on 
this,  a  Chicago  paper  prints  the  following: 

"  As  we  have  shown  .  .  .  the  rulings  of  the  Department  on 
these  matters  are  absolute  and  final.  The  censorship  is  Eussian  in 
its  absolutism.  It  is  worse  than  Eussian  in  its  methods,  for  in  Eus- 
sia  they  only  blacken  censored  articles,  while  sending  the  paper 
through  the  mails,  but  here  the  whole  paper  is  *  held  up '  for  one  cen- 
sored article." 

Nor  is  this  postal  censorship  confined  to  publishers.  It  extends 
even  to  private  individuals.  In  discussing  this  phase  of  the  subject, 
"The  Public"  prints  a  long  editorial  in  its  issue  of  Oct.  7,  1905. 
From  this  we  extract  the  following: 

"  The  object  of  the  present  article  is  to  prove  certain  propositions 
which,  if  proved,  ought  to  appeal  strongly  to  every  Congressman  with 

190 


THE    RUSSIANISING   OF   UNCLE    SAM 

American  instincts.  They  show  that  the  power  exercised  by  the 
Post  Office  Department  over  the  legitimate  liberties  of  personal  corre- 
spondence, has  overstepped  all  reasonable  bounds  and  needs  the  check 
of  Congressional  legislation. 

"  We  enumerate  as  follows  the  propositions  we  are  about  to  prove : 

"  First.  By  arbitrary  decrees  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  some 
private  businesses  are  cut  off  from  the  mail  facilities  which  other  pri- 
vate businesses  enjoy. 

"  Second.  By  like  arbitrary  decrees  of  the  Post  Office  Department, 
particular  individuals  are  prohibited  from  receiving  through  the  mails 
legitimate  correspondence  of  a  kind  that  is  generally  delivered 
through  the  mails. 

"  Third.  By  like  arbitrary  decrees  of  the  Post  Office  Department, 
all  persons  are  prohibited  from  communicating  through  the  mails, 
on  any  subject  whatever,  with  persons  resting  under  this  postal  pro- 
scription. 

"  Fourth.  These  decrees  are  made  by  the  Postmaster-General  upon 
no  other  evidence  than  he  chooses  to  consider,  and  with  no  other  op- 
portunity to  be  heard  in  defence  than  he  chooses  to  grant. 

"  Fifth.  The  courts  have  no  jurisdiction  to  interfere,  and  arbi- 
trary action  of  the  Postmaster-General  is  absolute. 

"  We  submit  with  all  confidence  the  opinion  that  if  these  proposi- 
tions be  proved,  freedom  of  mail  correspondence  is  dependent  not 
upon  law,  but  upon  the  whims,  the  prejudices,  the  partisanship,  and 
possibly  the  corruption  of  bureau  chiefs.  And  it  makes  no  difference 
what  may  be  the  alleged  cause  for  postal  proscription  in  the  particular 
case  here  cited,  or  in  others  like  it;  for  if  postal  proscription  by  the 
mere  exercise  of  unbridled  bureaucratic  power  is  possible  in  any  case 
and  for  any  cause,  then  it  is  possible  in  any  other  case  and  for  no 
legitimate  cause  at  all. 

"  Now  to  the  proof/' 

The  editorial  then  relates  how  the  Postal  Department  prohibited 
the  delivery  of  all  mail  to  "The  People's  United  States  Bank,"  at 
St.  Louis,  or  to  Mr.  E.  G.  Lewis,  of  the  same  city.  The  Department 
contended  that  the  bank  was  doing  a  fraudulent  business  and  that 
Mr.  Lewis  was  the  chief  promoter  of  the  fraud.  All  these  aspersions 
Mr.  Lewis's  friends  denied.  The  editorial  clearly  points  out  that  the 
question  is  not  whether  or  not  the  business  is  honest  and  legitimate, 
but  rather  "  whether  any  business,  or  any  man's  name  and  credit 
should  under  any  circumstances  be  at  the  absolute  mercy  of  an  execu- 
tive bureau  of  the  government." 

"  That  this  is  the  vital  question,"  the  article  continues,  "  will  be 
admitted,  we  think,  when  the  fact  appears,  as  the  fact  is,  that  the 
Federal  courts  (and  of  course  the  State  courts  are  powerless)  refuse 
to  adjudicate  upon  the  fact  of  fraud.  Observe,  the  courts  do  not  re- 
fer the  question  of  fraud  to  a  jury.  Neither  do  they  pass  upon  it 
themselves  without  a  jury.  They  simply  decide  that  as  the  act  of 
Congress  now  stands,  any  decision  of  any  Postmaster-General  that  a 
business  is  fraudulent,  is,  for  postal  purposes,  conclusive  upon  all 
courts,  whether  the  business  be  fraudulent  in  reality  or  not.  We  re- 
peat, therefore,  that  the  question  of  the  fraudulency  of  Lewis  or  his 

191 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

business  is  secondary.  So  far  as  the  most  important  public  interests 
are  concerned,  the  primary  consideration  is  the  arbitrary  and  un- 
bridled power  which  the  present  postal  statutes  give  to  a  Washington 
bureau  over  private  affairs  and  personal  honor. 

"  What  attracted  our  attention  to  the  Lewis  case  was  a  fugitive 
newspaper  report  that  the  Post  Office  Department  would  not  allow 
Mr.  Lewis  to  receive  any  letters,  not  even  letters  from  his  wife!  It 
seemed  to  us  that  this  power  to  break  up  a  private  business  (for  that 
is  involved  at  this  stage  of  the  world  in  cutting  off  mail  correspond- 
ence), and  to  ruin  personal  reputation  and  proscribe  personal  corre- 
spondence, all  without  a  jury  trial  or  other  judicial  protection,  but 
simply  by  the  fiat  of  a  bureau  at  Washington,  is  a  dreadful  power. 
It  amounts  to  the  infliction  upon  a  Postmaster-General's  convict,  of  a 
penalty  that  no  Congress  would  think  of  inflicting  upon  convicts  of 
the  criminal  courts.  Think  of  sentencing  any  criminal  convict,  what- 
ever his  crime  and  though  convicted  by  a  jury  of  his  neighbors,  to 
proscription  for  life  from  all  intercourse  by  mail  with  his  fellows  — 
even  with  his  wife !  Yet  this  is  the  penalty  for  conviction  of  fraud 
by  the  Postmaster-General,  who  sits  behind  a  desk  at  Washington, 
who  acts  without  the  aid  of  a  jury,  whose  action  is  not  reviewable 
by  the  courts,  and  who  denies  to  the  accused  any  hearing  whatever 
other  than  such  a  hearing  as  he  himself  may  graciously  concede,  out 
of  the  amplitude  of  his  own  mercy."  .  .  . 

"  It  is  probably  fair  to  say  that  a  parallel  to  this  feature  of  postal 
administration  can  be  found  in  no  other  civilised  country,  not  even 
in  the  most  autocratic." 

We  regret  that  lack  of  space  does  not  permit  our  following  this 
able  editorial  into  all  its  facts  of  detail.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  we 
believe  any  fair-minded  person  who  peruses  it  will  cordially  endorse 
the  following  quotation  from  it : 

"  We  submit  that  we  have  now  completely  proved  what  in  this  arti- 
cle we  set  out  to  prove,  namely  — 

"  That  discriminations  between  persons  and  businesses  are  made 
in  the  delivery  of  mail  matter.,  by  arbitrary  decree  of  the  Postmaster- 
General. 

"  That  these  decrees  are  made  upon  no  other  evidence  than  the  Post- 
master-General chooses  to  consider,  and  with  no  other  opportunity  to 
the  accused  to  be  heard  than  the  'Postmaster-General  chooses  to  grant. 

"  That  the  courts  have  no  jurisdiction  to  interfere,  and  that  the  de- 
cree of  the  Postmaster-General  is  absolute. 

"  And  what  does  this  imply  ? 

'•'  That  the  rights  of  every  American  citizen  to  the  use  of  the  mails 
for  personal  correspondence,  and  that  every  business,  however  legiti- 
mate it  may  be,  are  subject  to  the  arbitrary  mandate  of  one  official  of 
the  Federal  government. 

"Under  his  orders  domiciliary  visits  may  be  made  anywhere  and 

upon  anyone,  by  secret  service  detectives  empowered  to  probe  into 

private  and  business  affairs.     To  deny  them  access  would  be  to  run 

the  risk  of  postal  proscription  upon  unfounded  accusations  of  fraud. 

Under  his  orders  any  one  may  be  cited  from  anywhere  into  the 

192 


THE    RUSSIANISING    OF    UNCLE    SAM 

presence  of  the  Postmaster-General  at  Washington,  on  pain  of  being 
postally  proscribed  for  disobedience. 

"  Under  his  orders,  after  as  much  or  as  little  hearing  or  no  hear- 
ing at  all,  and  upon  as  much  or  as  little  or  no  evidence  at  all, 
as  he  arbitrarily  allows,  the  Postmaster-General  may  issue  an  order 
forbidding  the  delivery  of  mail  to  any  person  or  corporation  whom  he 
may  from  any  motive,  puritanical  or  corrupt,  choose  to  ostracise  to 
the  enormous  extent  that  postal  proscription  does  ostracise." 

How  accurate  was  the  dictum  of  the  Postal  Department  in  the  mat- 
ter of  "The  People's  United  States  Bank,"  of  St.  Louis,  may  be 
gathered  from  the  following  quotation  from  "  The  Public  "  of  Feb- 
ruary 24,  1906 : 

"  Some  months  ago  we  told  of  the  suppression  by  the  postal  au- 
thorities of  a  banking  business  in  St.  Louis  as  fraudulent  by  refusing 
delivery  of  letters  addressed  to  the  bank.  This  action  was  taken  upon 
the  report  of  cheap  Federal  detectives,  which  the  accused  persons 
were  not  allowed  to  see,  and  without  any  trial,  but  by  the  arbitrary 
order  of  the  Postmaster-General.  The  bank  was  of  course  forced 
into  the  hands  of  a  receiver.  Business  on  a  large  scale  without  the 
postal  service  is  impossible.  But  now  the  receiver  reports  that  '  every 
loan  and  investment  held  by'  this  so-called  fraudulent  bank  'has 
been  liquidated  100  cents  on  the  dollar  with  interest  in  full  to  date,' 
and  that  the  '  deposits  are  being  paid  in  full '  and  he  has  '  already 
declared  dividends  to  the  stockholders  of  85  per  cent.'  This  does  not 
indicate  that  the  concern  was  deeply  steeped  in  fraud,  as  the  Post- 
master-General arbitrarily  decided  it  to  be;  and  the  fact  that  a  busi- 
ness which  proves  to  have  been  upon  such  a  financial  footing  could 
be  ruined  by  the  reports  of  two  Federal  detectives  and  a  Postmaster- 
General  with  Presidential  campaign  favors  to  his  debit,  is  a  sufficient 
commentary  on  the  censorship  power  of  the  Postal  Department.  An 
investigation  by  Congress  into  the  nature  and  exercise  of  this  despotic 
power  is  proposed  and  should  be  pushed." 

Another  case  in  point  is  that  of  a  Mrs.  Williams,  a  Florida  "  men- 
tal healer,"  who  did  not  practise  according  to  the  honesty  standards 
of  the  Postal  Department.  She  was  denied  the  use  of  the  mails  un- 
der her  own  name,  without  anything  more  than  a  something  akin  to 
a  star  chamber  hearing  or  investigation. 

Nor  is  this  Kussian  contagion  confined  to  postal  circles.  It  is 
spreading  like  a  virulent  pestilence  into  other  departments  of  our 
body  politic. 

In  "Our  Dumb  Animals"  of  May,  1905,  appears  the  following  ar- 
ticle under  the  heading,  "  President  Koosevelt  Has  Shot  a  Bear." 

"We  see  in  our  papers  of  April  19th  (to-day)  that  President 
Roosevelt  has  shot  a  bear.  Whether  it  was  a  male  bear  or  a  female 
bear,  whose  young  might  be  in  danger  of  dying  of  starvation,  we  do 
not  know.  .  We  saw  in  the  papers  a  few  days  since  that  the  President 
was  to  be  received  at  his  hunting  ground  by  a  procession,  at  the  head 
of  which  was  to  be  carried  in  a  cage  a  bear,  which  at  the  close  of  the 
reception  was  to  be  turned  out  of  its  cage  and  allowed  thirty  minutes 
to  run  away,  at  the  end  of  which  time  the  dogs  and  hunters  were  to 
pursue  and  kill  him  (or  her),  as  the  case  might  be. 
13  193 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

"  Now  whether  this  caged  bear  was  the  one  that  President  Eoosevelt 
shot  we  do  not  know,  but  if  it  was  the  same  bear,  and  the  President 
was  aware  of  the  fact,  he  has  done  what,  under  the  laws  of  Massa- 
chusetts, would  be  punishable  by  a  fine  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  and  a  year's  imprisonment." 

Because  of  this  article  the  superintendent  of  Washington  pub- 
lic schools,  apparently  anxious  to  do  a  little  censoring  on  his  own 
account,  prohibited  the  circulation  of  the  issue  containing  it  in  the 
public  schools  of  that  city. 

It  would  seem  as  if  enough  had  been  written  upon  this  topic  to 
convince  the  most  sceptical  optimist  allowed  at  large  that  we  have  a 
postal  censorship  in  the  United  States,  of  which  Russia  would  doubt- 
less be  proud. 

The  big  "  bones  "  in  the  soul  of  that  liberty  which  our  forefathers 
bequeathed  us,  were  freedom  of  the  press  and  trial  by  jury.  He 
whose  hand  penned  the  Declaration  of  Independence  stood  first,  last 
and  always  for  liberty  of  expression.  Little  did  he  think  that  we 
should  so  soon  forget  his  precept  and  example,  and  trample  under 
foot  the  Declaration  which  meant  more  than  life  to  him  and  his  sub- 
lime comrades  in  liberty.  Little  did  he  think  that  we  should  en- 
slave an  Asiatic  people,  and  then,  to  cap  the  climax,  establish  among 
them  a  censorship  one  of  whose  acts  was  to  forbid  the  publication  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence!  If  there  be  any  event  in  all  our 
national  history  which  better  illustrates  the  present  degeneracy  of 
American  ideals  we  do  not  know  of  it.  Think  of  making  it  an  of- 
fence to  publish  the  document  of  all  documents  most  sacred  to  true 
Americans !  To  what  a  pass  have  we  come  when  we  will  not  permit 
our  brown  brother  even  to  examine  the  keystone  of  our  national  arch, 
lest,  perchance,  it  should  enkindle  within  him  those  same  noble  aspir- 
ations that  fired  our  forefathers  in  the  good  old  days  before  Mammon 
became  the  sole  god  of  our  idolatry. 


194 


BOOK   V 

CHAPTER      I.    A  DARK  PAGE  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 
CHAPTER    II.    MALEVOLENT  ASSIMILATION 
CHAPTER  III.    THE  WAGES  OF  OUR  SIN 


195 


For  though  the  laws  of  Justice  seem  to  sleep, 
They  never  sleep;   but  like  the  ocean's  flood 
They  creep  up  to  the  water-mark  of  God, 
And  when  they  ebb  there  is  but  silent  slime. 

C.  E.  8.  Wood. 

One  to  destroy  is  murder  by  the  law, 
And  gibbets  keep  the  lifted  hand  in  awe; 
To  murder  thousands  takes  a  specious  name, 
War's  glorious  art,  and  gives  immortal  fame. 

Young, 
Love  of  Fame. 

Injustice  in  the  end  produces  independence. 

Yoltaire, 
Tancrede. 

Many  politicians  of  our  time  are  in  the  habit  of  laying  it  down  as  a 
self-evident  proposition,  that  no  people  ought  to  be  free  till  they  are  fit 
to  use  their  freedom.  The  maxim  is  worthy  of  the  fool  in  the  old  story 
who  resolved  not  to  go  into  the  water  till  he  had  learnt  to  swim. 

Macaulay. 

Necessity  is  the  argument  of  tyrants;  it  is  the  creed  of  slaves.  ) 

William  Pitt. 

Wherever  man  oppresses  man 
Beneath  Thy  liberal  sun, 
O  God!  be  there  Thine  arm  made  bare, 
Thy  righteous  will  be  done. 

John  Hay. 

I  have  always  thought  that  all  men  should  be  free,  but  if  any  should 
be  slaves,  it  should  be,  first  those  who  desire  it  for  themselves,  and  sec- 
ondly those  who  desire  it  for  others. 

Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  Sing  me  a  song  divine 
With  a  sword  in  every  line." 

The  aim  of  war  is  robbery  and  murder  is  its  means. 

Enrico  Ferri. 

Every  crime  destroys  more  Edens  than  our  own. 

Nath.  Hawthorne. 


196 


CHAPTER  I 
A    DARK    PAGE    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

HAT  our  trophies  of  imperialism  constitute  a  grue- 
some addition  to  our  American  gallery  of  latter  day 
ideals,  only  the  uninformed  can  doubt.  Without 
ceasing  for  a  moment  to  pride  ourselves  for  suppress- 
ing slavery  at  home  at  an  immense  cost  of  life  and 
treasure,  after  almost  every  pocket  principality  had 
better  accomplished  the  same  end,  we  have  gone  thousands  of  miles 
across  the  seas  and  enslaved  a  strange  and  unoffending  people  under 
conditions  abhorrent  alike  to  all  ideals  of  good  faith,  justice,  or  civil- 
ised warfare.  We  accepted  the  Filipino  as  our  military  ally  against 
Spain  and  guaranteed,  to  his  satisfaction  at  least,  that  we  would  as- 
sist him  in  attaining  that  for  which  he  had  taken  up  arms.  Un- 
aware of  our  dollar-degeneracy,  believing  that  we  were  still  animated 
by  the  American  principle  and  lured  into  a  false  sense  of  security 
by  the  grand  ideals  of  our  forefathers  which  they  knew,  alas!  better 
than  our  own  dominant  party,  they  fell  an  easy  victim  to  our  treach- 
ery. Later  we  "purchased"  them  from  Spain,  as  if  they  were  so 
many  cattle  to  which  that  effete  monarchy  had  a  good  title. 

Thus  does  history  repeat  itself.  For  more  than  seven  hundred 
•years  Corsica  battled  with  Genoa  for  its  freedom.  At  length  her 
resources  all  but  exhausted,  her  army  unable  to  cope  with  the  great 
Corsican  patriot,  Paoli,  Genoa  sold  to  France  the  people  she  could 
not  subdue.  It  was  on  both  sides  of  the  sale,  one  of  the  blackest 
transactions  of  history,  and  the  American  "  purchase  "  of  the  Philip- 
pines is  its  twin. 

Out  of  the  land  of  Paoli  came  "the  little  Corsican,"  whose  heavy 
martial  tread  shook  the  world,  and  whose  mailed  hand  crumpled 
crowns  like  tissue  tinsel  and  made  every  royal  jewel  chatter  in  its 
bezel  in  a  very  ague  of  fear.  Will  the  land  of  Aguirialdo  produce 
a  little  Filipino  to  make  good  the  historic  parallel?  Perhaps  not; 
but  Nemesis  is  never  more  than  round  the  corner,  and  Asia  is  tossing 
in  her  sleep  and  shows  signs  of  an  early  awakening.  Already  has 
she  swung  her  right  arm  upon  Russia  with  a  strength  and  precision 
which  indicate  that  at  least  one  eye  is  open.  It  is  whispered,  as  we 
write,  that  we  may  sell  the  Philippines  to  Japan, —  they  seem  to  be 
an  unstable  commodity  .on  the  world's  bargain  counter, —  so  Nemesis 
has  a  good  prospect  of  sustaining  her  reputation. 

There  are  those  that  still  contend  that  the  Filipino  was  never  our 
military  ally  and  that  we  could  not  therefore  have  betrayed  him. 
This  view  of  the  case,  where  honestly  held,  can  only  result  from 
ignorance  of  the  facts. 

197 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

We  deem  it  wise,  therefore,  first  of  all,  to  show  that  the  facts 
admit  of  but  one  interpretation,  to  wit,  the  Filipinos  were  accepted 
by  us  as  our  military  allies  against  a  common  enemy  upon  repre- 
sentations, which  they  deemed  sufficient,  that  such  an  alliance  would 
advance  interests  which  they  held  dear. 

We  must,  first  of  all,  call  the  Reader's  attention  to  the  significant 
fact  that  the  evidence  which  we  shall  offer  in  support  of  the  above 
contention  is  drawn  from  sources  unfriendly  to  the  Filipino's  cause, 
and  can  therefore  be  relied  upon  not  to  over-state  his  side  of  the  case. 
To  emphasise  this  point  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  the  open- 
ing paragraph  of  a  booklet  entitled  "  Documentary  Outline  of  the 
Philippine  Case,"  by  Mr.  Louis  F.  Post,  of  Chicago. 

"  In  his  classic  oration  on  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  Wendell  Phil- 
lips makes  much  of  the  fact  that  our  knowledge  of  this  negro  hero 
and  statesman  of  San  Domingo  is  derived  altogether  from  his  ene- 
mies. While  Cromwell,  Napoleon,  Washington,  are  characterised 
by  friendly  historians  of  their  own  race,  only  the  unsympathetic 
records  of  hostile  aliens  reveal  the  greatness  of  Toussaint.  In  that 
particular,  at  least,  this  black  leader  of  a  century  ago  was  like  the 
Filipinos  of  to-day.  Their  tragic  history,  too,  must  be  gathered  as 
yet  from  the  records  of  their  enemies.  In  its  more  recent  develop- 
ments, this  history  of  theirs  is  to  be  sought  for  in  a  tangled  mass 
of  American  official  documents;  and  upon  the  testimony  of  these  we 
purpose  to  try  the  Philippine  case." 

It  has  been  contended  by  enemies  to  the  Filipino  cause  that  there 
was  no  rebellion  against  Spain  at  the  time  of  Dewey's  victory;  that, 
the  former  insurrection  had  been  terminated  by  an  agreement  with 
the  Spanish  governor-general. 

This  contention  is  not  true  to  fact.  At  page  319  of  "  senate 
document  62  "  will  be  found  an  official  dispatch  from  Oscar  F.  Wil- 
liams, American  Consul  at  Manila,  written  some  seventy  days  before 
Dewey's  victory.  In  this  the  consul  says :  "  Peace  was  proclaimed, 
and,  since  my  coming,  festivities  therefor  were  held ;  but  there  is  no 
peace,  and  has  been  none  for  about  two  years.  Conditions  here  and 
in  Cuba  are  practically  alike.  War  exists,  battles  a"re  of  almost  daily 
occurrence,  ambulances  bring  in  many  wounded,  and  hospitals  are 
full.  Prisoners  are  brought  here  and  shot  without  trial,  and  Manila 
is  under  martial  law.  The  crown  forces  have  not  been  able  to  dis- 
lodge a  rebel  army  within  ten  miles  of  Manila,  and  last  Saturday, 
February  19,  a  battle  was  there  fought  and  five  dead  left  on  the 
field." 

By  reference  to  page  320  of  "  document  62  "  it  will  be  seen  that 
a  month  later,  and  still  some  forty  days  before  the  naval  battle,  Mr. 
Williams  reported  that  the  "insurrection  is  rampant;  many  killed, 
wounded,  and  made  prisoners  on  both  sides.  A  battleship,  the  Don 
Juan  de  Austria,  sent  this  week  to  the  northern  part  of  Luzon  to 
co-operate  with  a  land  force  of  2,000  dispatched  to  succour  local  forces, 
overwhelmed  by  rebels.  Last  night  special  squad  of  mounted  police 
were  scattered  at  danger  points  to  save  Manila.  .  .  .  Rebellion 
never  more  threatening  to  Spain." 

Still  later,  and  a  good  month  before  the  naval  engagement   Mr 

198 


A    DARK    PAGE    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Williams  sent  the  following  report,  (see  page  321  of  "document 
62  ")  : 

"  Cuban  conditions  exist  here  possibly  in  -aggravated  form.  Span- 
ish soldiers  are  killed  and  wounded  daily,  despite  claimed  pacification, 
and  the  hospitals  are  kept  full." 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  long  before  the  advent  of  Dewey's 
fleet,  the  Filipinos  were  engaged  in  a  formidable  and  growing  in- 
surrection which  was  progressing  favourably  at  the  time  of  Dewey's 
arrival  upon  the  scene,  all  politically  inspired  claims  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding. 

The  limited  space  at  our  disposal  will  not  allow  an  exhaustive 
treatment  of  each  detail  of  this  subject.  We  must  content  ourselves 
with  putting  before  the  Eeader  the  main  facts  with  sufficient  proof  to 
substantiate  them.  Should  a  more  exhaustive  treatment  be  desired, 
we  take  pleasure  in  referring  him  to  the  booklet  already  mentioned, 
"  Documentary  Outline  of  the  Philippine  Case,"  to  which  we  are 
indebted  for  many  succinct  statements  of  fact. 

Coming  now  to  the  question,  Were  the  Filipinos  our  military  al- 
lies ?  we  find  the  matter  settled  once  for  all  by  Dewey's  letter  to  Sen- 
ator Lodge,  printed  at  page  1397  of  the  Congressional  Eecord  for 
Feb.,  1900.  In  this,  singular  as  it  may  appear,  the  admiral  admits 
the  crux  of  the  whole  question,  while  apparently  seeking  to  deny  it. 
He  says :  "  I  never  treated  him  as  an  ally,  except  to  make  use  of  him 
and  the  natives  to  assist  me  in  my  operations  against  the  Spaniards." 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  Admiral  Dewey  treated  Aguinaldo 
as  an  ally  for  the  purpose  of  operating  jointly  against  a  common 
enemy,  and  the  further  fact  should  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  this  was 
the  closest  alliance  which  it  was  within  the  Admiral's  power  to 
make.  No  more  binding  alliance  was  possible  without  joint  action 
on  the  part  of  the  President  and  the  Senate  by  means  of  a  formal 
treaty.  No  one,  of  course,  contends  that  such  a  formal  treaty  was 
entered  into.  Admiral  Dewey's  letter,  therefore,  admits  the  whole 
contention,  viz.,  that  there  was  a  military  alliance  for  the  purpose  of 
"  operations  against  the  Spaniards,"  a  common  enemy. 

Nor  does  proof  of  this  alliance  rest  solely  upon  Admiral  Dewey's 
contradictory  letter.  The  testimony  afforded  by  the  communications 
of  Mr.  E.  Spencer  Pratt,  the  American  consul-general  at  Singapore, 
are  equally  conclusive.  These  will  be  found  in  "  document  62." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  Dewey  was  about  to  sail  from 
Hongkong,  Aguinaldo  was  in  exile,  at  Singapore. 

On  Apr.  28,  1898,  Mr.  Pratt  reported  as  follows  to  the  state  de- 
partment : 

"Being  aware  of  the  great  prestige  of  Gen.  Aguinaldo  with  the 
insurgents,  and  that  no  one,  either  at  home  or  abroad,  could  exert 
over  them  the  same  influence  and  control  that  he  could,  I  determined 
at  once  to  see  him,  and,  at  my  request,  a  secret  interview  was  ac- 
cordingly arranged.  .  .  .  After  learning  from  Gen.  Aguinaldo 
the  state  of  and  object  sought  to  be  obtained  by  the  present  insur- 
rectionary movement,  which,  though  absent  from  the  Philippines, 
he  was  still  directing,  I  took  it  upon  myself,  whilst  explaining  that 
I  had  no  authority  to  speak  for  the  government,  to  point  out  the 

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GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

danger  of  continuing  independent  action  at  this  stage;  and,  having 
convinced  him  of  the  expediency  of  co-operating  with  our  fleet,  then 
at  Hongkong,  and  obtained  the  assurance  of  his  willingness  to  pro- 
ceed thither  and  confer  with  Commodore  Dewey  to  that  end,  should 
the  latter  so  desire,  I  telegraphed  the  commodore  on  the  same  day." 


The  telegram  referred  to  was  as  follows :  "  Aguinaldo,  insurgent 
leader,  here.  Will  come  Hongkong;  arrange  with  Commodore  for 
general  co-operation  insurgents  Manila  if  desired.  Telegraph." 

To  this  Dewey  himself  replied :  "  Tell  Aguinaldo  come  soon  as 
possible." 

Mr.  Pratt  succeeded  in  promptly  getting  Aguinaldo  and  his  aide- 
de-camp  and  private  secretary  off  to  Hongkong,  and  reported  his 
success  by  cable  to  the  state  department  as  follows : 

"  Gen.  Aguinaldo  gone  my  instance  Hongkong  arrange  with  Dewey 
of  co-operation  insurgents  Manila." 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  Aguinaldo's  "  co-operation  " 
was  sought  against  a  common  enemy,  and  how  he  was  led,  not  only 
not  to  suspect  betrayal,  but  to  become  convinced  "  of  the  expediency 
of  co-operation  with  our  fleet  then  at  Hongkong." 

To.  Mr.  Pratt's  cable  message  the  state  department  paid  no  atten- 
tion, showing  that  Aguinaldo's  co-operation  with  Dewey  was  not  a 
disagreeable  prospect.  Six  weeks  later,  however,  answering  Mr. 
Pratt's  mail  dispatch  the  secretary  of  state  enjoined  upon  him  by 
cable  to  — "  avoid  unauthorised  negotiations  with  Philippine  in- 
surgents," and  said  in  a  mail  dispatch  of  the  same  date :  "  If  in  the 
course  of  your  conferences  with  Aguinaldo,  you  acted  upon  the  as- 
sumption that  this  government  would  co-operate  with  him  for  the 
furtherance  of  any  plan  of  his  own,  or  that,  in  accepting  his  co- 
operation, it  would  consider  itself  pledged  to  recognise  any  political 
claims  which  he  may  put  forward,  your  action  was  unauthorised  and 
cannot  be  approved." 

The  real  purpose  of  the  department  seems  to  have  been  to  secure 
Aguinaldo's  military  assistance  and  then,  after  this  had  been  accom- 
plished, to  repudiate  any  political  alliance.  In  a  department  dis- 
patch sent  to  Mr.  Pratt  on  June  25  he  is  informed  that  — 

"  The  department  is  pleased  to  learn  that  you  did  not  make  any 
political  pledges  to  Aguinaldo." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  intent  of  the  department,  the  signifi- 
cant fact  of  the  matter  is  that  it  waited  until  six  weeks  after  the 
matter  was  out  of  Mr.  Pratt's  hands  before  it  took  any  action  what- 
ever upon  his  communication.  By  this  time  the  alliance  had  all  but 
accomplished  its  purpose.  The  matter  was  in  the  hands  of  Dewey 
and  the  department  should  have  given  him  any  instructions  it  had 
to  give  in  the  matter,  instead  of  sending  them  to  Pratt.  So  far 
as  Aguinaldo  was  concerned,  and  for  all  he  could  ascertain  to  the 
contrary,  the  course  pursued  by  the  department  was  that  of  entire 
approval  of  Pratt's  representations  to  him. 

Aguinaldo's  reception  at  Manila  was  such  as  to  confirm  this  im- 
pression. The  "  Hongkong  Free  Press  "  of  June  1,  1898  in  a  dis- 
patch from  its  correspondent  at  Manila  told  how  Aguinaldo  had  ar- 

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A    DARK    PAGE    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

rived  at  Manila  —  "  on  the  19th  inst.,  and  was  received  with  great 
enthusiasm  by  the  natives.  Admiral  Dewey  was  very  much  pleased 
with  him,  and  has  turned  over  to  him  two  modern  field  pieces  and 
300  rifles,  with  plenty  of  ammunition." 

Along  the  same  line  is  Gen.  Greene's  report,  at  page  421  of  "  doc- 
ument 62  "  :  "  When  the  •'  McCulloch '  went  to  Hongkong  early  in 
May  to  carry  the  news  of  Admiral  Dewey's  victory,  it  took  Aguinaldo 
and  seventeen  other  revolutionary  chiefs  on  board  and  brought  them 
to  Manila  bay.  They  soon  after  landed  at  Cavite,  and  the  admiral 
allowed  them  to  take  such  guns,  ammunition,  and  stores  as  he  did 
not  require  for  himself." 

We  see,  therefore,  that  in  pursuance  of  this  de  facto  military  al- 
liance between  Dewey  and  Aguinaldo  the  former  divided  arms  and 
munitions  with  the  latter  to  assist  him  in  their  common  purpose. 
Furthermore,  be  it  remembered,  that  Aguinaldo  lost  no  time  in 
demonstrating  his  usefulness  to  his  associate.  By  June  16th,  or  in 
less  than  a  month  from  his  arrival,  Aguinaldo  had  driven  the  Span- 
ish forces  into  Manila,  and  bottled  them  up  there,  as  may  be  seen 
by  the  following  quotation  from  a  report  made  by  former  U.  S. 
Consul  at  Manila,  Oscar  F.  Williams.  This  was  dated  June  16, 
and  is  to  be  found  in  "  document  62." 

"I  have  the  honour  to  report  that  since  our  squadron  destroyed 
the  Spanish  fleet  on  May  1,  the  insurgent  forces  have  been  most 
active  and  almost  uniformly  successful  in  their  many  encounters  with 
the  crown  forces  of  Spain.  .  .  .  The  insurgents  have  defeated 
the  Spaniards  at  all  points  except  at  fort  near  Matate,  and  hold  not 
only  North  Luzon  to  the  suburbs  of  Manila,  but  Batanyes  province 
also  and  the  bay  coast  entire,  save  the  city  of  Manila.  .  .  .  Ma- 
nila is  hemmed  in." 

In  order  to  prove  still  more  completely,  if  possible,  that  a  mili- 
tary alliance  existed  between  Dewey  and  Aguinaldo,  and  that  it  was 
of  a  nature  to  create  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  a  moral  obliga- 
tion to  the  people  represented  by  Aguinaldo,  we  quote  the  following 
from  "  Documentary  Outline  of  the  Philippine  Case,"  p.  12. 

"  At  a  session  of  the  United  States  peace  commissioners  at  Paris, 
October  14,  1898,  E.  B.  Bradford,  a  commander  in  the  United  States 
navy  and  chief  of  the  bureau  of  equipment  in  the  navy  department, 
was  under  examination  as  an  expert  witness  with  reference,  among 
other  things,  to  the  rules  of  war  and  morals  in  their  application  to 
the  war  with  Spain,  when  .Senator  Frye,  one  of  the  commissioners, 
asked  him : 

'  I  would  like  to  ask  just  one  question  in  that  line.  Suppose  the 
United  States  in  the  progress  of  that  war  found  the  leader  of  the 
present  Philippine  rebellion  an  exile  from  his  country  to  Hongkong 
and  sent  for  him  and  brought  him  to  the  islands  in  an  American 
ship,  and  then  furnished  him  4,000  or  5,000  stands  of  arms,  and 
allowed  him  to  purchase  as  many  more  stands  of  arms  in  Hongkong 
and  accepted  his  aid  in  conquering  Luzon,  what  kind  of  a  nation, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  we  would  appear  to  be  to  surrender  Aguin- 
aldo and  his  insurgents  to  Spain  to  be  dealt  with  as  they  please  ? ' 

"  And  this  American  expert  answered : 

201 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

'  We  become  responsible  for  everything  he  has  done,  he  is  our  ally, 
and  we  are  bound  to  protect  him/ 

"  The  object  of  this  question  and  answer,  both  examiner  and  wit- 
ness being  favourable  to  Philippine  annexation,  was  to  show  that  the 
alliance  was  such  as  to  impose  an  obligation  upon  us  to  protect 
Aguinaldo  from  Spain.  But  if  it  did  that,  did  it  not  also  obligate 
us  to  protect  him  from  ourselves  ?  " 

A  further  examination  of  documentary  evidence  conclusively 
proves  that  Dewey,  on  the  water  side,  and  Aguinaldo,  on  the  land  side, 
completely  invested  Manila.  On  this  point  General  Otis  says  in  his 
report  of  "military  operations  and  civil  affairs  in  the  Philippine 
islands  " ; 

"  For  three  and  one-half  months  Admiral  Dewey  with  his  squad- 
ron and  the  insurgents  on  land  had  kept  Manila  tightly  bottled/' 

In  the  meantime  Aguinaldo  had  begun  to  organise  a  government. 
That  this  government  had  a  territory  to  govern  and  that  its  authority 
was  peaceably  acknowledged  by  the  inhabitants  thereof,  has  else- 
where been  abundantly  proved  both  by  official  and  unofficial  testi- 
mony. 

And  this  government,  upon  the  arrival  of  Gen.  Anderson  at  Ma- 
nila with  the  first  installment  of  American  troops,  was  what  is  known 
in  international  law  as  a  government  de  facto,  obeyed  by  the  inhab- 
itants though  unrecognised  by  other  governments. 

T,he  shameful  tale  which  follows  is  too  long  for  detailed  narra- 
tion. It  is  the  story  of  the  betrayal  of  a  trusting  ally, —  so  trusting 
that  he  could  not  interpret  the  Machiavellian  hints  which  a  sus- 
picious associate  would  have  understood.  The  documentary  evidence 
shows  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  real  intentions  of  our  government 
were  studiously  concealed  until  such  time  as  we  considered  it  safe 
to  spring  the  trap  of  treachery.  Here  is  the  bald  confession  of  Gen. 
Merritt  to  be  found  at  page  40  of  Maj.  Gen.  Miles's  report  for  1898. 
"...  I  did  not  consider  it  wise  to  hold  any  direct  communica- 
tion with  the  insurgent  leader  until  I  should  be  in  possession  of  the 
city  of  Manila,  especially  as  I  would  not  until  then  be  in  a  position 
to  issue  a  proclamation  and  enforce  my  authority,  in  the  event  that 
his  pretensions  should  clash  with  my  designs." 

As  our  forces  got  stronger  the  claws  were  suffered  to  protrude 
more  and  more  from  the  velvet  paw  of  expediency,  until  in  January 
Gen.  Otis  issued  the  very  proclamation  of  supreme  authority  which 
Gen.  Merritt  had  thought  it  unwise  to  issue  in  July. 

The  velvet  paw  now  became  a  mailed  hand,  the  fingers  of  which 
showed  ever  increasing  activity.  Unfriendly  incidents  followed  each 
other  in  quick  succession,  and  still  Aguinaldo,  with' his  eyes  fixed  on 
the  grand  ideals  of  our  forefathers,  could  not  believe  us  capable  of 
the  act  we  had  been  deliberately  plotting  from  the  start.  First  came 
Gen.  Otis's  peremptory  order  that  Aguinaldo  should  withdraw  his 
forces  "beyond  the  line  of  the  city's  defenses  before  Tuesday  the 
15th  instant,"  failing  which  he  was  informed  they  would  be  assaulted 
by  both  the  land  and  sea  forces  of  the  United  States.  This  was  a 
demand  that  Aguinaldo  should  withdraw  his  forces  from  territory 
they  had  taken  from  the  Spaniards. 

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A    DARK    PAGE    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Aguinaldo  then  asked  that  the  positions  they  were  about  to  aban- 
don should  be  restored  to  them  "  if  in  the  treaty  of  peace  to  be  cele- 
brated between  Spain  and  the  United  States  they  acknowledge  the 
dominion  of  Spain  in  the  Philippines."  This  met  with  a  flat  refusal 
from  Otis. 

Aguinaldo  was  compelled,  therefore,  to  withdraw  from  the  very 
territory  he  had  wrested  from  .Spain  without  the  slightest  guarantee 
that  his  ally  would  not  restore  that  very  territory  to  Spain. 

Then  came  for  the  first  time  apparently  the  fear  on  the  part 
of  our  brown  brothers  that  we  were  intending  to  play  them  false. 
Gen.  Otis  thus  speaks  of  the  change: 

"  The  formerly  expressed  fear  that  Spain  would  return  had  given 
way  to  the  statement  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  United  States 
to  replace  her  in  the  odious  domination  which  she  had  exercised  for 
centuries."  How  well-grounded  this  apprehension  was  events  soon 
proved. 

When  President  McKinley's  "benevolent  assimilation "  proclama- 
tion reached  the  Philippines,  Gen.  Otis  tried  to  suppress  it;  in 
justification  of  which  act  he  said,  at  page  60  of  his  report: 

"  After  fully  considering  the  President's  proclamation  and  the 
temper  of  the  Tagalos  with  whom  I  was,  daily  discussing  political  prob- 
lems and  the  friendly  intentions  of  the  United  States  government 
toward  them,  I  concluded  that  there  were  certain  words  and  ex- 
pressions therein,  such  as  'sovereignty/  'right  of  cession/  and 
those  which  directed  immediate  occupation,  etc.,  though  most  ad- 
mirably employed  and  tersely  expressive  of  actual  conditions,  might 
be  advantageously  used  by  the  Tagalo  war  party  to  incite  wide- 
spread hostilities  among  the  natives.  The  ignorant  classes  had  been 
taught  to  believe  that  certain  words,  as  { sovereignty/  '  protection/ 
etc.,  had  peculiar  meaning  disastrous  to  their  welfare  and  significant 
of  future  political  domination,  like  that  from  which  they  had  recently 
been  freed." 

Gen.  Otis  substituted  a  proclamation  of  his  own  for  that  of  Pres- 
ident McKinley,  but  by  a  mistake  the  President's  got  into  the  hands 
of  the  Filipino  authorities  and  was  used  to  interpret  that  of  the 
general.  The  effect  upon  the  Filipinos  was  electrical.  In  his  own 
proclamation  Gen.  Otis  quoted  this  warning  from  the  McKinley 
document :  "  There  will  be  sedulously  maintained  the  strong  arm  of 
authority  to  repress  disturbance,  and  to  overcome  all  obstacles  to  the 
bestowal  of  the  blessings  of  good  and  stable  government  upon  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Philippine  "islands." 

On  the  19th  of  May,  1902,  Senator  Spooner,  the  leader  of  the  im- 
perialists of  the  Eepublican  party  in  the  Senate,  made  the  following 
significant  admission  during  a  colloquy  with  Senator  McLaurin  of 
Mississippi  (see  page  6,001  of  the  Congressional  Record  of  May  19, 
1902) : 

"MR.  SPOONER:  We  have  a  perfect  title  to  whip  any  body  of 
troops  that  attacked  our  men  anywhere  under  God's  heaven.  That 
is  all  I  care  to  say  about  that." 

"  MR.  MCLAURIN,  of  Mississippi :  The  Senator  can,  of  course,  an- 
swer or  not.  I  cannot  force  the  Senator  to  answer;  but  I  should 

203 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

like  to  have  a  direct  answer,  as  I  am  willing  to  answer  any  question 
that  any  Senator  may  propound  to  me.  I  have  asked  the  Senator  a 
question,  if  we  had  any  title  of  any  kind  to  the  Philippine  Islands 
on  the  4th  of  February,  1899,  and  if  so  what  was  that  title? 

"  MR.  SPOONER  :  We  had  a  perfect  right  to  occupy  the  suburbs  of 
Manila  under  the  protocol.  I  have  never  claimed  that  we  acquired 
a  legal  title  to  the  Philippine  archipelago  except  by  the  treaty. 

"MR.  McLAURiN,  of  Mississippi:  Then  the  Senator  does  not 
claim  that  we  had  any  title  to  the  archipelago  on  the  4th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1899  ? 

"  MR.  SPOONER  :    I  do  not." 

Now  if  we  had  no  title  to  the  Philippines  on  February  4th,  1899, 
we  certainly  had  none  in  December  of  1898.  It  will  be  seen,  there- 
fore, that  President  McKinley's  proclamation  of  Dec.  21,  1898,  as- 
serting American  sovereignty  in  the  Philippines  was  a  flat  declaration 
of  war  against  the  Filipino  Eepublic  and  the  Filipinos  very  properly 
so  regarded  it. 

Aguinaldo  responded  to  it  by  an  address  to  the  civilised  powers. 
The  proclamations  mark  the  real  beginning  of  the  war,  though  the 
first  shot  was  not  fired  till  one  month  later. 

The  dubious  honour  of  this  outrage  rests  with  the  Americans  who 
opened  the  initial  battle  which,  according  to  Gen.  Otis's  report 
(p.  96),  "was  one  strictly  defensive  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents 
and  of  vigorous  attack  by  our  forces." 

That  the  United  States  government  knew  from  the  first  that  the 
Filipinos  expected  their  alliance  with  our  forces  to  culminate  in  their 
independence  is  a  fact  demonstrable  beyond  the  vaguest  shadow  of  a 
doubt,  notwithstanding  those  in  high  places  have  had  the  unblushing 
effrontery  to  deny  it. 

In  a  letter  of  Apr.  30,  1898,  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  (see  page 
343  of  "document  62"),  Consul  Pratt  writes  in  reference  to 
Aguinaldo : 

"  The  general  further  stated  that  he  hoped  the  United  States  would 
assume  protection  of  the  Philippines  for  at  least  long  enough  to 
allow  the  inhabitants  to  establish  a  government  of  their  own." 

Aguinaldo's  proclamation  of  May  24th  issued  soon  after  his  ar- 
rival in  the  Philippines  is  unmistakable  upon  this  point.  (See  page 
431  of  "document  62.")  It  begins  in  these  words: 

"  Filipinos :  The  great  nation  North  America,  cradle  of  true  lib- 
erty, and  friendly  on  that  account  to  the  liberty  of  our  people,  op- 
pressed and  subjugated  by  the  tyranny  and  despotism  of  those  who 
have  governed  us,  has  come  to  manifest  even  here  a  protection  which 
is  decisive  as  well  as  disinterested  toward  us,  considering  us  en- 
dowed with  sufficient  civilisation  to  govern  by  ourselves  this  our 
unhappy  land." 

But  why  multiply  proofs?  The  official  documents  teem  with  evi- 
dence showing  conclusively  not  only  that  Aguinaldo's  one  thought, 
one  hope,  one  expectation,  was  independence,  first,  last  and  always, 
but  that  we  were  perfectly  well  aware  thereof,  and  deliberately  and 
for  our  own  selfish  ends  availed  ourselves  of  his  assistance  and  that 
of  his  compatriots,  cheerfully  and  efficiently  rendered  upon  the  as- 

204 


A    DARK    PAGE    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

sumption  that  Filipino  independence  was  to  result,  knowing  all  the 
while  that  we  should  betray  them  when  they  had  finished  helping  us 
take  our  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire,  and  we  had  become  strong  enough 
not  only  to  dispense  with  the  assistance  of  our  allies  but  to  kill  them 
if  they  resisted.  Could  Russia  have  done  much  worse?  Comment- 
ing upon  the  moral  turpitude  of  our  treatment  of  our  brown  brother, 
Mr.  Post  says  in  his  "  Documentary  Outline  of  the  Philippine  Case  " : 

"  Clearly,  Aguinaldo  and  his  people  aspired  to  independence  long 
before  the  time  the  President's  Philippine  commission  says  they  did. 
It  was  no  afterthought  with  them.  Clearly,  too,  they  understood  at 
the  outset  that  the  alliance  they  were  making  had  independence  for 
one  of  its  purposes.  Clearly,  also,  the  American  officials,  up  to  the 
highest  in  the  land,  knew  that  this  was  their  understanding. 

"  But  no  attempt  was  made  to  disabuse  the  minds  of  these  confiding 
people  until  after  their  services  as  allies  could  be  safely  dispensed 
with.  Consuls  were  warned  not  to  promise  independence,  and  mili- 
tary commanders  were  similarly  instructed.  But  Aguinaldo  was 
kept  in  the  dark.  He  was  given  no  intimation  that  the  apparent 
friendliness  of  American  officials  to  his  independence  was  secretly 
disapproved."  .  .  . 

"  Gen.  Anderson  appears  to  have  been  the  only  American  official 
who  in  any  way  at  all  gave  Aguinaldo  reason  to  suspect  unfriendliness 
toward  his  civil  government.  Anderson  wrote  on  the  22d  of  July, 
(page  394  of  "  document  62"),  warning  Aguinaldo  that  in  the  ab- 
sence of  orders  he  could  not  recognise  his  civil  authority,  though 
happy  to  see  him  fighting  so  bravely  and  successfully  against  a  com- 
mon enemy.  This  is  the  letter  in  which  Gen.  Anderson  observed : 

'  So  far  as  I  can  ascertain  your  independent  status  has  not  been 
recognised  by  any  foreign  power/ 

"  Aguinaldq's  reply,  dated  July  24,  1898,  (page  394  of  "document 
(52"),  not  only  shows  that  up  to  this  time  he  had  confided  in  the 
apparent  intention  of  the  Americans  to  recognise  their  Asiatic  allies 
as  an  independent  nation,  but  it  is  one  of  the  pathetic  documents 
of  history.  In  it  Aguinaldo  rebukes  his  American  friends  more 
pointedly  than  he  could  then  have  supposed.  These  are  his  words: 

.  .  /  It  is  true  that  my  government  has  not  been  acknowledged 
by  any  of  the  foreign  powers,  but  we  expected  that  the  great  North 
American  nation,  which  struggled  first  for  its  independence,  and 
afterwards  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  is  now  actually  strug- 
gling for  the  independence  of  Cuba,  would  look  upon  it  with  greater 
benevolence  than  any  other  nation/ 

"  There  the  matter  dropped.  Aguinaldo's  hopes  were  allowed  to 
revive,  until  the  time  should  be  ripe  for  crushing  them  and  his 
government  together. 

"  Aside  from  Gen.  Anderson's  cautious  warning,  with  its  ignored 
reply,  nothing  whatever  was  done  by  the  American  authorities  to 
indicate  to  Aguinaldo  that  his  notorious  proceedings  and  proclama- 
tions for  the  establishment  of  a  Filipino  government  were  to  be 
treated  as  the  playthings  of  a  barbarian.  He  thought  his  military 
alliance  was  to  culminate  in  a  formal  recognition  of  independence; 
and  the  circumstances  justified  his  expectations.  Our  government 

205 


GILLETTE'S   SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

knew  he  thought  so;  but,  ally  though  he  was,  it  allowed  him  to  act 
upon  that  belief  until  its  military  forces  had  got  into  position  to 
defy  him.  Then,  and  not  before,  it  began  to  display  a  hostile  pur- 
pose. And  when  the  time  seemed  fully  ripe  it  openly,  but  still  with 
an  awkward  attempt  at  deceptive  suppression  of  the  truth,  pro- 
claimed its  own  sovereignty  over  the  islands,  and  thereby  declared 
war  upon  the  infant  government. 

"  By  the  testimony,  then,  of  its  own  records,  the  American  nation 
is  convicted  in  this  Philippine  case  of  deliberately  deceiving  its 
trusting  allies,  and  barbarously  suppressing  a  well-ordered  and  peace- 
able government  whose  independence  it  was  morally  bound  by  every 
consideration  of  good  faith  to  recognise." 

How  are  the  mighty  fallen !  To  what  a  depth  have  we  sunk  when 
it  is  possible  for  a  United  States  .Senator  to  make  a  speech  like  that 
of  Senator  Beveridge  of  Indiana  on  the  Philippine  question,  and 
still  maintain  a  vestige  of  the  respect  of  his  colleagues.  We  can- 
not better  express  our  opinion  of  this  bit  of  rhetorical  poison  than 
by  quoting  the  following  editorial  thereon  published  in  a  Chicago 
paper  on  January  3,  1900: 

"Kegarding  the  Philippine  question,  the  presidential  mouthpiece 
for  that  purpose  in  the  Senate  has  indicated  the  presidential  policy 
with  unmistakable  distinctness.  We  allude  to  Senator  Beveridge, 
of  Indiana.  It  is  not  a  policy  of  expansion  Mr.  Beveridge  advocates. 
It  is  a  policy  of  undisguised  imperialism.  And  the  chief  motive 
is  commercial  exploitation.  *  The  times  call  for  candor/  he  says ; 
and  candid  he  unquestionably  is.  Looking  without  a  blush  upon 
his  countrymen  as  belonging  to  a  race  of  remorseless  brigands,  he 
admonishes  the  Senate  that  *  that  man  little  knows  the  common 
people  of  the  republic,  little  understands  the  instincts  of  our  race, 
who  thinks  we  will  not  hold '  our  conquest  '  fast,  and  hold  it  for- 
ever.' And  the  race  thus  characterised  by  himself  as  a  race  guided 
by  instincts  of  insatiable  greed,  he  has  the  impious  effrontery  to 
entitle  '  trustee,  under  God,  of  the  civilisation  of  the  world/  It 
is  well  to  know  the  depths  to  which  this  administration  has  sunk  in 
its  mad  departure  from  the  eminently  American  precept  that  '  forci- 
ble annexation '  is  '  criminal  aggression ; '  and  Senator  Beveridge  in 
his  Philippine  speech  renders  us  that  service.  The  day  has  now  gone 
by  when  administration  organs  can  fool  dull  devotees  of  party,  by 
pretending  that  no  variation  from  American  traditions  is  con- 
templated. They  must  either  repudiate  the  administration  or  accept 
imperialism  in  all  its  nakedness.  The  purpose  of  the  administra- 
tion is  proclaimed  by  this  administration  Senator  as  authoritatively 
as  possible  outside  of  a  presidential  message.  And  it  proves  to  be 
what  the  critics  of  the  administration  have  predicted  in  the  face  of 
ridicule  that  it  would  be,  a  policy  of  world-wide  empire  maintained 
by  overwhelming  military  force  in  ceaseless  action  against  all  re- 
sistance. Without  concealment  we  are  now  invited  upon  an  im- 
perial and  military  career  like  that  wherein  Eome  —  the  old 
'  trustee,  under  God,  of  the  civilisation  of  the  world  ' —  lost  her  own 
liberties  in  struggling  to  destroy  the  liberties  of  other  peoples,  and 

906 


A    DARK    PAGE    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

finally  disappeared  in  the  gloom,  of  the  dark  ages  in  which  her  own 
betrayal  of  her  ideals  of  liberty  had  enshrouded  the  world." 

How  refreshing  in  comparison  with  this  medieval  moral  turpitude 
is  the  following  from  an  open  letter  written  by  the  late  Senator 
Hoar. 

"  What  I  want  the  American  people  to  do  is  to  do  in  the  Philip- 
pines exactly  what  we  have  done,  are  doing  and  expect  to  do  in  Cuba. 
We  have  liberated  both  from  Spain,  and  we  have  had  no  thought  — 
at  least,  I  have  had  no  thought  —  of  giving  either  back  to  Spain.  I 
should  as  soon  give  back  a  redeemed  soul  to  Satan  as  give  back  the 
people  of  the  Philippine  islands  to  the  cruelty  and  tyranny  of  Spain. 
Indeed,  since  they  got  arms,  an  army  and  an  organisation,  I  do  not 
believe  it  would  be  in  the  power  of  Spain  to  subdue  them  again. 
Having  delivered  them  from  .Spain,  we  are  bound  in  all  honour  to 
protect  their  newly  acquired  liberty  against  the  ambition  or  greed 
of  any  other  nation  on  earth.  And  we  are  equally  bound  to  pro- 
tect them,  against  our  own.  We  were  bound  to  stand  by  them,  a 
defender  and  protector,  until  their  new  governments  were  established 
in  freedom  and  in  honour;  until  they  had  made  treaties  with  the 
powers  of  the  earth  and  were  as  secure  in  their  national  independence 
as  Switzerland  is  secure,  or  as  San  Domingo,  or  Venezuela  is  secure." 

We  submit  that  our  original  contention  is  fully  proved  and  that 
the  United  States  stands  convicted  of  a  deception  so  infamous,  a 
crime  so  black,  that^  we  may  well  bow  our  heads  in  shame  against 
the  just  condemnation  of  the  following  poem. 

"  CONFESSIONAL." 
By  Howard  S.  Taylor. 

"  God  of  our  Sires  who  hither  fled 

Across  a  strange  and  stormy  sea, 
Who  suffered  exile,  toiled  and  bled 
To  make  themselves  and  children  free, 

—  God  of  the  Pilgrims,  smite  us  not! 
We  have  forgot!     We  have  forgot! 

"How  runs  the  story?    Far  away 

We  hear  the  epoch-opening  gun 
Fired  by  our  Minute  Men  at  bay 

Upon  the  green  at  Lexington. 
But  far  and  faint,  we  heed  it  not, 

—  Lord  God  of  Hosts,  we  have  forgot! 

"  The  Bill  of  Rights  our  Fathers  signed 

And  sealed  with  shot  and  saber-stroke, 
Their  just  appeal  to  all  mankind, 

Their  prayers  sent  up  through  battle-smoke, 
Their  faith  humane,  without  a  blot, 
Lord  Christ,'  forgive!  — We  have  forgot! 

"  Ah,  if,  where  sunset  islands  lie, 

Thy  brave,  brown  men  their  blood  shall  spill, 
Shall  strike  for  liberty  and  die, 

Slain  by  the  heirs  of  Bunker  Hill, 
Thou  wilt  remember,  wilt  Thou  not? 
Though  We,  Thy  people,  have  forgot! 
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GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"  We  have  forgot!     A  Roman  lust 

Profanes  our  ancient,  holy  things; 
We  trample  justice  in  the  dust 

We  have  the  rabies  of  the  kings! 
The  scarlet  rage  of  gun  and  sword! 
Have  mercy  on  Thy  people,  Lord! 

Amen!  " 

Let  us  now  consider  the  treatment  accorded  the  Filipinos  by  our 
soldiers,  our  "boys  in  blue,"  as  we  delight  to  call  them.  It  is  a 
pleasant  fiction,  which  our  optimists  take  great  pride  in  promoting, 
that  when  war  with  Spain  was  declared,  the  "pick  of  American 
youth,"  for  the  great  love  of  humanity  that  was  in  them,  hastened 
to  sacrifice  themselves  upon  the  altar  of  right.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
nothing  could  well  be  farther  from  the  truth.  Beyond  a  doubt  more 
than  one  man  enlisted  from  purely  humanitarian  impulses,  but  over 
against  every  such  one  were  a  round  hundred  who  were  dominated 
by  a  desire  to  "  remember  the  Maine  "  and  to  avenge  her,  or  who 
were  looking  for  excitement,  searching  for  adventure,  anxious  to  see 
a  new  country,  out  of  work  and  glad  to  take  anything  that  came 
along,  or  who  were  swept  away  by  the  desire  to  wear  a  uniform,  carry 
a  gun  and  shoot  at  the  biggest  game  ever  stalked.  Not  only  were 
they  not  the  flower  of  "the  American  youth"  in  any  proper  sense, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  they  were,  to  a  very  great  extent,  of  that  type 
found  in  all  classes  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  and  colloquially 
characterised  by  the  one  word  "sporty."  Some  were  from  rich 
families,  some  from  those  in  moderate  circumstances,  and  some  from 
the  very  poor,  but,  throwing  out  the  white  blackbirds  among  them, 
they  belonged  ethically  to  that  misty,  ill-defined  epoch  between  the 
jungle  and  the  first  faint  dawn  of  civilisation. 

"  The  honour  of  the  army ! "  That  is  one  of  Satan's  choicest 
jokes.  Since  when  did  the  reduction  of  murder  to  a  science  react 
upon  its  votaries  with  a  regenerating  force  ?  "  As  a  man  thinketh 
in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  The  minute  man  who  seises  his  gun  to  defend 
his  fireside  is  a  very  different  individual  from  the  man  who  enlists 
for  aggressive  warfare,  and  different  from  both  of  them  is  the  pro- 
fessional soldier  who  learns  in  advance  the  art  of  killing,  hoping  that 
the  time  will  come  when  he  may  practise  it.  The  dominant  thought 
of  the  home-defender  is  social  and  regenerating.  To  him  killing 
another  is  an  awful  possibility,  a  last  resort,  at  contemplation  of 
which  his  mind  recoils,  his  heart  sickens.  He  is  as  brave  as  virtue; 
as  generous  as  justice;  as  persistent  as  the  seasons;  as  untiring  as 
the  waves  that  overcome  adamantine  resistance. 

The  following  from  the  pen  "  of  one  of  the  most  sincere  and  de- 
voted friends  of  humanity  that  this  country  has  produced,"  the  late 
John  P.  Altgeld,  is  of  interest  in  this  connection.  It  appears  in  his 
"  The  Cost  of  Something  for  Nothing,"  under  the  heading  "  Fighting 
for  Liberty  and  Country." 

"While  professional  militarism  fights  with  almost  equal  readiness 
under  any  flag,  and  is  to-day  the  principal  prop  and  support  of 
established  wrong  throughout  the  world,  there  is  no  nobler  spectacle 
than  that  of  the  great  body  of  citizens  of  a  country  taking  up  arms  in 
defence  of  liberty. 

208 


A    DARK    PAGE    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

"  To  establish  liberty  for  mankind  is  the  highest  mission  on  earth. 

"  It  is  a  most  significant  and  eloquent  fact  that  wherever  liberty  has 
been  established  in  this  world  it  was  done,  not  by  professional  sol- 
diers, but  by  the  common  citizens.  These  are  the  occasions  that  give 
to  the  world  its  heroes.  Mere  daring  is  often  vulgar,  but  daring  and 
sacrifice  coupled  with  a  mighty  moral  cause  bring  immortality. 

"  It  is  sometimes  urged  that  a  country  must  have  professional  mili- 
tary men  in  order  to  be  prepared  for  emergencies.  But  what  does 
history  teach  us? 

"  The  French  armies  which  overthrew  all  Europe  were  made  up 
mostly  of  citizen  soldiers.  The  great  German  armies  which  Na- 
poleon routed  were  of  professional  soldiers,  and  they  went  down  in 
utter  ignominy.  Many  years  later,  the  French  had  become  profes- 
sional soldiers  and  the  Germans  raised  an  army  of  citizens,  and  this 
army  proved  invincible,  and  redeemed  the  fatherland.  King 
George's  troops  were  professional  soldiers.  They  tried  to  subjugate 
our  forefathers,  but  the  citizen  soldier  and  patriot  was  too  much 
for  them. 

"  The  American  heroes  consisted  of  citizens  who  triumphed  and 
established  our  independence. 

"  In  the  Civil  War,  the  Union  armies  were  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  citizens ;  and  they  fought  to  a  finish,  and  triumphed  in  one  of 
the  greatest  wars  ever  waged. 

"  It  has  been  remarked  of  our  recent  war  in  Cuba,  that  the  citizen 
or  volunteer  soldiers  did  the  fighting,  and  the  professional  soldiers 
did  the  blundering. 

"  In  South  Africa,  a  few  thousand  citizen  soldiers  almost  held  their 
own  against  a  quarter  of  a  million  professional  soldiers  for  several 
years.  The  fact  is,  that  every  new  war  differs  from  all  preceding 
wars,  and  both  sides  have  to  learn  how  to  fight.  And  the  intelligent 
citizen  fighting  from  high  motives  —  fighting  for  home  and  country 
—  makes  a  much  more  ready  and  invincible  soldier  than  the  pro- 
fessional, who  stands  on  a  lower  plane. 

"  Instead  of  a  standing  army  being  a  perserver  of  peace,  it  is  a  con- 
stant provocation  of  war  and  a  continual  menace  to  the  liberties  of 
a  country. 

"  Tyranny  must  rely  on  brute  force ;  but  Eepublics  must  look  to  the 
affections  of  the  people  for  protection/'' 


209 


CHAPTEE  II 
MALEVOLENT   ASSIMILATION 


211 


"  MALEVOLENT  ASSIMILATION." 

"  Bind  and  torture,  burn  and  slay, 
In  the  old  barbaric  way. 
Stamp  their  rice  crops  in  the  mud, 
Drench  their  ruined  fields  in  blood, 
Drive  and  starve  and  concentrate, 
Still  they  won't  assimilate. 

"  Shoot  your  prisoners  at  a  guess, 
Make  a  howling  wilderness, 
Butcher  children,  women,  men  — 
Every  native  over  ten  — 
All  you  meet  with,  small  and  great, — 
Shall  the  dead  assimilate? 

"Be  ye  not. of  God  afraid; 

Learn  the  inquisition's  trade; 

Reproduce,  from  history's  page, 

Tortures  of  the  middle  age; 

Copy  hell,  and  —  this  saith  Fate, 
'  Hatred  shall  assimilate.' 

"  Yea,  by  Him  who  seeth  all, 
Though  in  holocausts  they  fall, 
Till  their  last  defender  die, 
Till  their  last  home  light  the  sky, 
Rendering  to  you  hate  for  hate, 
They  shall  be  at  Freedom's  gate." 

Bertrand  Shadwell,  in  The  Public. 


213 


CHAPTER  II 
MALEVOLENT   ASSIMILATION 

E  who  enlists  for  aggressive  warfare  is  of  very  differ- 
ent fibre  from  the  defender  of  the  hearth  or  the 
repeller  of  invasion.  There  is  no  justification  for 
killing  unless  it  be  self-defence,  or  the  resistance  of 
some  invasive  act  jeopardising  life,  liberty  or  the  legi- 
timate pursuit  of  happiness.  He  who  does  not  see  this 
without  being  told  is  of  an  intellectual  punk  from  which  fine  characters 
cannot  be  carved.  He  who  sees  this  truth  and  follows  it  not  is  morally 
weak  or  perverse.  Of  the  professional  soldier,  but  little  need  be  said. 
His  calling  is  one  which  is  disorganising  with  respect  to  all  the  finer 
traits  of  manhood.  His  professional  thought  is  constantly  upon  an 
appeal  to  force,  not  an  appeal  to  reason  or  to  right.  His  golden 
rule  finds  expression  in  "  my  country,  may  she  ever  be  right,  but  my 
country  right  or  wrong/7  This  infamous  saying,  dressed  in  the 
tawdry  rags  of  an  expediency  which  calls  itself  patriotism,  he  spreads 
thin  or  thick  as  a  healing  balm  to  cure,  or  a  tasteful  bandage  to  con- 
ceal, all  manner  of  ethical  wounds.  "  The  honour  of  the  army ! " 
What  bearing  has  the  Funston  episode  upon  the  *'  honour  of  the 
army  ?  " 

In  a  speech  by  Senator  Patterson  of  Colorado  which  appears  in 
full  at  page  3326  of  the  Congressional  Eecord  of  Mar.  27,  1902, 
this  shameless  violation  of  the  usages  of  civilised  warfare  is  calmly 
and  dispassionately  laid  bare.  Commenting  upon  this  speech,  a 
Chicago  paper  says :  "  The  speech  of  Senator  Patterson,  of  Colo- 
rado, on  the  disgraceful  exploit  whereby  the  unsavory  Funston  won 
his  commission  as  brigadier-general,  ought  to  be  read  far  and  wide. 
It  is  a  calm  arraignment,  fortified  with  authorities,  which  reduces 
Funston  to  an  irreducible  minimum.  The  occasion  of  Senator 
Patterson's  speech  was  an  interview  sent  out  by  Funston,  in  which 
he  said  that  President  Roosevelt  had  approved  heartily  of  his  New 
York  Lotus  Club  speech,  and  was  very  anxious  to  have  him  go 
to  Boston  on  the  invitation  of  Senator  Lodge  and  make  the  same 
speech  there.  This  was  the  speech  in  which  Funston  excited  the 
Lotus  eaters  to  cheers  by  suggesting  that  American  anti-imperialists 
ought  to  be  hanged.  He  says  now  that  the  suggestion  was  wholly 
abstract  —  quite  Pickwickian;  but  it  certainly  had  in  it  much  of 
the  spirit  of  the  hangman.  In  the  interview  which  Senator  Patter- 
son took  for  his  text,  Funston  defended  his  method  of  capturing 
Aguinaldo  as  being  within  the  rules  of  honourable  warfare.  It  was 
to  that  point  that  Senator  Patterson  mainly  addressed  his  speech ;  and 
when  he  finished,  Funston's  military  crime  had  been  laid  bare." 

213 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

'We  submit  the  following  extracts  from  the  speech  in  question. 
Keferring  to  the  utterances  of  Funston  before  the  New  York  Lotus 
Club,  Senator  Patterson  quoted  from  the  report  thereof  as  fol- 
lows :  " '  I  have  been  nagged  by  that  class  of  papers  until  I  am  tired. 
Editorially  they  wilfully  misinterpret  my  remarks,  and  I  am  glad  to 
express  my  independence  of  their  opinions  and  their  talk  and  that  of 
their  kind  about  my  using  dishonourable  and  unfair  means  in  the 
capture  of  Aguinaldo;  also  that  I  violated  the  Articles  of  War. 
They  know  a  great  deal  more  about  the  articles  of  golf  than  they  do 
about  the  Articles  of  War.  Everything  is  permissible  in  a  campaign 
except  the  use  of  poison  or  the  violation  of  a  flag  of  truce. 

'  As  a  matter  of  fact,  only  four  of  my  men  on  the  expedition  were 
dressed  in  the  insurgent  uniform.  The  other  men  dressed  as  Fili- 
pino peasants. 

'  Pres.  Eoosevelt  approved  heartily  of  my  remarks  before  the  Lotus 
Club  Banquet  and  was  very  anxious  to  have  me  go  to  Boston  on 
the  invitation  of  Senator  Lodge,  and  make  the  same  speech  there, 
but  my  orders  were  such  that  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  go.' 

"Mr.  Pres.,  I  paid  no  attention  to  the  speech  of  General  Funston 
before  the  Lotus  Club,  although  it  indulged  in  pretty  broad  sug- 
gestions that  those  in  the  U.  S.  who  were  seeking  to  have  justice  done 
to  the  Filipinos  and  to  satisfy  the  people  that  the  Philippine  Archi- 
pelago was  undesirable  property  for  the  U.  S.,  deserved  hanging 
more  than  those  actually  engaged  in  the  insurrection."  .  .  . 

"  I  think  it  but  just  and  proper  that  two  things  should  be  put 
before  the  country  in  a  calm  and  dispassionate  manner.  First,  the 
statement  of  Gen.  Funston  himself,  over  his  own  signature  only  last 
Sept.,  about  the  capture  of  Aguinaldo;  and,  second,  the  rules  of 
civilised  warfare  as  promulgated,  with  the  approval  of  Pres.  Lincoln, 
and  as  declared  by  all  writers  upon  international  law,  and  as  rati- 
fied by  the  late  peace  conference  at  The  Hague. 

"  Without  indulging  in  criticism,  I  will  first  call  attention  to  the 
rules  of  war  applicable  to  the  conduct  of  General  Funston  in  dealing 
with  Aguinaldo.  I  read  from  page  222  of  Geo.  B.  Davis's  Interna- 
tional Law.  The  author  was  an  instructor  at  West  Point,  and  he 
gives  the  rules  which  should  govern  warfare  upon  the  part  of  a  civi- 
lised nation,  as  he  derives  them  from  all  the  great  authorities  upon 
that  very  important  subject.  On  page  222,  Sect.  21,  under  the  sub- 
head '  Use  of  the  enemy's  flag  and  uniform,'  he  makes  the  following 
statement. 

• '  It  is  forbidden  in  war  on  land  to  make  use  of  the  enemy's  flag 
for  purpose  of  deceit.  It  is  also  forbidden  to  use  the  enemy's  uni- 
form except  with  some  distinguishing  mark  sufficiently  striking  in 
character  to  attract  attention  at  a  distance.  On  the  sea  the  national 
flag  of  a  public  armed  vessel  must  be  displayed  before  an  engage- 
ment begins  or  a  capture  is  made;  these  rules  are  based  on  the  fact 
that  flags  and  uniforms  are  used  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the 
national  character  of  troops  in  the  field.  A  violation  of  these  rules 
indicates  a  want  of  good  faith,  a  quality  equally  obligatory  in  peace 
6r  war.'  .  .  . 

"  Now,  Mr.  Pres.,  having  in  view  those  statements,  I  desire  to 

214 


MALEVOLENT    ASSIMILATION 

call  attention  of  the  Senate  to  General  Funston's  own  rehearsal  of 
this  transaction,  (the  capture  of  Aguinaldo),  I  call  nobody  else  as  a 
witness.  .  .  . 

"  Turning  to  '  Everybody's  Magazine/  which  I  understand  is  owned 
and  published  by  John  Wanamaker,  we  find  two  articles,  one  in  the 
Sept.,  and  the  other  in  the  Oct.  number,  1901,  which  is  the  story 
continued  from  one  into  the  other  by  Gen.  Funston,  over  his  own 
signature,  of  his  capture  of  Aguinaldo.  .  .  . 

"  Commencing  at  the  beginning,  it  seems  that  about  Feb.,  1901, 
Company  C  of  the  24th  U.  S.  Infantry  was  located  at  Pantabangan, 
upon  the  northeast  part  of  the  island  of  Luzon.  Its  commander, 
Lieut.  Taylor,  was  informed  by  the  mayor  of  Pantabangan  that  a 
small  number  of  insurrectors  were  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  that 
they  could  probably  be  induced  to  come  in  and  be  of  service  to  the 
American  side.  The  result  was  that  they  were  induced  to  come  in; 
the  body  was  found  to  consist  of  Cecilio  Segismundo,  a  confidential 
agent  of  Aguinaldo,  and  who  was  the  bearer  of  important  dispatches  to 
the  insurgent  generals  in  southern  and  central  Luzon.  The  others 
were  merely  insurgent  soldiers  who  acted  as  an  escort  for  the  mes- 
senger. .  .  . 

"  After  much  persuasion  Cecilio  Segismundo,  the  confidential  agent 
of  Aguinaldo,  was  induced  to  betray  his  superior  and  enter  into  an 
agreement  to  capture  the  chief  he  was  professing  to  serve. 

"  Gen.  Funston  then  describes  the  manner  in  which  they  reached 
the  plan  by  which  Aguinaldo  was  to  be  captured.  .  .  . 

"  Now  mark  the  plan,  and  bear  in  mind  the  rules  that  govern  civi- 
lised warfare  while  the  plan  that  Funston  himself  unfolds  is  being 
considered.  He  says: — 

'  The  plan  was  to  disguise  a  body  of  native  troops  in  our  service  as. 
insurgent  soldiers,  representing  the  reinforcements  asked  for  by  Agui- 
naldo, and  thus  gain  access  to  his  presence.  The  necessary  American 
officers  were  to  be  carried  along  as  supposed  prisoners  who  had  been 
captured  en  route.  Any  suspicions  Aguinaldo  might  have  were 
lulled  by  decoy  letters  over  the  forged  signature  of  some  insurgent 
chief.  The  whole  plan  will  be  best  understood  by  a  perusal  of  the 
following  letter  to  my  immediate  superior,  Gen.  Wheaton  — ' 

"  Then  follows  the  letter  in  which  the  plan  is  substantially  stated  as 
I  have  read  it.  ... 

"  General  Funston's  memory  is  bad  when  he  states  there  were  but 
four  of  the  Macabebes  dressed  as  Filipinos,  as  I  shall  show:  There 
were  20  at  least.  .  .  . 

'  To  have  equipped  our  men  throughout  with  uniforms  would  have 
aroused  suspicion  because  of  their  neatness  and  uniformity.  Ac- 
cordingly we  procured  only  20  uniforms  of  the  blue  and  white  striped 
cotton  cloth  with  which  the  insurgents  were  formerly  clothed,  the 
remainder  being  outfitted  as  Filipino  paisanos  or  peasants.  Fifty 
Mauser  and  18  Eemington  rifles  were  obtained  from  the  stock  of 
captured  arms  in  the  Manila  arsenal.  There  were  100  cartridges  for 
each  Mauser  and  60  for  each  Eemington/  .  .  . 

"  Omitting  some  immaterial  portions, —  immaterial  for  my  purpose, 
—  he  tells  how  he  addressed  a  forged  letter,  ostensibly  signed  by 

215 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Hilario  Placido,  to  Aguinaldo  telling  him  of  the  straits  in  which  they 
were  for  food,  and  begging  that  food  be  sent  them.  .  .  . 

'  The  food  came  early  the  next  morning  and  after  a  hasty  break- 
fast, the  march  for  'Palanan  was  taken  up  by  the  main  part  of  the 
company,  we  Americans  being  left  behind  with  a  guard  of  ten  Maca- 
bebes, under  a  corporal/ 

"  The  company  reached  Palanan  and  I  take  up  the  statement  of 
General  Funston  as  to  what  occurred  there.  He  says:  !  But  the 
end  was  now  at  hand.  A  few  moments  before  three  o'clock  we 
reached  the  bank  of  the  Palanan  River,  a  stream  about  one  hundred 
yards  wide,  and  saw  the  last  boatload  of  Macabebes  forming  on  the 
farther  bank.  As  prearranged  the  boat  was  sent  back  for  us  and  we 
were  just  embarking  when  firing  broke  out  in  the  town  on  the  other 
bank.  We  hurried  across  and  took  command  of  the  excited  and  yell- 
ing Macabebes  who  were  filling  the  air  with  bullets,  firing  in  all  di- 
rections. We  Americans  ran  at  once  to  Aguinaldo's  house  and 
reached  there  just  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  last  of  the  scrimmage 
and  saved  the  lives  of  the  prisoners  from  the  Macabebes.  .  .  . 

'  Aguinaldo,  as  might  be  expected,  was  terribly  agitated,  and,  in 
fact,  could  scarcely  speak.  He  said  to  me  in  Spanish,  *  Oh,  tell  me, 
is  not  this  a  joke?'  I  assured  him  that  it  was,  to  the  contrary, 
cold,  hard  fact,  and  that  he  was  at  last  a  prisoner.  He  could  scarcely 
believe  it  at  first.  .  .  . 

'  Those  Maoabebes  and  those  in  command  of  them  were  received  as 
friends ;  they  were  dressed  as  friends,  professing  to  be  friends/  .  .  . 

"  It  is  unnecessary,  Mr.  President,  to  read  more.  I  have  done  all 
that  I  intended  to  do.  I  simply  called  the  attention  of  the  .Senate 
to  the  rules  of  civilised  warfare  as  declared  in  the  order  that  was 
approved  by  President  Lincoln  and  as  set  forth  by  Halleck  in  his 
work  upon  international  law,  and  that  are  stated  by  Holls  as  the 
basis  of  The  Hague  Treaty,  which  the  .Senate  ratified.  All  declare 
that  the  use  of  the  enemy's  uniform  is  perfidy,  and  that  if  in  the  use 
of  such  a  killing  occurs  it  is  assassination,  and  those  who  engage  in 
affairs  of  that  character  are,  under  the  rules  of  civilised  warfare, 
outside  of  protection.  .  .  . 

"  I  want  to  suggest,  therefore,  whether  General  Funston  was  war- 
ranted in  saying  that  the  President  approved  his  speech  or  not,  and 
whether  he  was  warranted  in  what  he  said  about  the  chairman  of 
the  Senate  Committee  on  the  Philippines,  and  also  whether  or  not,  as 
he  intimates,  he  may  be  used  as  a  campaign  orator  in  the  coming 
campaign,  the  facts  of  his  dealings  with  Aguinaldo,  as  detailed  by 
himself  and  the  laws  of  civilised  warfare  as  they  are,  without  any 
question  should  be  put  clearly  and  unequivocally  before  the  American 
people. 

"  I  have  done,  Mr.  President,  all  I  intended  to  do,  and,  under  the 
circumstances,  I  think  I  have  done  no  less  than  I  should." 

In  the  "  Chicago  Evening  Post "  of  May  9,  1902,  Edward  Osgood 
Brown  says  in  part :  "  If  Aguinaldo  had  bribed  a  deserter  from  the 
United  States  army  to  give  him  some  letters  of  an  inferiofl  American 
officer;  had  then  forged  that  officer's  signature,  and  by  means  of  it 
had  opened  communication  with  Funston  and  found  his  whereabouts  • 

216 


MALEVOLENT   ASSIMILATION 

had  then,  with  other  deserters  from  the  United  States  army  and  sol- 
diers of  his  own  outnumbering  altogether  Funston's  body-guard  two 
to  one,  reached  a  place  some  miles  from  Funston's  headquarters,  where 
the  latter  was  alone  with  that  body-guard ;  had  there,  with  all  his  men, 
become  too  weak  from  lack  of  food  to  move,  and  in  the  presence  of 
imminent  death  from  starvation  had  sent  to  Funston  to  beg  for  food 
to  save  his  own  and  his  followers'  lives ;  had  received  it,  and  with  it, 
guides;  had  been  ushered  into  Funston's  presence  with  his  men  dis- 
guised as  American  soldiers  and  himself  as  a  prisoner;  had  then, 
while  shaking  hands  with  Funston,  signaled  his  men  to  shoot  down 
Funston's  body-guard  and  make  Funston  a  captive  and  carry  him 
away ;  had  succeeded  in  his  undertaking  and  returned  to  his  army  and 
his  kindred  and  received  their  unlimited  praise  and  plaudits  —  what 
would  they  (the  readers  of  the  "Evening  Post")  have  said  of  the 
Malay  character  and  of  Aguinaldo  individually  ?  " 

And  this  is' the  man  we  have  praised  and  promoted.  .Says  Mr. 
Louis  F.  Post  in  "  The  Public  "  of  March  22,  1902 :  "  Our  conten- 
tion that  Gen.  Funston  acted  as  a  spy  when  he  captured  Aguinaldo, 
is  confirmed  by  Senator  Burton,  who  defended  him  on  the  14th  on 
the  floor  of  the  United  States  Senate.  While  insisting  that  what 
Funston  did  had  been  done  in  the  line  of  honourable  warfare,  Senator 
Burton  admitted  that  Funston  and  his  force  had,  to  quote  the  press 
dispatch,  *  acted  somewhat  in  the  capacity  of  spies.'  It  was  for 
acting  successfully  in  this  capacity  that  Funston  got  his  promotion 
to  the  rank  of  brigadier  general.  He  should  have  been  paid  in 
money,  and  not  with  promotion.  Spies  and  hangmen  are  custom- 
arily paid  in  money." 

And  this  is  the  man  who,  instead  of  being  court-martialed,  de- 
graded from  his  rank,  punished  and  dowered  with  lasting  infamy 
and  contempt,  has  been  praised,  promoted,  rewarded  and  feted  in  the 
same  country  which  made  the  life  of  Benedict  Arnold  a  burden  and 
his  name  an  immortal  badge  of  infamy!  Could  any  incident  better 
show  the  depth  to  which  the  American  official  conscience  has  fallen? 

Apropos  of  this  subject  Mark  Twain  says,  in  his  "A  Defence  of 
General  Funston  "  published  in  the  "  North  American  Review  "  for 
May,  1902,  that  neither  George  Washington  nor  General  Funston 
was  made  in  a  day.  He  points  out  that  in  each  case  the  basis  or 
moral  skeleton  was  an  inborn  disposition  as  permanent  as  rock,  a 
thing  which  he  says  never  undergoes  any  genuine  change  from  cradle 
to  grave.  In  each  of  the  cases  cited  he  asserts  that  the  character  or 
"  moral  flesh  bulk,"  as  he  calls  it,  was  built  and  shaped  around  the 
skeleton  by  training,  association  and  circumstances,  and  from  this  he 
deduces  this  postulate.  "  Given  a  crooked  disposition  skeleton,  no 
power  nor  influence  in  the  earth  can  mould  a  permanently  shapely 
form  around  it."  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  great  humorist  accounts 
for  an  act  which  will  go  down  in  history  as  a  permanent  blemish 
upon  our  national  character;  an  act  which  earned  for  Funston  a  pro- 
motion from  the  powe'rs  that  be,  on  the  one  hand,  while  on  the  other, 
it  secured  for  him  the  contempt  of  the  best  thought  of  the  land. 

The  article  above  referred  to  is  preeminently  worth  reading.  It 
is  in  Mr.  Clemens's  best  vein  and  shows  not  only  his  inimitable  sense 

217 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

of  humour,  but  also  his  keen  appreciation  of  and  love  for  truth  and 
justice.  We  regret  exceedingly  that  we  are  unable  to  quote  at  length 
from  "A  Defence  of  General  Funston,"  as  we  had  intended  to  do, 
the  reason  being  that  Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers  have  for  "  business 
reasons  "  refused  to  allow  us  to  make  extracts  therefrom.  We  leave 
the  Reader  to  determine  in  his  own  mind,  what  these  "  business  rea- 
sons "  are  which  make  an  article  good  enough  for  the  "  North  Ameri- 
can Review"  in  May,  1902,  unfit  for  publication  in  1906,  merely 
calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the  case  of  managers  of  news- 
papers it  frequently  seems  expedient  to  them  for  "  business  reasons  " 
to  withhold,  or  misrepresent,  what  they  know  to  be  the  truth,  nor  are 
these  reasons  always  of  a  strictly  personal  nature.  They  have  been 
known  ere  now  to  have  a  political  inception. 

That  Mark  Twain's  "defence"  is  a  just  and  terrible  indictment 
is  not  to  be  denied,  neither  is  it  to  be  denied  that  it  is  quite  as  just 
to-day  as  on  the  day  it  was  written.  We  sincerely  hope  that  all  our 
readers,  who  are  desirous  of  seeing  the  depth  of  degradation  to  which 
swash-buckling  militarism  can  descend  in  boastful,  swaggering  pride, 
will  peruse  Mark  Twain's  article  in  the  "  North  American  Eeview  " 
for  May,  1902,  from  beginning  to  end. 

"  The  honour  of  the  army !  "  When  the  Dreyfus  case  was  on,  this 
was  France's  cry  with  every  other  exhalation,  yet  had  one  raked  every 
military  circle  with  a  fine-tooth  comb  he  would  not  have  found  among 
all  Dreyfus's  enemies  honour  enough  to  look  conspicuous  anywhere 
except  beside  the  absolute  ethical  negation  of  an  Esterhazy.  The 
honour  of  the  army !  What  sort  of  conditions  did  this  celebrated  case 
expose?  What  was  the  true  inwardness  of  the  .Sampson-Schley  con- 
troversy ?  What  bearing  have  the  wretched  brutalities  of  West  Point 
upon  this  question  ?  Will  the  reports  of  the  atrocities  of  Fort  Ethan 
Allen,  stifled  as  soon  as  possible  for  "  the  honour  of  the  army,"  make 
toward  belief  in  military  excellence,  think  you?  Will  the  treatment 
of  our  brown  brothers  in  the  Philippines  stir  us  to  any  enthusiasm 
over  the  morality  of  our  soldiery?  Does  the  Funston  Episode  swell 
the  national  bosom  with  pride? 

The  honour  of  the  army !  Said  a  recent  writer :  "  Imperialistic 
tendencies  always  parade  in  military  fashion.  When  Rome  was  pass- 
ing from  republic  to  empire,  the  legions  demanded  patriotic  worship. 
When  Bonaparte  was  rushing  France  backward  into  absolutism,  the 
'  grand  army '  was  his  shibboleth.  To  William  of  Germany  the  army 
is  the  most  sacred  thing  in  the  realm  next  to  himself.  And  now  that 
our  own  country  has  plunged  into  imperialism,  denunciations  of 
criminal  acts  committed  by  army  officers  upon  inhabitants  of  the 
distant  country  they  have  been  sent  out  to  conquer  and  subdue,  are 
smothered  by  demands  that  we  respect  'the  honour  of  the  army.' 
We,  too,  are  thus  invited  to  set  up  a  military  fetich  for  permanent 
adoption." 

In  his  "  A  Defence  of  General  Funston  "  published  in  the  "  North 
American  Review"  for  May,  1902,  and  already  alluded  to,  Mark 
Twain  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  customs  of  war 
are  anything  but  pleasant  to  the  civilian.  He  points  out  that  every 
detail  of  the  Funston  scheme,  with  but  a  single  exception,  has  been 

218 


MALEVOLENT   ASSIMILATION 

practised  before.  This  one  detail  he  asserts,  is  absolutely  new,  never 
having  been  resorted  to  before  at  any  period  in  history,  in  any 
country,  among  any  people,  savage  or  civilised.  He  informs  us  that 
it  was  to  this  detail  Aguinaldo  alluded  when  he  said  that  he  could 
have  been  taken  alive  by  no  other  means.  In  explanation  Mr. 
Clemens  tell  his  readers  that  when  a  man  is  so  exhausted  by  hunger 
that  he  is  "  too  weak  to  move  "  he  may  properly  supplicate  his  enemy 
to  save  his  failing  life,  with  this  one  qualification,  that  if  he  so  much 
as  taste  of  the  succouring  food  that  is  offered,  food  which  all  ages,  and 
all  nations  hold  to  be  sacred  food,  "he  is  barred  from  lifting  his 
hand  against  that  enemy  for  that  time."  Continuing,  our  author 
states  that  it  was  reserved  for  a  Brigadier-General  of  Volunteers  of 
the  American  army  to  outrage  a  custom  which  "even  the  degraded 
Spanish  friars  had  respected,"  and  he  closes  his  paragraph  with  this 
crisp  and  pregnant  sentence,  "  We  promoted  him  for  it."  Drawing 
a  parallel  between  the  assassination  of  President  McKinley  and  the 
capture  of  Aguinaldo,  Mr.  Clemens  points  out  that,  bad  as  the  assassin 
was,  he  had  not,  dying  of  starvation,  received  from  the  President  the 
very  food  which  gave  him  strength  to  perform  his  treacherous  work, 
nor  did  he  "  proceed  against  the  life  of  a  benefactor  who  had  just 
saved  his  own." 

Eeader,  do  not  misunderstand  us.  We  do  not  contend  that  no 
professional  soldier  is  honourable,  any  more  than  we  would  assert 
that  no  butcher  is  a  tender-hearted  lover  of  animals.  What  we  do 
claim  is  that  war  as  a  calling  or  dominating  factor  of  thought,  is  not 
calculated  to  make  toward  morality  any  more  than  butchering  is 
likely  to  cultivate  the  tender  sentiments  of  sympathy  and  pity  for 
animals. 

We  are  aware  that  some  will  say  that  the  professional  soldier,  who 
in  times  of  peace  studies  methods  of  killing  in  order  that  he  may 
be  able  to  practise  them  in  a  manner  the  more  deadly  in  time  of  war, 
is  a  necessary  safeguard  of  every  nation  and  that  his  calling  is  there- 
fore honourable  and  should  be  honoured.  Unfortunately,  however, 
for  such  a  contention,  history  proves  just  the  reverse.  Again  and 
again  has  it  been  shown  that  the  practice  of  the  arts  of  peace  makes 
the  very  best  soldiers  who  ever  fought  for  a  just  cause. 

We  do  not  claim  that  they  are  as  good  in  a  war  for  conquest  as 
those  seasoned  campaigners  who  have  had  all  tendency  to  question 
the  morality  of  their  acts  disciplined  out  of  them,  till  they  are  mere  ma- 
chines, like  the  six  hundred  at  Balaklava  who  held  it 

"  Their 's  not  to  make  reply 
Their's  not  to  reason  why, 
Their's  but  to  do  and  die." 

What  we  do  claim  is  that  in  a  just  cause  the  most  formidable  sword 
ever  wielded  is  that  which  has  not  had  time  to  forget  how  recently  it 
was  a  pruning-hook. 

In  an  article  on  "  Professional  Militarism,"  the  late  John  P.  Altgeld 
summed  up  the  matter  most  forcibly.  He  said :  "  Viewed  from  any 
standpoint,  the  business  of  killing  men  is  a  brutal  and  degrading  pro- 
fession, which  must  brutalise  those  who  engage  in  it,  to  a  greater  or 

219 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

less  degree,  depending  somewhat  upon  the  character  of  the  man  in  the 
beginning.  Except  where  men  strike  for  life,  liberty,  or  country,  the 
moment  he  reddens  his  hands  with  the  blood  of  his  fellows,  the  microbe 
of  the  fiend  begins  to  circulate  in  his  veins,  and  a  slow  but  certain 
disintegration  settles  down  upon  him  and  all  connected  with  him. 

"  If  he  possessed  great  virtues  and  strength  of  character  to  start 
with,  the  process  of  dissolution  may  be  lengthened  to  the  second  gen- 
eration; but  the  end  is  the  same.  There  is  something  abhorrent 
about  the  taking  of  life,  and  Nature  will  have  her  revenge.  Even 
the  man  who  delights  in  killing  the  lower  animals  gradually  changes. 
He  becomes  coarse,  his  finer  and  nobler  feelings  are  blunted,  and  he 
finally  partakes  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  the  fierce  brutes  whose 
conduct  he  imitates.  From  the  standpoint  of  fair  play,  he  sinks  even 
below  the  average  level  of  the  brute;  because  the  element  of  unfair 
advantage  by  reason  of  firearms,  etc.,  must  be  considered. 

"  The  business  of  the  professional  soldier  is  to  kill,  to  destroy.  He 
creates  nothing.  All  his  thoughts  run  in  the  direction  of  destruction. 
He  is  a  stranger  to  the  elevating,  strengthening,  and  ennobling  influ- 
ence that  comes  from  creating  something,  from  adding  to  the  world's 
comfort  or  happiness.  In  spirit  and  aim  he  belongs  to  the  barbaric 
ages.  His  environment  in  itself  is  enough  to  destroy  even  the  strong- 
est and  noblest  manhood.  He  is  isolated  from  both  the  affairs  and 
the  society  of  the  great  body  of  citizens.  He  is  a  stranger  to  their 
aims  and  their  aspirations.  His  association  with  women  is  generally 
confined  to  the  worst  of  the  sex. 

"  The  powerful  and  selfish  interests  of  the  world  use  him  as  a  club 
to  beat  the  toiling  masses  into  subjection  while  they  are  being  robbed 
of  the  fruits  of  their  toil.  He  thus  becomes  the  unintentional  foe  of 
liberty,  freedom,  and  justice.  He  is  made  an  instrument  of  injustice, 
and  this  in  itself  is  degrading.  He  must  obey  orders,  and  therefore 
he  is  excusable  before  the  law;  but  it  does  not  change  the  nature  of 
his  act,  nor  relieve  him  from  the  reactionary  effect  of  his  conduct. 
In  the  world's  armies,  there  is  everywhere  this  tendency  of  the  pro- 
fessional soldier  to  degenerate,  because  of  his  mental,  moral,  and 
physical  environment. 

"  The  private  soldiers  in  many  cases  are  treated  like  dogs.  What  is 
more  natural  than  that  they  should  sink  to  the  level  of  dogs  in  their 
conduct?  The  officers  strut  in  fine  uniforms,  and  form  a  class  by 
themselves.  They  are  exclusive,  and  cultivate  a  spirit  of  snobbery. 
This  spirit  of  exclusion,  this  'I  am  better  than  thou'  attitude,  is  in 
itself  belittling.  No  snob  ever  grew  into  a  great  man. 

"  Nature  draws  no  distinction  between  officer  and  private,  and  the 
death-dealing  influence  of  a  wrong  destroys  all  who  come  within  the 
circle  of  vibration  which  every  wrong  sets  in  motion.  A  fine  uniform 
may  conceal  a  scrofulous  body;  but  no  screen  has  yet  been  devised 
that  will  veil  the  windows  of  a  putrid  soul,  or  erase  from  the  counte- 
nance the  scars  of  a  dead  conscience." 

We  have  recently  had  an  apt  illustration  of  the  corruptive  tendency 
of  an  aggressive  war,  and  it  is  still  fresh  in  mind.  When  our  relations 
with  Spain  were  approaching  a  crisis,  the  great  heart  of  the  American 
people  was  wrung  again  and  again  by  the  atrocities  which  were  being 

220" 


MALEVOLENT   ASSIMILATION 

practised  by  the  Spaniards  in  Cuba.  When  Weylerism  reached  its 
most  devilish  depth  in  the  "  reconcentration  "  of  the  non-combatants, 
a  storm  of  indignant  protest  swept  our  whole  country.  The  thought 
of  unoffending  men,  women,  and  children  being  driven  from  their 
homes  and  gathered  in  camps  or  stockades  under  conditions  which 
meant  disease,  starvation  and  death,  with  all  the  attendant  horrors 
and  outrages  of  military  confinement,  stirred  the  American  people  as 
they  had  not  been  stirred  before  for  years.  Their  humanitarian  im- 
pulses were  quickened  and  they  needed  only  half  an  excuse  for  inter- 
fering. Indeed  many  of  our  best  citizens  counselled  interfering  purely 
on  impersonal  humanitarian  grounds. 

The  blowing  up  of  the  Maine  was  but  a  match  applied  "to  a  train 
already  laid. 

Whatever  motives  may  have  actuated  our  government  officials  in 
bringing  about  this  war,  (the  subsequent  publication  of  official  corre- 
spondence gives  good  cause  for  doubt  on  this  score),  certain  it  is  that 
the  people  at  large  were  actuated  by  no  selfish  motives.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  a  strong  retaliatory  sentiment  followed  the  sinking  of 
the  Maine,  but  this  was  a  craving  for  satisfaction  in  terms  of  blood 
rather  than  money,  and  much  of  this,  to  our  credit  be  it  said,  soon 
wore  away  and  left  as  our  dominant  motive  a  desire  to  ameliorate  the 
suffering  of  the  oppressed  Cubans. 

Traverse  back  over  this  period  in  imagination  and  we  find  that  the 
brutalities  recorded  were  confined  to  Spain's  treatment  of  the  Cubans 
and  our  ill  use  of  our  own  men  by  subjecting  them  to  unsanitary 
camp  conditions,  feeding  them  upon  "  embalmed "  beef,  etc.,  etc. 
Our  treatment  of  our  enemies  was  well  within  the  limits  set  down 
by  the  rules  of  civilised  warfare.  When  the  end  came  we  were  a  gen- 
erous victor,  so  far  as  Spain  was  concerned,  generous  to  the  extent  of 
purchasing  for  some  $20,000,000  alleged  property  to  which  she  had 
no  valid  claim  according  to  international  standards. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  our  national  record,  so  far  as  the  -Cuban 
part  of  the  war  is  concerned,  is  measurably  clean.  When,  however, 
we  began  operations  in  the  Philippines,  all  this  was  changed. 

Immediately  Spain's  power  in  those  islands  was  broken.  It  became 
evident  to  those  on  the  inside,  and,  ere  long  to  everybody  with  eyes 
and  ears,  that  we  were  fighting  for  territory.  Imperialism  became 
rampant,  and  then  came  the  confirmation  of  what  we  have  been  at 
such  pains  to  make  clear,  viz.  that  war,  when  not  redeemed  by  having 
some  grand  motive  for  its  object,  is  hopelessly  debasing.  Its  poison 
percolates  from  the  commander-in-chief,  down  through  the  lowest 
officer,  to  the  humblest  private.  No  sooner  did  we  turn  our  back  upon 
all  our  ideals  of  liberty  and  justice,  salving  our  bleeding  national  con- 
science by  that  hypocritical  sop  to  Cerberus,  "  the  white  man's  burden," 
than  our  whole  military  arm  seemed  to  be  afflicted  with  gangrene. 

Having  adopted  the  policy  of  imperialistic  robbers,  it  seemed  almost 
natural  that  we  should  establish  a  Eussian  censorship  and  feed  the 
American  people  with  just  such  falsehoods  as  the  Philippine  war  de- 
partment and  their  superiors  here  at  home  wanted  them  to  swallow. 
Facts!  What  have  facts  to  do  with  it?  It  is  a  censor's  business  to 
write  down  as  facts  those  things  he  desires,  not  those  things  he  sees. 

221 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Anyone  can  tell  what  occurs.     No  need  of  keeping  a  censor  for  that. 

Referring  to  Philippine  atrocities  and  to  the  suppression  of  facts 
concerning  them,  Mr.  Louis  F.  Post  writes  in  "  The  Public  "  of  April, 
19,  1902 :  "  That  this  shameful  condition  has  long  been  known  by 
the  authorities  at  Washington  has  been  more  than  suspected,  and  with 
good  reason. 

"  Why  has  Senator  Lodge  and  his  Philippine  committee  refused 
persistently  to  investigate  charges  of  cruelty,  if  he  did  not  believe  that 
a  thorough  investigation  would  uncover  what  the  Waller  trial  has 
begun  to  reveal  ? 

"  Why  has  the  secretary  of  war  suppressed  documents  tending  to  ex- 
pose the  revolting  situation,  if  he  does  not  know,  what  the  Waller 
verdict  indicates,  how  very  revolting  it  would  be  to  the  public  mind  ? 

"  Why  is  a  virtual  censorship  still  maintained  at  Manila,  if  there  is 
nothing  to  conceal  from  the  American  people  ? 

"  Why  were  all  correspondents  but  those  of  the  three  monopoly 
press  associations  excluded  from  the  hearings  of  the  Senate  Philippine 
committee,  unless  there  was  a  purpose  to  keep  the  testimony  *  well  in 
hand?' 

"  Every  disclosure,  through  private  sources,  of  facts  like  those  in- 
volved in  the  Waller  trial  has  been  met  with  official  denial  or  scouted 
as  hearsay;  and  though  the  anonymous  evidence  —  anonymous  be- 
cause the  witnesses  dared  not  reveal  their  identity  lest  they  themselves 
might  suffer  from  the  same  barbaric  policy  —  has  been  abundant,  the 
official  probe  has  been  strenuously  withheld.  The  government  itself 
has  stood  between  officers  like  Maj.  Waller  or  Gen.  Smith  and  the 
American  people,  officially  vouching,  in  the  face  of  circumstantial 
reports  to  the  contrary,  for  the  humanity  of  the  American  troops  in 
the  Philippines/* 

Along  the  same  line  is  the  indictment  by  that  staunch  Republican 
paper,  the  u  Chicago  Record  Herald/*  There  is  no  uncertain  note  in 
the  following  criticism  of  the  war  department  taken  from  its  issue  of 
April  12,  1902 : 

"  It  is  clearly  exceeding  its  powers  and  rights  as  a  branch  of  a 
representative  government  which  is  responsible  to  the  American  public, 
whatever  the  truth  may  be.  ...  It  is  known  beyond  doubt  that 
it  has  censored  press  dispatches  to  the  perversion  of  the  truth,  that  it 
has  concealed  the  facts  concerning  an  outrageous  mismanagement  of 
the  finances  in  the  transport  service,  and  lastly  that  its  policy  with 
regard  to  the  stories  of  Weylerism  in  the  Philippines  has  been  one  of 
persistent  deceit  .  .  .  the  situation  as  we  know  it  to-day  brings 
shame  upon  us  all.  District  after  district  burned,  natives  tortured,  a 
population  mercilessly  cut  down,  and,  to  crown  all,  editors  imprisoned 
arbitrarily,  not  for  sedition,  but  for  printing  stories  of  corrupt 
practices  in  American  administration.  The  liberty  of  the  press,  with 
accountability  for  its  abuse,  is  ruthlessly  violated  by  the  military  au- 
thorities in  the  Philippines,  in  wanton  defiance  of  the  first  principle 
of  American  law.  Surely  the  indictment  is  one  that  demands  some- 
thing more  than  protestations  and  excuses  from  Secretary  Root." 

However,,  despite  the  many  facts  blue-penciled  by  our  new  Russian 
department,  story  after  story  of  the  almost  unbelievable  brutality  of 

222 


MALEVOLENT   ASSIMILATION 

our  soldiery  began  to  reach  this  country.  It  seemed  as  if  our  "  boys 
in  blue  "  had  by  some  strange  alchemy  been  transformed  into  a  horde 
of  vodka-crazed  Cossacks.  It  was  hard  to  believe  that  their  behaviour 
in  the  Philippines  should  have  differed  so  from  their  conduct  in  Cuba. 
With  scarcely  a  dissentient  voice  both  officers  and  men  had  indignantly 
condemned  Weyler's  "  reconcentrado  "  policy  in  the  Antilles,  only  to 
put  the  same  thing  in  practice  a  little  later  in  the  Philippines. 

On  Dec.  8,  1902,  Gen.  Bell  adopted  this  outrageous  military  meas- 
ure in  Batangas.  The  General's  order  provided,  as  described  in  sub- 
stance by  the  Associated  Press, 

"  For  the  establishment  of  a  zone  around  the  garrisons,  into  which 
the  friendly  inhabitants  are  to  be  required  to  come  under  penalty  of 
confiscation  and  destruction  of  their  property." 

What  this  means  can  perhaps  be  as  well  gathered  from  the  attitude 
of  the  better  members  of  the  press  as  in  any  other  way.  . 

Upon  Jan.  21,  1902,  the  papers  mentioned  below  made  the  fol- 
lowing comments  upon  this  matter : 

"  Boston  Herald."  "  This  new  order  is  ...  a  new  confes- 
sion of  the -fact  that  a  large  part  of  the  natives  who  have  professed 
to  be  reconciled  to  our  government  are  not  reconciled.  ...  It 
puts  an  end  to  all  statements  that  the  people  desire  our  sovereignty." 

"  Detroit  Free  Press."  "  Weylerism  is  Weylerism,  whether  it  mani- 
fests itself  in  Cuba  or  in  the  Philippines.  If  it  was  a  brutal,  cowardly 
policy  for  .Spain  to  adopt,  it  is  a  brutal,  cowardly  policy  for  the 
United  States  to  adopt." 

"  Dubuque  Telegraph-Herald."  "  The  United  States  went  to  war 
with  Spain  to  abolish  Weylerism  in  Cuba;  yet  to  subdue  the  liberty- 
and-independence-loving  Filipinos  it  is  itself  now  doing  in  Batangas 
and  elsewhere  in  the  'Philippines  what  the  brutal  Spanish  butcher  did 
in  the  Pearl  of  the  Antilles." 

"  Buffalo  Courier."  "  A  report  received  by  the  war  department 
contains  full  information  of  the  harsh  policy,  including  the  feature 
of  concentration  camps,  adopted  by  Gen.  Bell  for  the  reduction  of 
Batangas  province  in  Luzon.  .  .  .  Gen.  Bell  should  be  called  off. 
The  American  people  are  surely  not  ready  to  accept  responsibility 
for  concentration  camp  horrors." 

"  Baltimore  American."  "  With  what  astonishment  do  we  read 
that  a  general  of  our  army  in  the  far-off  Philippines  has  actually  aped 
Weyler  and  Kitchener.  .  .  .  We  have  actually  come  to  do  the 
thing  we  went  to  war  to  banish.  Our  good  name  is  dearer  than  all 
the  islands  of  the  sea.  In  the  name  of  all  that  is  best  in  our  hu- 
manity, civilisation  and  patriotism,  let  the  government  at  Washington 
erase  this  stain  before  it  becomes  fixed  and  inerasable." 

Some  later  press  comments  are  as  follows :  "  Johnstown  Demo- 
crat," Jan.  24. — "  There  are  millions  of  men  and  women  in  the  United 
.States  who  repudiate  and  abhor  Weylerism  in  the  Philippines  as  they 
repudiated  and  abhorred  it  in  Cuba,  and  the  time  will  come  when 
their  protests  will  be  heard.  Imperialism  is  now  in  the  saddle,  but 
its  end  cannot  be  far  away." 

"  Pittsburg  Post,"  Jan.  24. — "  It  has  been  known  in  Washington 
for  several  weeks  that  Gen.  Chaffee  was  establishing  re,concentratlon 

223 


camps  in  the  province  of  Luzon,  some  of  them  not  far  from  the  city 
of  Manila.  Gen.  Chaffee,  however,  did  not  issue  an  order  so  sweeping 
as  that  of  Gen.  Bell.  He  has  contrived  in  a  measure  to  veil  his 
methods." 

"Columbus  Evening  Press,"  Jan.  27. — "Indignation  throughout 
the  country  has  been  aroused  by  Gen.  J.  Franklin  Bell's  reconcen- 
trado  methods  in  the  Philippines.  It  is  justly  felt  that  our  honour 
will  be  clouded  with  shame  if  we  allow  our  colonial  armies  to  be  offi- 
cered by  a  man  who  adopts  Butcher  Weyler's  barbarous  policy  of 
reconcentration." 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  all  the  atrocities  for  which  we  have 
to  answer  in  the  Philippines  are  comprised  in,  or  are  tributary  to,  this 
"  reconcentrado  "  policy  of  Gen.  Bell.  Outrages  official  and  unofficial 
almost  without  number  were  committed  upon  this  martyred  brown 
race.  For  example  a  special  correspondent  of  "  The  New  Voice,"  of 
Chicago,  wrote  from  Iloilo,  P.  I.,  Oct.  30th,  1902,  an  article  published 
in  "  The  New  Voice "  of  Dec.  19.  In  this  he  tells  the  experiences 
of  a  gentleman  whose  business  took  him  to  the  Philippines.  Speak- 
ing of  the  army  with  which  for  several  months  he  had  been  in  intimate 
relation,  he  said  to  the  correspondent : 

"  Discipline  is  frightfully  slack  and  as  a  result  drunkenness  pre- 
vails in  most  wholesale  fashion  and  is  a  disgrace  to  the  whole  army 
and  to  the  American  name.  In  my  way  of  looking  at  it,  drunkenness 
in  the  army  is  to-day  one  of  the  most  formidable  problems  of  the 
whole  Philippine  situation.  If  the  army  could  be  sobered  up  and 
made  decent,  a  great  many  of  the  troublesome  features  that  now  con- 
front the  American  government  here  would  be  much  relieved.  In 
the  cities  where  there  are  garrisons  drunkenness  and  bad  conduct 
upon  the  part  of  the  soldiers  are  so  constantly  in  evidence  and  so 
extreme  that  the  native  population  is  strongly  prejudiced  against 
Americans  and  everything  American." 

Speaking  of  instances  of  drunken  outrages  which  had  come  under 
his  own  observation,  he  said:  "Yes;  while  I  was  in  San  Fernando 
in  the  Pampango  province,  a  cavalryman  got  a  pass  to  go  to  Bacalor. 
While  there  he  got  drunk,  and  as  he  was  riding  home  in  the  early 
evening  his  hat  fell  off.  A  native  who  was  close  by  ran  and  picked  it 
up  and  handed  it  to  him.  The  soldier  took  the  hat,  drew  his  revol- 
ver, and  shot  the  native,  mortally  wounding  him.  The  impression 
made  by  a  deed  of  that  sort  upon  the  native  community  can  hardly 
be  realised.  Perhaps  the  best  approach  to  any  appreciation  of  it  that 
an  American  can  make  would  be  to  imagine  some  of  our  states  in  the 
possession  of  a  hostile  army  that  would  commit  such  outrages  upon 
the  people." 

Speaking  of  the  general  conduct  of  the  soldiers  he  said : 

"They  bluster  and  bully  and  drive  the  natives  about;  take  pos- 
session of  their  shops  and  stores,  and  insolently  enter  their  homes  to 
abuse  and  insult  their  women.  It  is  a  common  thing  to  hear  soldiers, 
and  even  officers,  say  that  they  wish  the  insurrection  would  break  out 
again  so  that  they  could  clean  some  more  of  the  natives  out  of  the 
country. 

"  I  recently  met  a  naval  officer  in  Manila  who  had  been  serving  in 

224 


MALEVOLENT   ASSIMILATION 

one  of  the  southern  islands  and  who  told  me,  and  I  have  every  reason 
to  believe  that  he  told  the  truth,  that,  upon  the  occasion  of  the  viola- 
tion of  some  of  the  customs  of  civilised  warfare  on  the  part  of  the 
Filipinos,  the  commanding  officer  of  the  American  troops  at  the 
place  where  it  happened  gave  orders  that  the  country  for  twenty  miles 
around  should  be  absolutely  devastated,  and  every  living  thing,  man, 
woman,  child  or  beast,  killed;  and,  said  he,  it  was  done." 

Kegarding  the  social  evil  he  said,  "  It  is  shockingly  in  evidence 
everywhere,  and  the  attitude  of  the  army  toward  it  is  that  of  toleration 
and  encouragement.  Hundreds  of  young  native  women  are  being  in- 
veigled into  mock  marriages  by  American  soldiers,  with  the  knowledge, 
if  not  with  the  -approval,  of  their  officers.  Girls  are  sold  by  their 
parents  as  temporary  *  wives '  for  a  few  dollars  a  month,  often  against 
the  will  of  the  girl.  The  officers  know  it,  and  make  no  objection. 
These  '  wives/  together  with  the  corps  of  prostitutes,  are  examined 
weekly  by  post  surgeons  to  guarantee  the  lecherous  Americans  against 
infamous  diseases. 

"  And  when  a  soldier  does  become  diseased,  he  is  cared  for  in  the 
hospital  at  full  pay.  I  fancy  that  the  moral  people  of  the  United 
States  would  rise  in  rebellion  if  they  could  really  be  informed  con- 
cerning the  conditions  that  exist  here  along  these  lines. 

"  Of  course  I  am  here  on  business.  The  successful  prosecution  of 
my  business  depends  on  my  keeping  on  good  terms  with  army  officers, 
and  I  am  going  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  them  if  I  can,  but  when 
I  go  home  I  shall  look  back  upon  these  months  as  months  spent  very 
near  to  hell,  and  nothing  but  necessity  will  ever  bring  me  to  the 
Philippines  again." 

In  an  article  written  from  Cebu  by  Josiah  Obi  the  "  Constitution's  " 
special  correspondent  in  the  Philippine  islands,  and  reviewed  in  "  The 
Public"  of  Jan.  4,  1902,  occurs  the  following: 

"  The  highly  civilised  and  altogether  humane  methods  that  charac- 
terised the  rule  of  the  gentle  Weyler  in  Cuba  are  being  resorted  to  by 
the  American  army  in  its  efforts  to  subject  the  Visayans  of  this  island 
of  Cebu,  of  Borol,  and  would  be  put  into  effect  in  Samar  if  the  con- 
ditions were  favourable.  Whole  villages  have  been  burned  by  the  orders 
of  the  general  commanding  this  district,  and  the  reconcentrado  policy, 
of  which  we  have  heard  so  much  in  Cebu,  is  about  to  be  put  into 
operation  here  —  if,  indeed,  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  already  been 
instituted."  .  .  . 

"  Only  a  few  nights  ago  an  American  officer  boasted  that  he  is  known 
as  the  Weyler  of  the  district  where  he  is  in  command.  He  also  said  — 
though  it  may  seem  incredible  —  that  he  was  proud  of  being  so 
called."  .  .  . 

"  The  officer  commanding  the  battalion  over  on  Bohol  has  been  given 
instructions  to  kill  off  everybody  suspected  of  connection  with  the  in- 
surgents. He  had  been  told  that  these  orders  give  him  the  widest 
latitude;  that  he  is  not  to  be  very  particular  whether  the  suspect  is 
bearing  arms  or  has  been ;  if  he  is  a  suspect  he  is  to  be  treated  as  an 
out-law  and  shot  down.  The  people  are  to  be  brought  in  from  the 
country  and  cooped  up  in  the  towns.  Those  who  refuse  to  come  are 
to  be  hunted  down/' 

15  235 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   WAGES    OF   OUR    SIN 


227 


PROCLAMATION  OF  A  FILIPINO  GENERAL. 

The  generals,  chiefs  and  officers  of  the  army  of  deliverance  will  pre- 
vent any  ill-treatment  in  word  or  deed,  by  soldiers  or  peasants,  of  any  dis- 
armed, sleeping  or  drunken  enemies  and  of  all  those  who,  throwing  their 
guns  down  and  raising  their  hands,  declare  thus  their  surrender,  or  of 
any  others  that  may  become  prisoners  in  any  way;  meeting  out  exemplary 
punishment  to  all  who  act  against  this  order. 

They  will  receive  with  kindness  and  courtesy,  and  accord  good  treat- 
ment to  all  soldiers,  officers  and  chiefs  of  the  army  of  invasion  who  may 
come  to  our  camp,  after  leaving  their  guns  at  a  predetermined  place,  to 
prevent  any  deception,  conceding  to  them  the  best  of  treatment  as  speci- 
fied in  previous  orders. 

At  the  headquarters,  April  28th,  1901,  The  Commanding  General, 

Miguel  Malvar. 

The  battle  hurtles  on  the  plains, 
Earth  feels  new  scythes  upon  her; 
We  reap  our  brothers  for  the  wains, 
And  call  the  harvest  —  honor; 
Draw  face  to  face,  front  line  to  line, 
One  image  all  inherit, 
Then  kill,  curse  on,  by  that  same  sign, 
Clay  —  clay,  and  spirit  —  spirit. 
Be  pitiful,  O  God! 

Mrs.  Browning. 
The  Cry  of  the  Human. 

Patriotism  having  become  one  of  our  topics,  Johnson  suddenly  uttered 
in  a  strong,  determined  tone,  an  apothegm  at  which  many  will  start: 
"  Patriotism  is  the  last  refuge  of  a  scoundrel."  But  let  it  be  considered 
that  he  did  not  mean  a  real  and  genuine  love  of  our  country,  but  that  pre- 
tended patriotism  which  so  many,  in  all  ages  and  countries,  have  made 
a  cloak  for  self-interest. 

BoswelVs  Johnson. 


228 


CHAPTEE  III 
THE   WAGES    OF   OUR    SIN 

HOSE  who  closely  followed  Philippine  affairs  will  re- 
member that  Major  Waller  was  tried  by  court-martial 
for  barbarous  treatment  of  the  natives.  Press  reports 
stated  that  the  "  specifications  alleged  that  in  the  one 
instance  the  accused  had  caused  a  native  to  be  tied 

to  a  tree  and  on  one  day  to  be  shot  in  the  thigh,  on  the 

next  in  the  arms,  on  the  third  in  the  body  and  on  the  fourth  to  be 
killed." 

The  trial  began  on  Mar.  17,  1902.  The  major  pleaded  not  guilty 
to  the  charge  of  murder,  but  admitted  that  he  had  ordered  eleven 
natives  shot  while  on  this  expedition.  He  insisted  that  he  had  acted 
under  superior  authority.  On  the  22d  of  March  Capt.  David  D. 
Porter,  one  of  the  witnesses,  testified  that  he  was  present  when  Gen. 
Smith  gave  Maj.  Waller  his  orders,  that  he  was  with  the  Waller  ex- 
pedition, and  that  Maj.  Waller  had  not  exceeded 'the  orders  given 
him. 

In  testifying  on  Apr.  8th,  Maj.  Waller  swore  that  Gen.  Smith  had 
said: 

"  I  wish  you  to  kill  and  burn.  The  more  you  kill  the  more  you  will 
please  me.  The  interior  of  .Samar  must  be  made  a  howling  wilder- 
ness. Kill  every  native  over  ten  years  old." 

Commenting  upon  this  devilish  speech,  more  suggestive  of  Moham- 
medan fanaticism  than  of  American  civilisation,  a  Chicago  weekly  says 
editorially  ? 

"  In  this  testimony  Maj.  Waller  was  immediately  corroborated  by 
Capt.  Porter  and  Lieut.  Halford.  The  latter  said  that  Maj.  Waller 
did  not  wholly  agree  with  Gen.  Smith's  order,  for  he  commanded 
Porter  not  to  kill  old  men,  women  and  children." 

Under  date  of  Apr.  9,  1902,  the  Chicago  "Evening  Post"  said: 
"  The  testimony  just  brought  out  at  the  Waller  court-martial  in 
Manila  is  of  the  most  startling  nature.  It  came  as  a  distinct  shock 
to  the  American  people  when  the  charges  of  killing  natives  were  first 
made  against  Maj.  Waller  and  his  companions.  But  now  it  must 
stagger  the  most  enthusiastic  expansionist  to  have  the  testimony  of 
three  officers  to  the  effect  that  Maj.  Waller  was  simply  obeying  the 
commands  of  his  superiors.  .  .  .  The  war  department  has  a  duty 
to  perform  in  the  premises." 

Under  the  heading  "  Our  Demoralising  Conquest,"  "  The  Public," 
Chicago,  said  in  its  issue  of  April  19,  1902 : 

"  The  inhumanity  which  has  characterised  the  American  occupation 
of  the  Philippines  can  no  longer  be  denied.  It  must  now  be  either 

229 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

defended  with  bravado  or  confessed  with  shame.     The  trial  and  ver- 
dict in  the  case  of  Maj.  Waller  leave  no  other  alternative. 

"  Maj.  Waller  was  court-martialed  for  killing  natives  in  the  island 
of  Samar,  not  in  battle  but  in  cold  blood  after  capturing  them. 

"  His  plea  in  part  was  that  the  natives  in  Samar  were  treacherous. 
But  he  conceded  that  he  had  not  put  his  prisoners  on  trial  to  ascertain 
their  individual  guilt.  He  had  executed  them  "off-hand,  without  re- 
gard to  whether  they  were  individually  guilty  of  treachery  or  not. 
Defending  this  as  being  within  the  usages  of  war,  he  urged  that  with- 
out criticism  he  had  dealt  in  the  same  way  with  '  boxers '  in  China ; 
and  that  not  only  did  this  conduct  there  go  without  criticism  from 
his  superiors,  but  it  was  practised  and  approved  by  officers  of  the 
European  troops.  Indeed,  they  were  inclined  to  make  sport  of  the 
Americans  for  chicken-heartedness,  because  in  other  respects  the 
American  policy  was  excessively  fair  and  humane  from  the  prevailing 
military  point  of  view.  Maj.  Waller  admitted  the  execution  of  all 
of  his  Samar  prisoners  in  this  unceremonious  fashion,  justifying  the 
homicide  as  a  legitimate  act  of  war. 

"  But  he  did  not  rest  his  defence  on  the  plea  alone.  He  made  a 
further  plea,  the  nature  of  which'  strongly  indicates  that  his  motive 
after  all  was  not  to  punish  treacher^r,  but  to  terrorise  a  stubborn  enemy 
by  giving  them  to  understand  that  they  were  to  receive  no  quarter. 
He  testified  that  he  had  acted  pursuant  to  the  orders  of  Maj.  Gen. 
Jacob  H.  Smith,  the  American  general  in  command  on  the  island  of 
Samar  and  his  superior  officer.  .  .  . 

"  On  the  13th  the  Waller  court-martial  made  known  the  verdict 
which  had  been  arrived  at  by  a  vote  of  11  to  2.  As  reported  by  special 
cable  to  the  '  Chicago  Eecord-Herald/  a  Eepublican  and  imperialist 
paper,  in  which  it  was  published  on  the  14th,  this  verdict  found  that 
Waller  had  acted  in  accordance  with  the  rules  war,  the  military 
necessities  of  the  situation,  and  the  order  of  his  superiors.  In  other 
words,  the  execution  without  trial  of  prisoners  of  war  taken  by 
American  troops  in  the  Philippines,  is  regarded  by  American  military 
authority  as  being  within  the  military  code  of  ethics. 

"  Whether  such  base  conduct  is  in  truth  in  harmony  with  military 
ethics  may  well  be  doubted.  The  military  ethical  code  is  sadly  eccen- 
tric when  invoked  in  behalf  of  peoples  too  weak  to  assert  its  authority 
with  force  and  too  friendless  to  have  it  asserted  for  them  by  powerful 
onlooking  nations;  but  it  is  hardly  believable  that  it  would  justify  the 
off-hand  shooting  of  prisoners  of  war  unconvicted  of  any  offence. 

"  One  military  officer  of  long  experience  in  the  field,  a  Eepublicdn 
at  that  —  we  refer  to  Col.  Henry  L.  Turner,  of  Chicago  —  has  spoken 
vigourously  in  condemnation  of  the  theory  of  military  honour  which 
approves  the  Waller  method  of  warfare.  Interviewed  for  the  *  Chi- 
cago Eecord-Herald '  of  the  the  14th,  he  said  : 

'  To  me  this  principle  is  so  horrible  to  adopt  that  I  cannot  help 
hoping  there  will  be  some  qualification  of  the  news  received  later. 
Probably  there  never  was  a  more  treacherous,  blood-thirsty  enemy 
than  the  American  Indian  ever  fought  by  the  United  States  army. 
And  yet  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  had  Maj.  Waller  drawn  up 
11  unarmed  prisoners  of  the  blood-thirsty  Apache  tribe  and  ordered 

230 


THE   WAGES    OF   OUR    SIN 

them  shot  without  trial,  his  lightest  punishment  under  Gens.  Grant, 
Sheridan,  Crook,  Miles,  Custer  or  any  of  our  old  line  heroes,  would 
have  been  dismissal  from  the  army  in  disgrace  or  imprisonment  for 
life.  My  own  judgment  is  that  Maj.  Waller  would  have  been  tried  by 
a  drumhead  court-martial  and  shot  within  24  hours.  That  a  man  who 
has  tried  to  justify  the  unwarranted  killing  of  Filipinos  by  the  fact 
that  he  had  ruthlessly  shot  down  the  Chinese,  should  be  acquitted 
with  honour  and  let  loose  to  continue  the  destruction  of  human  life 
at  his  own  sweet  will  is  a  matter  difficult  to  realise.  If  campaigning 
in  the  Philippine  islands  has  brought  the  United  States  army  to  the 
point  where  it  justifies  this  class  of  warfare,  the  sooner  the  troops  are 
brought  home  the  better/  *'  .  .  . 

"  The  Waller  verdict,  together  with  the  horrible  revelations  of  the 
evidence,  is  an  intimation  to  thoughtful  Americans  that  here  is  only 
one  instance  of  a  general  policy  of  inhumanity.  But  for  some  such 
policy,  tacitly  recognised  and  approved,  Waller  would  hardly  have 
ventured  to  kill  his  prisoners  without  a  trial,  no  matter  what  their 
offence  had  been ;  Gen.  Smith  would  hardly  have  ordered  a  slaughter 
of  captives,  and  if  he  had,  Waller  would  probably  have  disobeyed ;  and, 
last  but  by  no  means  least,  the  Waller  court-martial,  had  Waller  ven- 
tured upon  such  an  exploit,  would  not  have  acquitted  him  of  the 
crime.  The  whole  thing  testifies  to  a  contagion  of  inhumanity." 

"  The  '  water  cure '  has  been  administered  to  thousands  of  natives 
in  the  Philippines,  at  least  in  Panay,'  says  a  returned  soldier  of 
Kansas  City,  who  had  himself  *  seen  it  administered  dozens  of  times ' 
to  natives  and  asserted  that  the  practice  was  general  in  the  island  of 
Panay,  and  who  approves  it. 

"Other  witnesses,  produced  before  the  Senate  committee,  not  by  the 
majority  —  who  are  responsible  for  the  investigation  but  have  been 
much  more  solicitous  to  conceal  the  facts  than  to  permit  disclosures  — 
but  by  the  minority,  have  fully  confirmed  the  Kansas  City  soldier's 
story.  One  of  them  testified  on  the  14th,  as  the  Associated  Press  re- 
ports him,  that  —  he  had  witnessed  the  '  water  cure '  at  Igbaras,  prov- 
ince of  Iloilo,  November  27,  1900.  It  was  administered  to  the  presi- 
dente,  or  chief  Filipino  official,  of  the  town.  Upon  the  arrival  of 
his  command  at  Igbaras  the  presidente  was  asked  whether  runners 
had  been  sent  out  notifying  the  insurgents  of  their  presence,  and  that 
upon  the  official's  refusal  to  give  the  information  he  was  taken  to 
the  convent,  where  the  witness  was  'stationed,  and  the  water  cure  was 
administered  to  him  ...  he  was  standing  in  the  corridor  of 
the  convent,  stripped  to  the  waist  and  his  hands  tied  behind  him, 
with  Capt.  Glenn  and  Lieut.  Conger,  of  the  regular  army,  and  Dr. 
Lyons,  a  contract  surgeon,  standing  near,  while  many  soldiers  stood 
about.  The  man  was  thrown  under  a  water-tank,  which  held  about 
100  gallons  of  water,  and  his  mouth  was  placed  directly  under  the 
faucet  and  held  open  to  compel  him  to  swallow  the  water  which  was 
allowed  to  escape  from  the  tank.  .  .  .  When  at  last  the  presidente 
agreed  to  tell  what  he  knew,  he  was  released  and  allowed  to  start 
away.  He  was  not,  however,  permitted  to  escape,  and  upon  refusing 
to  give  further  information  he  was  taken  again  as  he  was  about  to 

231 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

mount  his  horse  and  the  cure  was  administered  the  second  time. 
This  time  the  man  was  not  stripped,  nor  was  he  taken  into  the 
building.  Dr.  Lyons  said  the  water  could  be  brought  to  the  spot  and 
given  there,  and  when  it  was  brought  in  a  five-gallon  can,  one  end 
of  a  syringe  was  placed  in  it  and  the  other  in  the  man's  mouth.  As 
he  still  refused,  a  second  syringe  was  brought  and  one  end  of  it  placed 
in  the  prostrate  man's  nose.  He  still  refused,  and  a  handful  of  salt 
was  thrown  into  the  water.  This  had  the  desired  effect  and  the 
presidente  agreed  to  answer  questions. 

"  The  other  witness  testified  that  —  he  had  witnessed  the  torture  of 
two  policemen  of  the  town  of  Igbaras  ...  the  details  of  the 
'cure'  were  in  the  hands  of  a  squad  of  the  Eighteenth  regular  in- 
fantry, known  as  'the  water  cure  detail.'  These  acts  were  committed 
under  the  command  of  Capt.  Glenn,  who  was  judge-advocate  of  the 
department  of  the  Viscayas.  ...  the  water  was  kept  running 
four  or  five  minutes,  and  the  physician  in  charge  frequently  placed 
his  hand  upon  the  man's  heart  to  observe  the  effect  of  the  treatment 
upon  that  organ."  .  .  . 

"  The  civil  governor  of  Tabayas,  an  American  army  officer,  officially 
confirms  these  witnesses  and  all  others  who  tell  of  similar  cruelties. 
For  he  declares  in  his  report  of  last  December,  which  the  secretary 
of  war  surpressed,  that  this  water  torture  is  in  general  use.  In 
the  same  report  he  accuses  the  American  troops  of  extensive  burnings 
to  '  lay  waste  the  country  so  that  the  insurgents  cannot  occupy  it.' 

"  Now  that  this  long-denied  and  long-concealed  but  vigourously 
prosecuted  policy  of  cruelty  and  extermination  has  leaked  out  through 
the  Waller  court-martial  proceedings,  it  will  not  be  enough  for  the 
government  to  explain  it  as  a  matter  of  retaliatory  policy. 

"  The  evidence  is  abundant  and  conclusive  that  in  the  beginning  the 
Filipinos  were  humane  in  their  modes  of  warfare.  Such  cruelty  as 
they  have  practised  did  not  precede,  but  has  followed,  the  cruel  meth- 
ods of  the  Americans.  Our  troops  adopted  the  '  water  cure '  not  in 
retaliation,  but  confessedly  to  extort  information.  They  have  laid 
waste  and  exterminated,  not  to  '  get  even,'  but  on  account  of  '  the 
military  necessities  of  the  situation.'  Baffled  by  a  stubborn  people 
defending  their  homes,  our  army  began  a  series  of  campaigns  which, 
as  Gen.  Hughes  has  cautiously  admitted  before  the  Senate  committee, 
could  not  be  called  civilised  warfare. 

"  Under  these  circumstances  the  plea  of  retaliation  for  Filipino  bar- 
barities will  not  serve  our  government  as  an  excuse  for  the  barbarities 
which  it  appears  to  have  tolerated  and  which  it  has  certainly  tried 
to  conceal. 

"  Neither  will  it  do  to  shed  official  tears  of  regret,  and  promise 
vigourous  measures  of  reform.  The  condition  is  chronic  and  will  not 
yield  to  any  efforts  at  mere  reform. 

"  Gen.  Hughes  was  correct  in  his  thought  when,  before  the  Senate 
committee,  he  said  that  new  commanders  coming  into  the  field 
would  start  in  to  conduct  their  work  much  '  easier '  than  the  old 
ones ;  that  '  they  would  come  into  the  country  with  their  ideas  of 
civilised  warfare  and  were  allowed  to  get  their  lesson.'  That  is,  '  the 

232 


THE   WAGES    OF   OUR    SIN 

military  necessities  of  the  situation'  speedily  converted  humane  offi- 
cers into  barbarians."  .  .  . 

"  The  true  remedy,  consequently,  is  not  a  futile  policy  of  sending 
out  new  levies  of  humane  officers,  to  be  turned  in  due  time  into  un- 
speakable barbarians,  but  an  honourable  course  more  in  consonance 
with  our  national  ideals.  We  must  restrain  our  world-power  ambi- 
tions. We  must  recede  from  our  blood-stained  attempt  at  Philippine, 
conquest.  We  must  repudiate  our  whole  greedy,  grasping,  hypo- 
critical and  conscience-deadening  policy  of  benevolent  assimilation. 
It  is  better  to  be  accused  of  a  national  'scuttle'  than  to  be  longer 
guilty  of  a  national  crime."  .  .  . 

"  For,  let  it  not  be  forgotten,  the  Filipinos  had  set  up  a  flourishing 
and  order-preserving  republic  before  the  present  war  began.  That 
republic  exercised  actual  jurisdiction  over  nearly  all  the  Philippine 
archipelago,  as  Gen.  Anderson,  the  first  American  commander  in  the 
Philippines,  has  testified.  In  an  article  in  the  '  North  American  Ke- 
view '  for  February,  1900,  Gen.  Anderson  wrote,  referring  to  the 
period  of  the  surrender  of  the  Spanish  in  August,  1898 : 

'  We  held  Manila  and  Cavite.  The  rest  of  the  island  was  held  not 
by  the  Spaniards,  but  by  the  Filipinos.  On  the  other  islands  the 
Spaniards  were  confined  to  two  or  three  fortified  towns/ 

"  And  that  occupation  was  peaceably  maintained,  the  republic  being 
recognised  by  the  inhabitants  and  law  and  order  prevailing."  .  .  . 

"  The  quiet  and  orderly  life  of  an  unoffending  people,  which  our 
naval  cadet,  Sargent,  observed,  has  been  broken  up,  and  northern 
Luzon,  through  which  he  and  Paymaster  Wilcox  travelled  with  safety 
and  from  which  they  carried  pleasing  memories,  has  been  laid  waste. 
The  latest  dispatches  assure  us  that  in  all  this  region  peace  again 
prevails.  But  now  it  is  the  peace  of  the  graveyard.  Why  have  we 
caused  this  misery?  Why  have  we  devastated  this  country?  Why 
have  we  remorselessly  slaughtered  thousands  upon  thousands  of  its 
inhabitants,  not  only  in  unequal  battle,  but  also  in  cold  blood  after 
captures?  Why  have  we  tortured  prisoners  to  extort  information? 
Why  have  some  of  our  generals  commanded  their  subordinates  to 
make  no  prisoners,  but  to  kill  all  natives  over  ten  years  of  age? 
Why  do  we  carry  on  this  contest  which  breeds  inhumanity  even  in  the 
hearts  of  the  humane  ?  Is  it  because  ,  those  people  resist  our  as- 
sumption of  sovereignty?  Then  why  did  we  assert  and  why  do  we 
endeavour  to  maintain  that  power  over  an  alien  and  unwilling  peo- 
ple 10,000  miles  away  from  our  shores  ?  Is  it  for  their  good,  for  their 
benevolent  assimilation?  From  the  President  down,  we  all  know 
that  that  is  not  the  reason. 

"  One  of  the  real  reasons  was  given  by  Gen.  MacArthur  to  the  Sen- 
ate committee  on  the  8th,  when,  as  reported  by  the  '  Chicago  Inter 
Ocean/  a  Republican  paper,  he  mixed  in  with  a  lot  of  benevolent 
phrases  and  some  fantastic  evolutionary  speculations,  a  declaration 
that  — 

'the  possession,  the  permanent  possession  of  the  Philippine  archi- 
pelago, is  not  only  of  supreme  importance,  but  absolutely  essential 
to  American  interests/ 

"  That  is  one  of  the  unvarnished  reasons ;  and  the  others  are  like  it, 

233 


only  on  a  smaller  scale.  Since  the  islands  are  rich  in  natural  wealth, 
American  ' interests'  want  a  chance  at  the  grab.  To  satisfy  those 
interests,  with  their  greed  for  gain  and  lust  of  power  that  outrun 
satisfaction  and  surpass  understanding,  we  have  placed  our  nation 
in  the  pillory,  self-convicted  of  perfidy  to  an  ally,  of  making  a  war 
of  conquest  upon  a  weak  and  friendly  people,  and  of  waging  the  war 
with  a  degree  of  cruelty  and  inhumanity  that  forces  our  own  military 
officers  to  admit,  even  if  cautiously,  that  it  cannot  be  called  civilised. 
How  much  longer  shall  this  republic  so  stultify  its  own  best  ideals  ?  " 

How  the  atrocities  practised  by  the  Americans  in  the  Philippines 
were  regarded  by  some  of  the  ablest  papers  in  the  country  may  be 
gathered  from  the  following  quotations. 

"Albany  Argus,"  Apr.  30,  1902.  "It  ought  to  be  evident  to 
everybody  that  if  the  subjugation  of  the  Filipinos  is  to  be  accom- 
plished, it  can  only  be  done  by  the  methods  of  extermination  which 
Smith  has  borrowed  from  Weyler,  sparing  neither  age  nor  sex,  woman 
nor  child.  If  the  American  people  mean  to  deny  the  Filipinos  their 
independence,  they  should  give  Gen.  Smith  a  vote  of  thanks,  and  let 
the  tragedy  proceed." 

"  Johnstown  Democrat,"  Apr.  30,  1902.  "  Gen.  Smith  has  shown 
that  he  does  not  intend  to  be  made  the  scapegoat  of  the  strenuous 
President.  He  has  boldly  admitted  that  he  gave  the  order  which 
has  excited  the  horror  of  the  whole  civilised  world  and  that  transcends 
anything  in  savagery  which  ever  emanated  from  a  civilised  authority. 
But  at  the  same  time  he  lets  the  people  know  that  the  responsibility 
rests,  not  upon  him,  but  upon  his  superiors." 

"  Chicago  Eecord-Herald,"  May  7,  1902 :  "  If  the  island  of  Min- 
danao can  only  be  reduced  to  subjection  to  our  flag  by  turning  it 
into  a  shambles  and  '  wading  through  a  sea  of  blood '  the  American 
people  will  turn  from  the  revolting  alternative  in  horror  and  dis- 
gust. .  .  .  The  President  has  said  that  the  American  flag  will 
'  stay  put '  in  the  Philippines.  It  cannot  and  will  not  stay  put  there 
with  the  consent  of  the  American  people  at  the  cost  of  a  war  of  re- 
lentless,- vengeful  extermination." 

"Cole  County  (Mo.)  Democrat":  "Some  of  the  administration 
supporters  are  setting  up,  as  a  kind  of  fictitious  apology  for  the  bar- 
barities practised  by  the  American  army  in  the  Philippines,  that  '  our 
troops  have  had  great  provocation/  This  reminds  one  of  Shake- 
speare's statement,  in  the  original  manuscript  of  his  Julius  Caesar, 
that  (  Caesar  never  did  wrong  without  just  cause/  for  which  incon- 
gruity the  immortal  hard  was  taken  to  task  by  Ben  Jonson,  and 
with  such  effect  that  Shakespeare  amended  the  ridiculous  line,  in  ac- 
cordance with  common  sense." 

"New  York  Tribune,"  May  1,  1802.  "To  devastate  a  country 
with  fire  and  sword,  to  make  it  a  'howling  wilderness,'  to  slaughter 
its  inhabitants  indiscriminately,  non-combatants  as  well  as  combatants, 
women  as  well  as  men,  is  not  legitimate.  It  is  not  war.  War  is 
hell,  but  it  is  not  that  kind  of  hell.  The  Japanese  did  not  do  it  in 
their  war  with  China,  though,  they  had  dreadful  provocation.  Our 
troops  did  not  do  so  in  our  Indian  wars,  though  the  provocation  there 
was  incomparably  greater  than  any  that  has  been  offered  in  the  Philip- 

234 


THE   WAGES    OF   OUR    SIN 

pines.  The  British  did  not  do  so  in  India,  not  even  after  the  name- 
less horrors  of  Cawnpore.  To  legitimise  such  an  order  now  would  be 
to  turn  back  by  a  century  and  more  the  hands  upon  the  dial-plate  of 
time." 

"  Buffalo  Enquirer,"  Apr.  28,  1902 :  "  What  do  the  vilifiers  of  a 
downtrodden  race  say  to  such  '  savages,  Apaches  and  barbarians '  as 
Smith  and  Waller?  What  do  the  vaporers  of  high-flown  talk  about 
educating  and  elevating  the  Filipinos  think  of  such  exponents  of 
advancement  as  the  water-cure  fiends  ?  " 

"Cleveland  Citizen,"  Apr.  26,  1902.  "When  one  reads  of  the 
horrible  tortures  and  massacres  that  the  Filipinos  were  subjected  to  at 
the  hands  of  our  '  Christian '  soldiers,  one  cannot  help  but  wonder 
whether  Cortez  and  Pizarro  and  even  the  arch-fiend  himself  would 
not  stand  aghast  at  such  monstrous  crimes." 

"  The  Ithaca  (N.  Y.)  Democrat,"  Apr.  24,  1902.  "  If  these  things 
constitute  '  marked  humanity  and  magnanimity/  then  panthers, 
ghouls  and  hyenas  are  the  gentlest  creatures  on  earth,  and  all  should 
join  with  President  Roosevelt  in  approving  of  '  the  conclusions  of 
the  secretary  of  war/ }: 

"  City  and  State,"  Apr.  24,  1902.  "  The  point  which  all  who  de- 
sire the  Philippine  iniquity  to  be  exposed  and  stopped  should  now 
press  is  this:  Open  sessions  on  the  part  of  the  'Philippine  investi- 
gating committee.  Senator  Lodge  claims  that  these  sessions  are 
absolutely  free;  but  he  is  seriously  in  error  in  that  assertion,  for  the 
following  reasons:  The  three  press  associations  which  have  a  right 
to  be  present  are  the  "  .Sun,"  the  Publishers  and  the  Associated  — 
none  other.  These  are  all  sympathetic  to  the  administration's  Philip- 
pine policy,  and  they  have  obstructed  practically  the  egress  of  news 
in  time  for  its  prompt  consumption  by  the  press.  They  have  given 
out  what  they  wanted,  but  not  all  that  a  knowledge  of  vital  truth 
required.  In  justice  to  the  public  there  should  be  an  adequate  rep- 
resentation before  the  committee  of  the  opposition  press." 

"  Chicago  Evening  Post,"  Apr.  29,  1902.  "  Those  who  tell  us  that 
'war  is  war'  and  that  we  must  not  inquire  too  minutely  into  the 
methods  pursued  by  an  army  operating  among  a  half-civilised  people, 
are  bound  to  defend  not  only  the  water  cure  and  the  slaughter  of 
children,  but  the  revival  of  the  methods  of  the  Spanish  inquisition  — 
the  rack,  the  wheel,  the  thumb-screw  —  and  the  total  disregard  of  the 
restraints  imposed  by  international  law  and  humanity  upon  civilised 
warfare.  What  would  the  American  people  have  said  five  years  ago 
if  Weyler  had  issued  such  an  order  as  Gen.  Smith  admits  having 
given  to  his  subordinates  ?  What  would  they  have  said  if  the  Spanish 
authorities  and  newspapers  had  excused  such  an  order  on  the  miser- 
able ground  that  '  war  is  war  ?  ' ' 

In  an  article  published  in  a  Chicago  paper  on  July  26,  1902,  en- 
titled "Brutal  Degeneracy  Disgracefully  Defended,"  A.  B.  Choate 
wrote  as  follows: 

"  The  administration  'organs  and  apologists  resort  to  a  defence  as 
disgraceful,  if  possible,  as  is  the  offence  they  seek  to  mitigate.  These 
men  dishonour  Abraham  Lincoln  by  calling  themselves  Republicans, 
and  they  seek  to  hide  behind  the  shroud  of  Abraham  Lincoln  by 

235 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

citing  in  justification  Order  No.  100,  which  he  approved  April,  1863. 
The  shamefulness  of  this  attempt  is  exposed  by  quoting  certain  para- 
graphs of  that  order  which  they  are  careful  not  to  reproduce.  Com- 
pare these  paragraphs  with  the  acts  sought  to  be  justified  by  Lincoln's 
order. 

THE  DEADLY  PARALLEL. 


Paragraph  80,  Order  No.  100. — 

Honorable  men,  when  captured, 
will  abstain  from  giving  the  enemy 
information  concerning  their  own 
army,  and  the  modern  law  of  war 
permits  no  longer  the  use  of  any 
violence  against  prisoners  in  order 
to  extort  the  desired  information. 
Paragraph  16,  Order  No.  100. — 

Military  necessity  does  not  admit 
of  cruelty  .  .  .  nor  torture  to 
extort  confessions  .  .  .  nor  of 
the  wanton  devastation  of  a  district. 


Paragraph  44,  Order  No.  100. — 

All  robbery,  all  pillage  or  sack- 
ing, even  after  taking  a  place  by 
main  force,  all  rape,  wounding, 
maiming  or  killing  of  such  inhabit- 
ants, are  prohibited  under  penalty 
of  death,  or  such  other  severe  pun- 
ishment as  may  seem  adequate  for 
the  gravity  of  the  offense. 


Paragraph  15,  Order  No.  100. — 

Men  who  take  up  arms  against 
one  another  in  public  war  do  not 
cease  on  this  account  to  be  moral 
beings  responsible  to  one  another 
and  to  God. 


Filipinos  who,  when  captured,  re- 
fuse to  give  their  enemies  informa- 
tion, are  not  considered  honorable 
for  so  doing,  but  are  called  '  niggers 
and  savages,'  and  are  subject  to 
violence  to  extort  the  desired  in- 
formation. 

The  '  water  cure '  and  other 
forms  of  torture  and  violence  are 
resorted  to  as  a  military  necessity 
to  extort  confessions  as  to  the  lo- 
cation of  hidden  arms,  etc.,  and 
Samar  was  made  a  howling  wilder- 
ness by  order  of  Gen.  Smith  as  a 
military  necessity  in  the  Philip- 
pines. 

Robbery,  pillage,  sacking  and 
rape  have  been  notoriously  com- 
mon in  the  Philippines.  In  May, 
1902,  in  the  senate  of  the  United 
States,  Senator  Lodge  said  that 
the  cruelties  practiced  in  the  Phil- 
ippines '  were  a  source  of  deep  re- 
gret. That  the  secretary  of  war 
has  done  all  he  can  possibly  do. 
He  has  done  his  entire  duty.'  If 
this  be  true,  then  it  is  impossible 
for  the  Republicans  to  conduct  their 
war  on  the  Filipinos  according  to 
modern  rules  of  civilised  warfare. 

The  Republicans  claim  to  be  in 
partnership  with  God  in  this  Phil- 
ippine affair.  Destiny  put  them 
into  the  islands,  and  since  they 
have  done  their  '  entire  duty,  the 
responsibility  is  with  God  alone.' 


"  Such  are  the  confessedly  necessary  results  of  imperialism.  The 
administration  admits  that  it  has  court-martialed  more  than  350 
officers  and  men  in  the  Philippines;  admits  that  it  has  done  its 
whole  duty,  and  '  deeply  regrets '  that  torture  and  devastation  reign 
in  spite  of  all  it  can  do;  admits  that  it  cannot  conduct  its  war  on 
the  Filipinos  successfully  within  the  bounds  of  the  rules  of  modern 
warfare." 

A  letter  by  Mr.  Joseph  Lee,  published  in  the  Boston  "  Transcript," 
is  as  follows : 

236 


THE   WAGES    OF   OUR   SIN 

"By  printing  the  letter  of  private  Weir  and  the  rest  of  the  evi- 
dence in  the  case  of  the  torture  of  Filipinos  by  Sergeant  Edwards 
by  order  of  Lieutenant  Arnold  you  have  helped  your  readers  a  long 
step  forward  in  the  understanding  of  this  question  of  torture  in  the 
Philippines. 

"  Your  article  shows  that  Weir's  letter  giving  specific  details  of 
most  revolting  torture,  ordered  by  the  one  officer  and  executed  by  the 
other,  was  written  in  April,  1901,  and  that  an  investigation  corroborat- 
ing Weir's  testimony  was  reported  to  the  War  Department  in  August, 
1901,  and  yet  we  know  that  nothing  has  yet  been  done  to  punish 
these  officers,  and  the  indignation  expressed  by  the  War  Department, 
now  that  the  facts  are  brought  out  and  public  expression  of  their 
attitude  is  forced  upon  them,  is  directed  not  against  the  torturers, 
but  against  those  who  have  brought  these  facts  to  light. 

"'  These  dates  show  that  this  evidence  was  all  before  Mr.  Root  when 
he  said  that  'he  had  no  further  knowledge'  concerning  Philippine 
cruelty,  and  so  prevented  this  case  from  being  brought  to  light.  He 
had  it  all  when  he  was  so  fierce  against  Miles  for  daring  to  hint  that 
all  was  not  sweet  in  those  islands. 

"  Peeling  off  a  strip  of  flesh  by  winding  it  on  a  stick  is  not  cruelty, 
then ;  nor  hanging  a  man  by  the  thumbs,  nor  beating,  water  cure,  etc. 
Either  Mr.  Root  considers  these  things  not  cruel,  or  he  —  what  was  he 
doing  when  he  made  that  statement?  How  many  more  stories  like 
this  one  was  he  keeping  back?  This  was  not  a  tale  of  cruelty  — 
what  is  the  rest  of  the  story  that  he  could  tell  us  if  his  definition  of 
what  is  cruel  were  less  exacting? 

"  Mr.  Root  has  said  that  the  war  has  been  carried  on  in  accordance 
with  the  Lieber  code.  The  Lieber  code  forbids  torture.  What  did 
the  Secretary's  statement  mean?  It  is  a  little  too  late  now  for  Mr. 
Root  to  trust  to  the  complaint  that  those  who  are  trying  to  put  a 
stop  to  such  things  are  *  attacking  the  army.'  Did  '  the  army '  do 
those  things?  Somebody,  indeed,  is  responsible;  but  it  is  not  the 
army.  It  is  the  man  who  tries  to  cover  up  the  facts,  who  lets  the 
evil-doer  go  unpunished  while  he  attacks  those  who  seek  to  bring 
the  facts  to  light. 

"  Some  of  us  believe  that  the  honour  of  the  American  army  is  sound 
enough  and  safe  enough  and  pure  enough  to  bear  the  light  of  day ;  and 
we  are  having  the  conviction  more  and  more  forced  upon  us  that 
the  extreme  unwillingness  of  the  War  Department  to  have  the  facts 
brought  to  light,  that  its  feverish  resentment  against  anyone  who 
does  anything  to  reveal  what  has  actually  been  going  on  in  the  Philip- 
pines, grows  out  of  a  desire  to  protect,  not  the  honour  of  the  army, 
but  the  political  interests  of  persons  much  nearer  home." 

From  the  above  we  see  that  we  have  fallen  from  that  high  estate 
in  which  we  held  it  dishonourable  for  prisoners  of  war  to  betray  their 
comrades  on  the  one  hand,  or  for  captors  to  seek  by  torture  to  extort 
information  on  the  other,  to  the  inhumane,  uncivilised  and  inquisi- 
torial level  of  savages  inflicting  insufferable  agony  upon  captives  for 
the  express  purpose  of  breaking  down  their  moral  resistance,  corrupt- 
ing them,  and  forcing  them  to  violate  those  very  standards  of  moral- 
ity which  we  ourselves  have  set  up. 

237 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Mr.  Herbert  Welsh,  of  the  Philadelphia  "City  and  State,'*  _  suc- 
ceeded in  procuring  a  snapshot  photograph,  which  he  has  kindly 
enabled  us  to  reproduce  herewith,  of  an  application  of  the  "water 
torture "  in  the  Philippines.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  this  horrible 
sight  has  not  been  placed  before  the  American  people  as  a  visual 
example  of  the  effects  of  "benevolent  assimilation "  both  upon  the 
swallower  and  the  man  swallowed. 

From  an  illustrated  pamphlet  entitled  "  Spanish  Torture  Under 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  "  we  extract  the  following : 

"  It  has  been  said  that  a  man's  mind  is  often  subject  to  three  evo- 
lutionary stages  when  confronted  with  a  statement  opposed  to  hia 
views.  He  declares  — 

1st.    It  is  absolutely  untrue ; 

2d.     It  is  contrary  to  the  Bible;  and 

3d.     He  always  did  believe  it. 

"  This  theory  seems  to  be  pretty  well  illustrated  in  the  evolution  of 
the  imperialistic  supporters  of  the  national  administration  with  re- 
gard to  the  torture  of  Filipinos  by  our  troops  in  the  Archipelago. 
When  it  was  first  charged  that  the  water  cure  and  other  tortures 
were  being  systematically  used  by  our  army  in  the  Philippines  for 
the  accomplishment  of  a  military  purpose,  the  assertion  was,  with 
marked  unanimity,  promptly  and  indignantly  denied  as  absolutely 
untrue. 

"  The  next  step  of  the  Imperialists  was  to  assert  that  these  charges 
of  torture  were  simply  sporadic  acts  of  our  soldiers  under  great 
provocation  in  retaliation  for  outrages  committed  by  the  Filipinos. 
To  make  any  mention  of  them,  however,  was  to  (  defame  the  army.' 
Besides*  it  was  contrary  to  General  Order  N"o.  100,  promulgated 
originally  by  President  Lincoln  in  1863,  and  now,  as  Secretary  Root 
said,  '  the  practical  and  effective  guide  and  rule  of  conduct  to  which 
every  officer  understands  that  he  must  conform.'  Then,  too,  Rule  16 
of  this  General  Order  explicitly  states: 

'  Military  necessity  does  not  admit  of  cruelty  —  that  is,  the  inflic- 
tion of  suffering  or  for  revenge,  nor  of  maiming  or  wounding  except 
in  fight,  nor  of  torture  to  extort  confessions.' 

"  Secretary  Root,  in  his  letter  to  .Senator  Lodge,  dated  February  17, 
1902,  said : 

.    .     .    You  will  perceive  that  in  substantially  every  case  the 
report  has  proved  to  be  either  unfounded  or  grossly  exaggerated. 

'That  such  occurrences  (water  cure,  etc.)  have  been  sanctioned 
or  permitted  is  not  true.  A  constant  and  effective  pressure  of  pro- 
hibition, precept,  and  discipline  has  been  maintained  against  them. 
That  there  has  been  any  such  practice  is  not  true.  The  cases  have 
been  few  and  far  between,  scattered  infrequently  over  a  great  area  of 
country  along  the  course  of  three  years  of  active  conflict,  through 
thousands  of  engagements  and  among  many  thousands  of  troops. 
That  these  occasional  cases  have  characterised  our  army  or  conduct 
is  not  true.  .  .  .  The  war  in  the  Philippines  has  been  conducted 
by  the  American  army  with  scrupulous  regard  for  the  rules  of  civilised 
warfare,  with  careful  and  genuine  consideration  for  the  prisoner  and 

238 


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THE  WAGES   OF   OUR   SIN 

non-combatant,  with  self-restraint,  and  with  humanity  never  sur- 
passed, if  ever  equaled,  in  any  conflict,  worthy  only  of  praise,  and 
reflecting  credit  upon  the  American  people.'  * 

"  Finally,  it  is  now  frankly  admitted  by  those  who  formerly  denied 
it,  that  torture,  especially  the  water  cure,  has  been  used,  not  as  a 
retaliatory  measure,  but  for  a  military  purpose  —  i.  e.,  to  get  infor- 
mation or  guns  from  the  Filipinos.  The  practice  is  excused  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  the  only  way  '  to  make  them  talk ' ;  that  it  has  been 
the  means  of  saving  the  lives  of  thousands  of  natives  as  well  as  the 
lives  of  our  troops;  that  it  is  harmless;  that  it  is  a  good  thing,  etc. 
It  is  significant,  however,  that  this  admission  was  not  made  until 
the  fact  had  been  indisputably  established  by  the  testimony  given  by 
over  a  dozen  soldier  witnesses  before  the  Senate  Philippine  Com- 
mittee." ..:•..  . 

"  General  Otis,  in  his  report  dated  May  4,  1900,  stated  that  the 
native  scouts  and  police  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  were  ruth- 
less and  cruel ;  that  they  did  not  regard  looting  as  a  crime  at  all, 
and  that  they  often  resorted  to  torture  as  a  means  of  eliciting  a  con- 
fession. 

"  Governor  Taft,  in  his  testimony  before  the  Senate  'Philippine 
Committee,  referring  to  this  matter,  said  (page  74)  : 

'  I  have  heard  charges  of  whipping  and  charges  of  what  has  been 
alluded  to  as  the  water  cure.  They  were  rife  in  Manila/ 

"And  again  (page  75)  : 

'  What  I  am  trying  to  do  is  to  state  what  seemed  to  us  to  be  the 
explanation  of  these  cruelties  —  that  cruelties  have  been  inflicted ;  that 
people  have  been  shot  when  they  ought  not  to  have  been;  that  there 
have  been  individual  instances  of  water  cure,  that  torture  which  I 
believe  involves  pouring  water  down  the  throat  so  that  the  man  swells 
and  gets  the  impression  that  he  is  going  to  be  suffocated  and  then 
tells  what  he  knows,  which  was  a  frequent  treatment  under  the 
Spaniards,  I  am  told  —  all  these  things  are  true/  " 

On  Dec.  9,  1900,  at  Banate,  Iloilo,  Panay,  "  Father  Augustine,"  a 
Filipino  priest,  was  done  to  death  by  torture.  In  an  able  editorial 
demanding  justice  in  this  matter, —  calling  upon  the  United  States  to 
do  its  duty,  a  Philadelphia  weekly  under  date  of  Dec.  11,  1902,  said 
in  part: 

"  It  is  a  very  disagreeable  duty,  but  they  cannot  get  away  from  it, 
one  and  all,  from  the  greatest  to  the  least,  any  more  than  Father 
Augustine  could  get  away  from  the  grip  of  Cornelius  M.  Brownell,  of 
Burlington,  Vt.,  formerly  of  '  Paine's  .Celery  Compound/  but  now  in 
the  insurance  business  —  when  he  was  '  giving  the  nigger '  his  last 
dose  preparatory  to  putting  him  underground.  As  we  have  been  asked 
many  times  by  our  friends,  'would  you  have  us  scuttle,  desert  our 
new  responsibilities?'  No,  by  no  means,  we  reply;  you  must  meet 
them.  One  of  the  responsibilities  is  this  in  the  year  3  of  the  Empire ; 
since  the  flag  is  not  hauled  down  in  the  Philippines,  you  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  murder  of  this  Roman  Catholic  priest,  committed 
under  its  protecting  folds,  not  by  one  of  your  officers  alone,  but  by  one 
evidently-  in  conspiracy  with  others.  Your  authorities,  instead  of  do- 
ing justice  to  the  murdered  man  and  to  you  —  you  for  the  time  dis- 

239 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

graced  before  the  world  by  that  crime  —  have  steadily  run  away 
from  justice  and  are  running  now  despite  what  they  say  to  hide  that 
fact." 

In  "The  Outlook"  of  Mar.  22,  1902,  appeared  an  article  from 
which  we  extract  the  following : 

"Between  August,  1898,  and  March,  1901,  ten  officers,  thirty-six 
soldiers,  scouts,  and  camp-followers  were  brought  to  trial  in  the  Philip- 
pines for  '  cruelty  to  natives  and  for  violation  of  the  laws  of  war/ 
Among  the  cases  charged  and  in  most  cases  proved,  were  firing  into 
towns,  killing  of  defenceless  prisoners,  '  torture  by  causing  natives  to 
be  hung  by  the  neck  for  ten  seconds/  rape,  looting,  robbery  with  vio- 
lence, and  brutal  assault.  Upon  conviction  one  officer  was  sentenced 
to  dismissal,  with  five  years7  imprisonment,  six  others  were  repri- 
manded, eleven  private  soldiers  were  put  to  death,  two  were  fined,  twen- 
ty-one were  dishonourably  dismissed  from  the  service,  with  sen- 
tences of  imprisonment  ranging  from  one  month  to  the  full  term  of 
the  offender's  life.  .  .  .  Two  officers  of  the  27th  Volunteer  In- 
fantry caused  natives  to  be  hanged  by  the  neck  for  periods  of  ten 
seconds  at  a  time,  and  Lieutenant  Hagedorn  of  the  16th  Eegulars, 
admits  that  he  put  prisoners  in  the  stocks,  fed  them  on  salt  fish,  and 
kept  them  without  water,  until  they  were  forced  by  thirst  to  give 
information." 

The  following  is  an  excerpt  from  an  article  by  B.  0.  Flower,  in 
"  The  Arena  "  of  June,  1902 : 

"  This  treatment  (the  water  cure)  consists  of  placing  the  victim 
on  his  back  and  pouring  water  down  his  throat  until  the  body  is  so 
distended  as  to  cause  exquisite  suffering,  which  is  intensified  by  the 
fear  entertained  by  the  victim  that  his  stomach  will  burst.  It  is 
a  reversion  to  the  brutal  spirit  that  made  the  days  of  the  Spanish 
Inquisition  the  darkest  page  in  the  history  of  Christian  Civilisation. 

"  Under  the  title  of  *  Three  Forms  of  Torture  Applied  by  Amer- 
icans to  Natives  in  the  Philippines/  the  "  New  York  World  "  of  April 
18th,  contained  the  following,  ...  of  the  way  our  soldiers  have 
tortured  the  Filipinos. 

'  Water-Cure,  No.  1. —  This  is  to  extort  information  from  Philip- 
pine prisoners.  The  victim  is  first  bound  hand  and  foot  and  laid 
on  his  back  on  the  ground.  Great  quantities  of  water  are  then  forced 
down  his  throat  until  he  can  hold  no  more.  Pressure  is  then  ap- 
plied to  the  stomach  until  some  of  the  water  is  expelled  from  the 
mouth,  when  more  water  is  forced  down.  This  process  is  repeated 
until  the  victim  either  gives  the  information  or  dies. 

'  Water-Cure,  No.  2. —  Used  to  extort  information  from  prisoners 
and  also  as  a  punishment  for  enlisted  men.  It  consists  in  tying  the 
victim  securely  and  then  pouring  ice  cold  water,  a  little  at  a  time,  on 
his  face  or  dropping  it  on  the  back  of  his  neck  or  on  his  head.  This 
is  an  ancient  form  of  torture,  and  was  used  during  the  Inquisition, 
sometimes,  in  preference  to  the  rack  or  seering  with  red-hot  irons.  It 
is  certain  to  drive  the  victim  insane  in  a  short  time,  or  kill  him. 

'Progressive  Wounding. —  This  is  a  form  of  torture  practised 
by  officers  sometimes  when  they  wish  to  impress  the  natives,  and  it 

840 


may  be  compared  to  the  blowing  of  Indian  leaders  from  the  mouth 
of  cannon  by  the  British  during  the  Sepoy  Mutiny,  except  that  it  is 
more  lingering.  The  victims  are  bound  to  trees  and  shot  —  not  to 
kill,  but  merely  wound  them.  If  they  do  not  die  from  loss  of  blood, 
they  are  shot  again  the  following  day,  and  this  is  kept  up  from  day 
to  day  until  they  die.  Three  days  is  usually  the  limit  they  can  live. 
The  North  American  Indians  formerly  used  this  form  of  torture,  ex- 
cept that  they  wounded  their  victims  with  arrows.  In  the  testimony 
given  at  the  court-martial  of  Major  Waller  at  Manila  recently  this 
form  of  torture  was  described/ 

"  In  the  same  issue  of  "  The  World,"  Eichard  O'Brien,  formerly  a 
Corporal  in  Company  M,  26th  U.  S.  Volunteers,  now  living  in  New 
York,  gave  the  following  description  of  the  barbarity  and  wanton 
brutality  of  our  soldiers  practised  on  the  defenceless  inhabitants  of 
Barrio  la  Nog: 

'  It  was  on  the  27th  day  of  December,  the  anniversary  of  my  birth/ 
said  Corporal  O'Brien,  '  and  I  shall  never  forget  the  scenes  I  wit- 
nessed on  that  day.  As  we  approached  the  town  the  word  was 
passed  along  the  line  that  there  would  be  no  prisoners  taken.  It 
meant  that  we  were  to  shoot  every  living  thing  in  sight  —  man, 
woman,  and  child.  The  first  shot  was  fired  by  the  then  sergeant  of 
our  company.  His  target  was  a  mere  boy,  who  was  coming  down 
the  mountain  path  into  the  town  astride  of  a  caribou.  The  bo}r  was 
not  struck  by  the  bullet  but  that  was  not  the  sergeant's  fault.  The 
little  Filipino  boy  slid  from  the  back  of  his  caribou  and  fled  in  terror- 
up  the  mountain  side.  Half  a  dozen  bullets  were  fired  after  him. 
The  shooting  now  attracted  the  villagers,  who  came  out  of  their 
homes  in  alarm,  wondering  what  it  meant.  They  offered  no  offence, 
did  not  display  a  weapon,  made  no  hostile  movement  whatsoever,  but 
they  were  ruthlessly  shot  down  in  cold  blood  —  men,  women,  and 
children.  The  poor  natives  huddled  together  or  fled  in  terror. 
Many  were  pursued  and  killed  on  the  spot. 

*  Two  old  men,  bearing  between  them  a  white  flag  and  clasping 
hands  like  two  brothers,  approached  the  lines.  Their  hair  was  white. 
They  fairly  tottered,  they  were  so  feeble  under  the  weight  of  years. 
To  my  horror  and  that  of  the  other  men  in  command,  the  order  was 
given  to  fire,  and  the  two  old  men  were  shot  down  in  their  tracks. 
We  entered  the  village.  A  man  who  had  been  on  a  sick  bed  appeared 
at  the  door  way  of  his  home.  He  received  a  bullet  in  the  abdomen 
and  fell  dead  in  the  door  way.  Dum-dum  bullets  were  used  in  that 
massacre,  but  we  were  not  told  the  name  of  the  bullets.  We  didn't 
have  to  be  told.  We  knew  what  they  were. 

'  In  another  part  of  the  village  a  mother  with  a  babe  at  her 
breast  and  two  young  children  at  her  side  pleaded  for  mercy.  She 
feared  to  leave  her  home,  which  had  just  been  fired  —  accidentally  I 
believe.  She  faced  the  flames  with  her  little  children,  and  not  a 
hand  was  raised  to  save  her  or  the  little  ones.  They  perished  miser- 
ably. It  was  sure  death  if  she  left  the  house  —  it  was  sure  death 
if  she  remained.  She  feared  the  American  soldiers,  however,  worse 
than  the  devouring  flames.' '; 

Compare  for  a  moment  American  official  orders  to  "kill  all  over 
1«  211 


ten  years  of  age  "  to  "  obtain  information  at  any  cost,"  to  "  make  a 
howling  wilderness  "  of  a  suspected  province  with  the  orders  and  gen- 
eral instructions  issued  by  the  commanding  officer  of  the  South  of 
Luzon,  Miguel  Malvar,  for  strict  compliance  in  this  district : 

"  The  generals,  chiefs  and  officers  of  the  army  of  deliverance  will 
prevent  any  ill-treatment  in  word  or  deed,  by  soldiers  or  peasants,  of 
any  disarmed,  sleeping  or  drunken  enemies  and  of  all  those  who, 
throwing  their  guns  down  and  raising  their  hands,  declare  thus  their 
surrender,  or  of  any  others  that  may  become  prisoners  in  any  way; 
meting  out  exemplary  punishment  to  all  who  act  against  this  order. 

"They  will  receive  with  kindness  and  courtesy,  and  accord  good 
treatment  to  all  soldiers,  officers  and  chiefs  of  the  army  of  invasion 
who  may  come  to  our  camp,  after  leaving  their  guns  at  a  predeter- 
mined place,  to  prevent  any  deception,  conceding  to  them  the  best 
of  treatment  as  specified  in  previous  orders. 

"  At  the  headquarters,  April  28th,  1901. 

The  Commanding  General, 
MIGUEL  MALVAR/' 

Does  not  this  comparison  make  any  self-respecting  American  blush 
with  shame  for  his  "land  of  liberty?"  * 

And  what  is  the  underlying  motive  for  this  national  campaign  of 
brutality,  falsehood,  debauchery,  crime  and  treason?  In  brief,  this. 
To  turn  the  monopolies  of  the  Philippine  islands  over  to  the  Standard 
Oil  "  crowd  "  and  to  Wall  Street. 

In  explanation  of  this  statement,  we  cannot  do  better  than  to 
quote  the  following  editorial  from  "  The  Public  "  of  June  25,  1904 : 

"  How  thoroughly  plutocratic  the  Philippine  conquest  was  is  '*  given 
away '  by  that  ultra-veracious  newspaper  correspondent,  William  E. 
Curtis,  in  a  recent  letter  from  Manila.  Mr.  Curtis  explains,  with 
graphophonic  fidelity,  no  doubt,  why  American  capital  has  been  so 
much  slower  in  making  investments  in  Philippine  monopolies  than 
was  expected.  American  capitalists  fear  that  the  Filipinos  will  not 
be  as  docile  as  we  Americans,  under  plutocratic  dominion.  That  is 
rather  uncomplimentary  to  American  public  spirit,  to  be  sure,  but  Mr. 
Curtis  writes: 

'There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  plenty  of  capital  will  be 
offered,  and  all  the  transportation  facilities  needed  will  be  promptly 
undertaken  in  the  Philippine  islands,  whenever  an  assurance  can  be 
given  that  authority  will  not  be  turned  over  to  the  natives  and  in- 
vestors placed  at  their  mercy. 

.  .  .  Of  course,  no  one  can  anticipate  the  action  of  Congress, 
but  there  is  not  the  slightest  probability  that  the  Philippine  islands 
will  ever  be  declared  independent  or  that  the  natives  will  be  given 
sufficient  control  of  affairs  to  endanger  any  investments  that  may  be 
made  here/ 

"  So  the  truth  about  the  Philippines  is  leaking  out  by  degrees,  often 
through  such  unexpected  apertures  as  Curtis's  letters,  and  fools  who 
read  as  they  run  may  become  aware  thereof.  The  object  of  subjugat- 
ing the  Filipinos  by  the  military  power  has  been  to  turn  the  monopolies 

243 


THE   WAGES   OF   OUR   SIN 

of  their  country  over  to  the  plutocratic  wizards  of  Wall  street.  A 
great  hullabaloo  was  raised  over  the  friars'  lands  question.  Yet  the 
friars  got  those  lands  through  the  voluntary  concessions  of  their 
converts  to  Christianity.  But  now  railroad  franchises  and  lands  are 
to  be  turned  over  to  the  Standard  Oil  '  crowd '  and  their  confreres ; 
and  to  perpetuate  this  iniquity  vested  rights  guarantees  are  demanded, 
not  only  against  independence  but  even  against  an  autonomy  that 
might  endanger  titles  to  American  monopolies  in  the  islands." 

Our  national  congressmen,  instead  of  acting  the  part  of  real 
statesmen  building  upon  absolute  ethics  and  for  all  time,  have  turned 
their  backs  upon  all  our  high  ideals  and  dearly-purchased  liberties, 
and  have  descended  to  the  miserable  quagmire  of  a  cheap  and  dis- 
honourable expediency. 

"AND  SOME  ONE  LAUGHED." 

"  For  a  statesman  there  was  with  the  heart  of  a  fox, 

Who  tricked  the  nations  in  turn; 
And  he  rubbed  his  hands  as  he  stood  and  watched 

The  fires  he  kindled  burn. 
And  he  cried  aloud  in  his  scorn  and  pride: 
'  O  ye  who  would  empires  make! 
Go,  learn  to  build  with  iron  and  steel, 
And  with  blood  the  cement  to  slake.' 

"  And  another  arose,  who  spoke  in  his  turn : 
'  Go,  forge  me  a  golden  chain, 
To  bind  me  my  Empire  fast  and  strong, 

Against  all  stress  and  strain; 
Go,  buy  me  their  hearts  with  a  penny-piece, 
Lest  our  labor  be  in  vain.' 

"And  some  one  laughed  —  men  heard  the  laugh 

Across  the  earth  and  sky: 
'Ye  builders  with  blood  and  iron  and  gold  — 
In  the  tricks  of  your  trade  shall  ye  die! 

4  But  learn,  if  ye  can,  there  is  only  one 

True,  faithful  builder's  art  — 
To  bind  in  peace,  to  hold  by  faith, 
To  build  on  the  unbought  heart. 

4  For  your  wisdom  is  as  foolishness  — 

And  whatever  the  work  of  your  hands, 
It  shall  turn  to  your  hurt,  it  shall  come  to  naught, 
It  shall  crumble  to  dust  as  it  stands.' " 

Auberon  Herbert, 
In  the  Westminster  Gazette. 


Chancellor  Stevenson,  of  N"ew  Jersey,  in  a  speech  at  the  State  Bar 
Association  delivered  at  Atlantic  City,  June  17,  1904,  said:  "The 
world  is  living  in  a  state  of  international  lynch-law  where  might 
makes  right  and  where  the  biggest  army  and  the  biggest  guns  rule." 
Commenting  on  this  scathing  characterisation  of  present  conditions, 
A  Chicago  weekly  remarks :  "  International  law  has  gone  out  of 
fashion  and  national  holdups  have  taken  its  place.  Chancellor  Steven- 

243 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

son  honours  the  thing  too  much  when  he  calls  it  lynch-law ;  for  lynch- 
law  is  a  crude  method  of  doing  justice,  whereas  this  thing  is  undis- 
guised freebooting." 

And  what  has  been  the  cost  of  our  national  crime  in  blood,  in 
heartache  and  in  money? 

The  testimony  of  the  late  Edward  Atkinson  upon  this  subject  is 
beyond  question  and  therefore  of  the  utmost  importance.  In  his 
"  The  Cost  of  War  and  Warfare  "  he  said :  "  The  cost  of  war  and 
warfare  from  1898  to  1903  inclusive  has  been  over  $900,000,000.  The 
cost  of  the  war  with  Spain  and  of  the  warfare  upon  the  Philippines  to 
the  end  of  the  fiscal  year  June  30,  1903,  had  been  over  $850,000,000, 
an  addition  in  that  fiscal  year  to  the  previous  charge  upon  the  tax- 
payers of  this  country  of  not  less  than  $150,000,000.  This  charge 
is  increasing  rather  than  diminishing.  At  the  end  of  the  present 
calendar  year,  Dec.  31,  1903,  we  shall  have  expended  in  war  and 
warfare  not  less  than  $920,000,000,  which  sum  will  be  slightly  in  ex- 
cess of  the  outstanding  bonded  debt  of  the  United  States  bearing  in- 
terest. Of  this  sum  about  $300,000,000  is  commonly  assigned  to 
the  cost  of  the  war  with  Spain.  There  is  no  exact  data  outside  the 
government  accounts  by  which  this  can  be  apportioned. 

"  Over  $600,000,000  may  be  charged  by  taxpayers  to  the  effort  to 
deprive  the  people  of  the  Philippine  Islands  of  their  liberty.  The 
excess  of  the  expenditures  of  this  country,  due  to  the  warfare  in 
the  P.  I.,  with  the  cost  of  the  increase  in  the  regular  army  and  other 
expenditures  engendered  by  militarism  during  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30,  1903,  varied  but  a  fraction  from  $2  per  head  of  the  popu- 
lation. 

"  The  conduct  of  the  work  of  imposing  a  form  of  government  upon 
these  people  without  their  consent  has  been  administered  by  able  and 
upright  men  who  have  used  their  utmost  efforts  to  overcome  the  evils 
inherent  in  the  conditions.  The  pretext  of  developing  commerce  by 
holding  dominion  over  these  islands  has  ceased  to  impose  upon  in- 
telligent people.  All  that  we  import  from  the  Philippines  we  may 
continue  to  import,  whoever  holds  them  —  the  principal  article,  hemp, 
being  free  of  duty. 

"  For  20  years,  from  June  30,  1878,  to  June  30,  1898,  covering  the 
administration  of  Hayes,  Arthur,  Cleveland  (first),  Harrison,  and 
Cleveland  (second),  the  average  annual  expenditures  on  the  different 
branches  of  the  government  service  per  capita  were  as  follows : 

Civil  Service,  including  Indians  and  Postal  deficiency.  .$1.48 
War  dept.,  including  fortifications  and  other  similar 

work  : 75 

Navy  dept.,  including  the  construction  of  what  is  known 

as  the  '  New  Navy '  35 

Interest  on  the  Public  debt 90 

Pensions,  including  the  very  heavy  increase  during  the 

term  of  Harrison 1.52 

Average    $5.00 

244 


THE   WAGES    OF   OUR   SIN 

The  expenditures  in  5  years  of  war  and  warfare  under  McKinley 
and  Roosevelt  were  as  follows  (annual  average)  : 

Civil  Service  $1.58 

War  Dept 1.90 

Navy  Dept 80 

Interest 47 

Pensions  . .  .   1.86 


Average .$6.61 

During  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  the  expenditures  have  been 
as  follows  (during  a  so-called  year  of  peace)  : 

Civil  Service 1.77 

War  Dept 1.47 

Navy  Dept 1.03 

Interest 36 

Pensions  .  .  1.72 


Average 6.35 

"  An  excess  over  the  normal  of  20  years  of  peace,  order,  and  indus- 
try, of  one  dollar  and  thirty-five  cents  ($1.35)  per  head. 

"  But  this  does  not  show  the  whole  case.  During  the  20  years  prior 
to  the  Spanish  war  the  cost  of  pensions  and  interest  was  $2.52  per 
head.  Had  it  not  been  for  debts  incurred  and  pensions  to  so-called 
Spanish  war  veterans,  these  charges,  which  had  been  reduced  to  $2.08 
per  head,  would  not  have  exceeded  $1.88  in  the  last  fiscal  year,  the 
falling  in  of  pensions  through  lapse  of  time  now  moving  on  with 
accelerating  speed. 

"  These  differences  per  head  may  seem  of  trifling  importance,  but, 
when  computed  on  the  population  of  June  30,  1903,  the  customary 
factor  by  which  expenditures  are  distributed  by  the  Treasury  Dept., 
The  excess  of  expenditures  in  the  civil  service  at 

29  cents  per  head  comes  to $23,316,000 

The  excess  of  expenditures  on  the  .army  at  72 

cents  per  head 57,888,000 

The  excess  of  expenditure  on  the  navy  at  68 
cents  per  head 54,672,000 

The  total  of  actual  excess  of  expenditure  during 
the  warfare  in  the  Philippine  Islands  and  the 
tendency  to  militarism  in  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30,  1893 135,876,000 

If  to  this  be  added  20  cents  per  head,  by  which 
the  interest  and  pension  charge  would  have 
been  diminished  except  for  war  and  warfare.  .  16,080,000 

We  find  that  the  waste  in  war  and  warfare  in 

the  last  fiscal  year,  was  a  fraction  less  than. .  .152,000,000 

245 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"  The  present  tendency  is  to  increase  rather  than  to  diminish,  and 
when  the  expenditures  of  the  present  6  months  ending  Dec.  30, 
1903,  are  audited,  the  proof  will  be  complete  that  the  cost  of  the 
war  with  Spain,  which  a  strong  administration  would  have  avoided, 
and  the  'criminal  aggression'  upon  the  people  of  the  Philippine 
Islands,  which  a  weak  administration,  brought  upon  the  country,  will 
have  cost  the  taxpayers  $920,000,000,  a  sum  slightly  larger  than  the 
entire  bonded  debt  of  the  United  States  bearing  interest,  now  out- 
standing. 

"  The  pretext  of  expansion  of  commerce  in  the  East  in  justification 
of  closing  the  door  to  trade  in  the  'Philippines  to  other  nations, 
while  strenuously  urging  the  open  door  in  China  and  other  parts  of 
Asia,  has  been  exposed  and  now  excites  only  derision.  In  the  com- 
putation of  the  cost  of  war  and  warfare  to  June  30,  1902,  it  proved 
that  we  have  been  paying  for  five  years  $1.05  per  head  of  our  popula- 
tion to  secure  an  export  which  amounted  to  6^/2  cents  per  head,  on 
which  there  might  have  been  a  profit  to  some  one  at  the  rate  of 
one  cent  per  head  of  the  whole  population.  The  figures  of  the  last 
year  are  even  more  grotesque.  The  cost  of  criminal  aggression  in  the 
Philippine  Islands  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1903,  was 
not  less  than  $1.25  per  head,  after  making  any  allowance  that  any 
reasonable  man  could  make  for  the  alleged  necessity  of  increasing 
the  army  of  the  United  States  and  building  battleships  to  meet  other 
contingencies. 

"  The  exports  from  the  United  States  to  the  Philippines  have  fallen 
off  to  less  than  $.05  per  head  of  our  population;  had  there  been  a 
profit  equal  to  one  cent  on  the  five  cents  they  would  not  have  fallen  off. 

"  The  effort  to  suppress  the  evidence  of  torture,  devastation,  and 
ruin  brought  upon  the  people  of  these  islands  has  failed,  the  facts  of 
'  criminal  aggression '  have  been  proved.'" 

"The  Springfield  (Mass.)  Eepublican "  published  the  following 
summary  of  the  evidence  under  oath  before 'the  Senate  Philippine 
Committee,  in  regard  to  the  use  of  the  water  torture  by  our  soldiers 
to  secure  guns  and  information: 

"  1.  Captain  McDonald,  .Sergeant  Charles  S.  Eiley,  Sergeant  Davis, 
and  Private  Smith,  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Volunteer  Infantry,  all  tes- 
tified before  the  Senate  Committee  that  they  saw  the  water  torture 
administered  to  the  native  presidente  of  Igbaras,  Island  of  Panay, 
November  27,  1900.  On  the  strength  of  the  confession  obtained,  a 
town  having  12,000  inhabitants  was  burned  to  the  ground. 

"  2.  Sergeants  L.  E.  Hallock  and  J.  H.  Manning,  of  the  Twenty- 
sixth  Volunteer  Infantry,  testified  before  the  Senate  Committee  that 
they  saw  the  water  torture  administered  to  twelve  natives  at  Leon, 
Island  of  Panay,  to  secure  information  as  to  the  disappearance  of 
Private  O'Herne,  of  the  same  regiment. 

"3.  Private  Daniel  J.  Evans,  of  the  Twelfth  Infantry,  testified 
before  the  Senate  Committee  that  he  saw  the  water  torture  admin- 
istered to  two  natives  in  northern  Luzon  to  secure  confessions. 

"4.  Sergeant  Isador  H.  Dube,  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Volunteer 
Infantry,  testified  before  the  Senate  Committee  that  he  saw  the 

246 


THE   WAGES    OF   OUR   SIN 

water  torture  administered  in  Panay  to  a  native,  in  the  presence  of 
Captain  Glenn  and  Lieutenant  Conger. 

"  5.  Lieutenant  Grover  Flint,  of  i;he  Thirty-fifth  Volunteer  In- 
fantry, testified  before  the  Senate  Committee  that  he  had  seen  the 
water  torture  administered  to  at  least  twenty  different  natives,  at  dif- 
ferent times,  in  Luzon.  Major  Geary,  his  superior  officer,  was  al- 
ways near  and  cognisant  of  the  proceedings. 

"  6.  Private  K.  H.  Hughes,  of  the  Eighth  Infantry,  testified  before 
the  Senate  Committee,  on  May  6th,  that  he  saw  the  water  torture 
administered  to  a  native  in  Luzon. 

"  7.  George  C.  Bbardman,  of  the  Twentieth  Infantry,  testified  be- 
fore the  Senate  Committee  that  he  saw  the  water  torture  administered 
to  a  native  in  Luzon. 

"  8.  Corporal  William  J.  Gibbs,  of  the  Ninth  Infantry,  testified 
that  he  was  cognisant  of  the  infliction  of  the  water  torture  upon  a 
native  who  died  from  the  results  of  it.  This  case  was  evidently  in 
.Samar.  Corporal  Gibbs  testified  that  the  water  used  was  salt  water, 
mixed  with  sand ;  also  that  the  torture  was  in  common  use. 

"  9.  Major  Cornelius  Gardner,  governor  of  Tayabas  province, 
Luzon,  called  upon  for  specifications  in  support  of  his  allegations,  de- 
clared *  that  certain  United  States  troops  coming  from  San  Pablo,  in 
or  near  the  town  of  Dolores,  tortured  a  native  by  the  water  cure.' 

"  10.  Major  Cornelius  Gardner  also  specified  that  the  command- 
ing officer  of  Laguimanos  tortured  a  native  boy. 

"11.  Major  Cornelius  Gardner  also  specified  *  that  troops  coming 
from  Lucena  or  Tayabas  on  several  occasions  tortured  natives  be- 
longing to  the  pueblo  of  Pagbilo/  (Note — 'On  several  occasions' 
means  that  several  different  cases  of  torture  thus  occurred). 

"  12.  Among  the  official  reports  received  at  the  War  Depart- 
ment may  be  found  the  following  case : 

'A  detachment  of  Macabebes,  desiring  to  elicit  information  in 
regard  to  the  whereabouts  of  a  body  of  insurgents,  seised  a  woman 
and  demanded  that  she  should  disclose  their  position.  The  woman 
failing  to  comply  with  the  demand,  the  'water  cure*  was  em- 
ployed. This  was  ineffectual,  and  then  some  of  the  men  jumped  on 
the  woman,  who  lay  on  the  ground  with  the  water  exuding  from  her 
lips/ 

"  These  Macabebes  were  United  States  troops  or  scouts,  with  Amer- 
ican officers,  and  they  were  employed  in  Luzon. 

"  13.  In  the  official  reports  received  at  the  War  Department  is  an 
account  of  the  case  of  Lieutenant  Hagedorn,  who,  in  order  to  secure 
confessions,  put  three  natives  in  the  stocks,  deprived  them  of  water 
for  two  days  and  nights,  and,  at  the  same  time,  fed  them  salt  fish. 
Lieutenant  Hagedorn  reported  that  'this  diet  had  excellent  results/ 
Colonel  Hood,  his  superior,  commended  Lieutenant  Hagedorn  for 
'  energetic  and  valuable  service/  although  he  may  have  acted  '  mis- 
takenly '  in  using  torture. 

"  Here  are  thirteen  different  exposures  of  the  use  of  physical  torr 
ture,  although  the  actual  number  of  individual  cases  of  torture  repre- 
sented is  very  much  greater  than  thirteen,  being  in  the  vicinity  of 
fifty.  Every  one  is  drawn  from  the  official  records  of  the  War  De- 

247 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

partment  or  from  sworn  testimony  of  soldiers  whose  veracity  has  not 
been  impeached.  The  cases  range  in  point  of  time  as  far  back  as 
1900,  and  they  occurred  in  Luzon,  various  provinces  of  Panay  and 
Samar,  three  different  islands.  Corporal  Gibbs  testified  that  the  tor- 
ture was  in  'common  use/  Another  witness  said  that  there  was  a 
regular  water-torture  <  squad ! '  The  reader  must  judge  from  all  these 
facts  whether  the  use  of  this  torture  to  secure  confessions  was  sporadic 
and  exceptional  or  widely  prevalent  in  the  army." 

Nor  have  we  ceased  making  this  shameful  history.  We  are  still  at 
our  nefarious  work.  Even  as  we  write  the  news  comes  to  us  of  the 
Moro  massacre  of  Mar.  7  to  9th  (1906).  Apropos  of  this  subject  we 
give  below  a  letter  by  Moorfield  Storey,  President  of  the  Anti-Im- 
perialist League. 

"  The  cable  from  Manila  brings  us  the  news  of  an  exploit  by  which, 
in  the  words  of  our  president,  our  soldiers  '  have  upheld  the  honour 
of  the  American  flag'  and  over  which  this  civilised  Christian  nation 
is  expected  to  rejoice.  What  is  it? 

"  The  island  of  Jolo  is  one  of  the  smaller  Philippine  islands.  Its 
area  by  the  last  encyclopaedia  is  given  at  333  square  miles,  and  its 
population  cannot  be  large,  as  the  same  authority  gives  the  population 
of  the  whole  Sulu  archipelago,  consisting  of  188  islands,  with  a  total 
area  of  2,029  square  miles,  as  22,620.  In  a  crater  at  the  top  of  a 
steep  mountain  were  gathered  a  body  of  Moros,  or,  as  Gen.  Wood  in 
his  official  report  says,  the  position  was  '  defended  by  an  invisible 
army  of  Moros.'  This  place  was  attacked  by  our  troops,  and,  to 
quote  the  official  report,  '  all  the  defenders  of  the  Moros'  stronghold 
were  killed.  Six  hundred  bodies  were  found  on  the  field.  .  .  . 
The  action  resulted  in  the  extinction  of  a  band  of  outlaws.' 

"What  was  their  offence?  Gen.  Wood  describes  it  by  saying  that 
they  were  men  '  who,  recognising  no  chief,  had  been  raiding  friendly 
Moros,  and  who,  owing  to  their  defiance  of  the  American  authorities, 
had  stirred  up  a  dangerous  state  of  affairs.' 

"  A  later  unofficial  report  says  that  '  the  families  of  the  Moros  re- 
mained in  the  villages  located  in  the  centre  of  the  crater  at  the 
apex  of  the  mountain,  and  the  women  and  children  mingled  with  the 
warriors  during  the  battle  to  such  an  extent  that  it  was  impossible  to 
discriminate,  and  many  were  killed  in  the  fierce  onslaught.' 

"  The  severity  of  the  resistance  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that 
though  the  Moros  are  described  as  having  an  almost  impregnable  po- 
sition, our  forces  lost  only  18  killed  and  52  wounded. 

"  No  prisoners  were  taken.  No  wounded  remained  alive  when  the 
conflict  was  over,  and  600  human  beings  were  slain  without  mercy. 
Not  even  women  and  children  in  the  villages  were  spared.  Every 
American  must  regret  deeply  when  any  of  our  brave  countrymen 
are  killed  or  wounded,  but  that  regret  must  be  far  greater  when  they 
are  sent  to  their  deaths  for  such  work  as  this. 

"  Suppose  we  had  heard  that  the  British  had  dealt  thus  with  a  Boer 
force,  that  the  Turks  had  so  attacked  and  slaughtered  Armenians, 
that  colored  men  had  so  massacred  white  men,  or  even  that  600  song 
birds  had  been  slaughtered  for  their  plumage,  would  not  our  papers 
have  been  filled  with  protest  and  expressions  of  horror  ?  They  '  rec- 

248 


THE   WAGES    OF   OUR   SIN 

ognise  no  chief  and  had  been  raiding  friendly  Moros.'  What  was  their 
side  of  the  story?  No  man  lives  to  tell  it.  They  have  been  ex- 
terminated. Is  it  possible  that  this  is  all  the  greatest  and  freest 
nation  in  the  world,  as  we  like  to  believe  ourselves,  can  do  for  a 
people  over  whom  we  insist  on  extending  our  benevolent  sway  ? 

"  This  outrage  unhappily  is  only  one  in  a  series.  The  bloody  rec- 
ord of  Philippine  conquest  tells  of  many  battles  where  Filipinos  were 
killed,  but  none  were  wounded  and  no  prisoners  were  taken ;  of  sys- 
tematic torture,  of  villages  destroyed  by  wholesale,  of  cruel  recon- 
centrations,  of  brutality  in  every  form.  The  responsibility  for  this 
cruel  policy  —  certainly  the  responsibility  for  this  last  crime  —  is 
with  the  President  and  the  secretary  of  war.  If  they  had  really  de- 
sired to  stop  this,  work,  they  could  have  done  it,  but  they  have  taken 
the  opposite  course.  Save  Gen.  Smith,  who  was  made  a  scape-goat 
when  the  public  conscience  was  aroused  by  the  horrors  of  Samar, 
no  officer  has  been  punished  for  cruelty.  Bell,  Waller,  Howse  and 
others  who  were  the  immediate  actors  have  been  honoured  and  pro- 
moted. Miles,  Hunter  and  others  who  pleaded  for  humaner  methods 
have  been  discredited  and  abused.  Brutality  has  been  rewarded,  hu- 
manity has  been  punished.  The  President  now  congratulates  Gen. 
Wood  on  his  '  brilliant  feat  of  arms '  and  praises  this  wholesale  mur- 
der. It  is  idle  to  claim  that  it  was  a  battle.  There  is  no  body  of 
men,  women  or  children  not  one  of  whom  will  ask  ior  mercy.  In 
no  desperate  battle  are  losses  so  unequal. 

"  The  spirit  which  slaughters  brown  men  in  Jolo  is  the  spirit  which 
lynches  black  men  in  the  South.  When  such  crimes  go  unpunished, 
far  more  when  the  men  who  commit  them  are  praised  and  rewarded, 
the  youth  of  the  country  is  taught  an  evil  lesson.  Eace  prejudice  is 
strengthened  and  the  love  of  justice,  the  corner-stone  of  free  institu- 
tions, u  weakened.  When  a  man  is  lynched  the  community  which 
tolerates  the  offence  suffers  more  than  the  victim.  When  we  honour 
brutality  in  our  army  we  brutalise  ourselves.  Our  colleges  have  failed 
if  they  have  not  taught  a  better  civilisation  than  this,  our  churches 
have  failed  if  this  is  their  Christianity. 

"  These  Moros  were  robbers,  it  is  said.  Alas,  what  are  we  ?  We 
who  went  as  their  allies  and  friends,  who  made  a  treaty  with  them  to 
be  kept  while  it  suited  our  convenience  and  then  repudiated,  and  who 
now  have '  robbed  them  of  their  country,  their  freedom  and  finally 
of  their  lives.  Have  they  ever  injured  us  that  we  invade  their  little 
island  and  kill  them  in  their  homes  ?  *  They  do  not  know  how  to 
govern  themselves/  That  is  our  excuse,  and  how  do  we  govern  them  ? 
We  have  shown  them  how  little  we  regard  our  agreements,  and  when 
they  '  stir  up  a  dangerous  state  of  affairs '  we  exterminate  them. 
Thus  we  teach  the  Filipinos  what  American  civilisation  means. 

"  This  nation  cannot  escape  the  inexorable  law,  which  was  stated  by 
Emerson,  '  The  dice  of  God  are  always  loaded.  .  .  .  Every  crime 
is  punished.  .  .  .  Every  wrong  redressed  in  silence  and  certainty.' 
Why  must  we  persist  in  a  policy  which  is  repugnant  to  all  our  beliefs, 
which  has  lowered  all  our  standards,  which  brings  us  no  material 
profit,  which  has  reduced  the  unhappy  Filipinos  to  misery  and  which 
has  placed  upon  our  flag  so  many  indelible  stains  of  which  the  blood 

249 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

shed  in  the  massacre  of  Jolo  is  the  latest !  Are  we  so  low  that  we  must 
applaud  such  deeds? 

"The  responsibility  for  them  in  the  last  resort  rests  upon  the 
American  people.  They  cannot  shift  it  to  their  servants  unless  they 
condemn  such  acts.  Their  silence  is  approval.  Their  approval 
makes  them  partners  in  the  crime/' 

Interesting  in  this  connexion  is  the  following  poem  written  by  D.  H. 
Ingham  for  "  The  Public." 

"MANIFEST  DESTINY." 

"  Benevolent  assimilation  " 

Is  still  at  its  grewsome  task; 
Not  once   in   its  manifold   efforts 
Has  fallen  the  pious  mask. 

Not  even  when  torture  of  natives 

Was  woven  into  a  jest, 
Nor  at  capture  of  Aguinaldo 

Through  cunning  ruse  of  a  guest. 

Each  act  was  extolled  in  its  season, 

In  a  series  of  similar  crimes 
On  our  history's  page  recorded, 

Of  these  most  prosperous  times. 

Meanwhile  we  are  gazing  at  Russia, 

Aghast  at  her  frightful  scenes, 
The  blackest  of  which  can  but  rival 

Our  own  in  the  Philippines. 

Where  "  benevolent  assimilation  " 

With  Machiavellian  wiles 
Still  remembers  the  first  "  plain  duty  " 

We  owe  to  our  stolen  isles. 

Where,  under  a  "  strenuous  "  ruler 

But  lately,  for  duty's  sake, 
Six  hundred  more  natives  were  lying 

Like  grass  in  the  mower's  wake; 

With  their  women  and  children  mingled, 

Crushed  into  the  common  grave, 
Close  clinging  to  husbands  and  fathers, 

Out  of  the  question  to  save. 

And  the  wholesale  feat  was  accomplished 

At  only  a  trifling  cost; 
Of  our  brave  American  soldiers 

Only  seventeen  were  lost. 

The  cheap-won,  blood-dyed  laurels 

Belong  to  General  Wood; 
And  our  worshipful  spoil-appraisers 

Still  call  his  handiwork  good. 

We  boast  of  our  peace-loving  rulers, 

And  gains  of  one-sided  war; 
Our  long-sighted  national  conscience, 

Spying  but  evils  afar. 

250 


THE    WAGES    OF   OUR    SIN 

We  are  used  to  the  trick  of  glamor, 

To  the  windings  of  disguise, 
To  the  steering  of  wily  pilots 

Through  a  mist  of  goodly  lies. 

Evidence  of  Philippine  atrocities  might  be  multiplied  almost  with- 
out end,  but  enough  has  been  written  abundantly  to  prove  all  we  have 
claimed. 

We  cannot  close  the  subject  without  an  extract  from  a  speech  by 
the  late  Senator  Hoar,  delivered  in  the  United  States  Senate  May  22, 
1902,  and  reported  in  the  "  Congressional  Record,"  pages  6176-86. 
Its  sound  Americanism  falls  like  a  balm  upon  the  harried  hearts  of  all 
lovers  of  liberty  and  justice. 

"  Gentlemen  talk  about  sentimentalities,  about  idealism.  They  like 
practical  statesmanship  better.  But,  Mr.  President,  this  whole  debate 
for  the  last  four  years  has  been  a  debate  between  two  kinds  of  senti- 
mentality. There  has  been  practical  statesmanship  in  plenty  on  both 
sides.  Your  side  have  carried  their  sentimentalities  and  ideals  out  in 
your  practical  statesmanship.  The  other  side  have  tried  and  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  carry  theirs  out  in  practical  statesmanship  also. 

"  On  one  side  have  been  these  sentimentalities.  They  were  the 
ideals  of  the  fathers  of  the  revolutionary  time,  and  from  their  day 
down  till  the  day  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Charles  Sumner  was  over. 
The  sentimentalities  were  that  all  men  in  political  right  were  created 
equal;  that  governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed,  and  are  instituted  to  secure  that  equality;  that  every 
people  —  not  every  scattering  neighbourhood  or  settlement  without  or- 
ganic life,  not  every  portion  of  a  people  who  may  be  temporarily 
discontented,  but  the  political  being  that  we  call  a  people  —  has  the 
right  to  institute  a  government  for  itself  and  to  lay  its  foundation  on 
such  principles  and  organise  its  powers  in  such  form  as  to  it  and  not 
to  any  other  people  shall  seem  most  likely  to  affect  its  safety  and 
happiness.  Now  a  good  deal  of  practical  statesmanship  has  followed 
from  those  ideals  and  sentimentalities.  They  have  builded  45  states 
on  firm  foundations.  They  have  covered  South  America  with  repub- 
lics. They  have  kept  despotism  out  of  the  western  hemisphere.  They 
have  made  the  United  States  the  freest,  strongest,  richest  of  the  na- 
tions of  the  world.  .  .  . 

"  You  also,  my  imperialistic  friends,  have  had  your  ideals  and  your 
sentimentalities.  One  is  that  the  flag  shall  never  be  hauled  down 
where  it  has  once  floated.  Another  is  that  you  will  not  talk  or  rea- 
son with  a  people  with  arms  in  their  hands.  Another  is  that  sover- 
eignty over  an  unwilling  people  may  be  bought  with  gold.  And  an- 
other is  that  sovereignty  may  be  got  by  force  of  arms,  as  the  booty  of 
battle  or  the  spoils  of  victory.  .  .  .  What  have  your  ideals  cost 
you,  and  what  have  thev  bought  for  you  ? 

"  1.  For  the  Philippine  islands  you  have  had  to  repeal  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  For  Cuba  you  have  had  to  reaffirm  it  and  give 
it  new  lustre. 

"  2.  For  the  Philippine  islands  you  have  had  to  convert  the  Mon- 
roe doctrine  into  a  doctrine  of  mere  selfishness.  For  Cuba  you  have 
acted  on  it  and  vindicated  it. 

251 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"  3.  In  Cuba  you  have  got  the  eternal  gratitude  of  a  free  people. 
In  the  Philippine  islands  you  have  got  the  hatred  and  sullen  sub- 
mission of  a  subjugated  people. 

"  4.  Prom  Cuba  you  have  brought  home  nothing  but  glory.  From 
the  Philippines  you  have  brought  home  nothing  of  glory. 

"  5.  In  Cuba  no  man  thinks  of  counting  the  cost.  The  few  soldiers 
who  come  home  from  Cuba  wounded  or  sick  carry  about  their  wounds 
and  their  pale  faces  as  if  they  were  medals  of  honour.  What  soldier 
glories  in  a  wound  or  an  empty  sleeve  which  he  got  in  the  Philippines  ? 

"  6.  The  conflict  in  the  Philippines  has  cost  you  $600,000,000, 
thousands  of  American  soldiers  —  the  flower  of  your  youth  —  the 
health  and  sanity  of  thousands  more,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Filipinos  slain. 

"  Another  price  we  have  paid  as  the  result  of  your  practical  states- 
manship. We  have  sold  out  the  right,  the  old  American  right,  to 
speak  out  the  sympathy  which  is  in  our  hearts  for  people  who  are 
desolate  and  oppressed  everywhere  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Has 
there  ever  been  a  contest  between  power  and  the  spirit  of  liberty,  be- 
fore that  now  going  on  in  South  Africa,  when  American  senators  held 
their  peace  because  they  thought  they  were  under  obligation  to  the 
nation  in  the  wrong  for  not  interfering  with  us  ? 

".  .  .  This  war,  if  you  call  it  war,  has  gone  on  for  three  years. 
It  will  go  on  in  some  form  for  300  years,  unless  this  policy  be  aban- 
doned. You  will  undoubtedly  have  times  of  peace  and  quiet,  or 
pretended  submission.  You  will  buy  men  with  titles,  or  office,  or 
salaries.  You  will  intimidate  cowards.  You  will  get  pretended  and 
fawning  submission.  The  land  will  smile  and  smile  and  seem  at 
peace.  But  the  volcano  will  be  there.  The  lava  will  break  out  again. 
You  can  never  settle  this  thing  until  you  settle  it  right." 

Looking  at  the  Philippine  episode  from  a  purely  business  stand- 
point "  The  .San  Francisco  Star  "  printed  the  following  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1903 :  "  It  has  been  some  time  since  any  Eepublican  paper 
has  dared  to  claim  that  the  Philippines  will  '  pay/  The  facts  are  too 
apparent  for  even  the  most  exuberant  political  imagination  to  over- 
come. If  we  could  make  a  profit  of  ten  per  cent,  on  every  dollar's 
worth  of  goods  we  sell  to  the  Philippine  islands,  it  would  take  us 
more  than  a  thousand  years  to  get  back  what  we  have  already  expended. 
If  we  could  increase  our  present  trade  100  per  cent.,  and  make  a.  profit 
of  ten  per  cent,  on  every  sale,  it  would  about  defray  the  cost  of  main- 
taining there  two  regiments  of  American  soldiers.  Some  of  our  mili- 
tary officers  say  it  will  be  necessary  to  maintain  there  an  army  of  from 
30,000  to  50,000  men.  An  army  of  30,000  men,  kept  there  for  a 
single  year,  would  consume  the  profits  on  our  present  exports  for  150 
years.  Besides  all  this,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  our  exports  are 
chiefly  for  the  needs  of  the  army  and  the  camp-followers.  If  we 
should  cease  paying  the  bills,  the  market  would  disappear. 

The  Philippines  invasion  is  simply  an  expensive  crime." 

From  the  Appendix  to  "  Documentary  Outline  of  the  Philippine 
Case  "  we  extract  the  following  family  record  and  poem. 


252 


THE   WAGES   OF   OUR   SIN 

The  First  Break  in  the  Family  Eecord. 

1750-1775. 

In  Memory  of 

William  Tomilson, 

Killed  in  the 
Battle  of  LEXINGTON, 
While  Fighting  Bravely 
for  Liberty. 


1774-1814. 

In  Memory  of 

George  W.  Tomilson, 

Killed  in  the 

Battle  of  LUNDY'S  LANE, 

While  Fighting  Bravely 

for  Liberty. 


1812-1862. 

In  Memory  of 

Thomas  J.  Tomilson, 

Killed  in  the 

Battle  of  FAIR  OAKS, 

While  Fighting  Bravely 

for  Liberty. 


1849-1898. 

In  Memory  of 

Andrew  J.  Tomilson, 

Killed  in  the 

Battle  of  SAN  JUAN, 

While  Fighting  Bravely 

for  Liberty. 


1872-1899. 

In  Memory  of 

Abraham  L.  Tomilson, 

Killed  in  the 

PHILIPPINES, 

While  Fighting  Bravely. 

"PRO  PATRIA." 
By  John  Lowth. 

Strange  that  a  nation  strong  and  free, 
Tradition's  darling,  and  the  hope  of  earth, 

Should  train  its  rapid  guns  to  scourge 
The  dusky  children  of  the  sea. 

Strange  that  the  Pilgrims'  later  sons, 
Unblushing,  scathe  with  sword  and  strife, 

The  island  home  of  those  whose  guns 
Are  poised  for  Freedom's  very  life. 

Thou  spirit  of  our  country's  birth, 

Which  moved  when  Concord's  guns  rang  out, 
Which  fashioned  from  the  choice  of  earth 

A  nation  brave,  strong,  prosperous,  free, 

Come,  rebaptize  thy  chosen  sons, 
And  reaffirm  "  all  men  are  peers," 

And  blot  our  blushing  nation's  shame 
From  out  the  record  of  the  years. 
253 


BOOK   VI 

CHAPTER      I.    OUR  LAND  GRAFT 

CHAPTER    II.    THE  DESPOLIATION  OF  THE  PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  III.    THE  LAWLESSNESS  OF  THE  LAW, 
STRIKES  AND  INJUNCTIONS 

CHAPTER  IV.     THE  COURTS  vs.  JUSTICE 


355 


Properly  speaking,  the  land  belongs  to  these  two:  To  the  Almighty 
God;  and  to  all  his  Children  of  Men  that  have  ever  worked  well  on  it, 
or  that  shall  ever  work  well  on  it.  No  generation  of  men  can  or  could, 
with  never  such  solemnity  and  effort,  sell  Land  on  any  other  principle: 
it  is  not  the  property  of  any  generation. 

Thomas  Carlyle,  in  "  Past  and  Present." 

There  be  land-rats  and  water-rats,  water-thieves  and  land-thieves. 

Merchant  of  Venice. 

I  am  glad  I  am  so  acquit  of  this  tinder-box;  his  thefts  were  too  open; 
his  filching  was  like  an  unskilful  singer, —  he  kept  not  time. 

Merry  Wives  of  Windsor. 

The  land  question  means  hunger,  thirst,  nakedness,  notice  to  quit,  la- 
bour spent  in  vain,  the  toil  of  years  seized  upon,  the  breaking  up  of 
homes,  the  misery,  sickness,  deaths  of  parents,  children,  wives,  the  de- 
spair and  wildness  which  spring  up  in  the  hearts  of  the  poor,  when  legal 
force,  like  a  sharp  harrow,  goes  over  the  most  sensitive  and  vital  rights 
of  mankind.  All  this  is  contained  in  the  land  question. 

Cardinal  Manning. 

In  vain  we  call  old  notions  fudge 
And  bend  our  conscience  to  our  dealing. 
The  Ten  Commandments  will  not  budge 
And  stealing  will  continue  stealing. 

Motto  of  American  Copyright  League. 

The  ordinary  progress  of  a  society  which  increases  in  wealth  is  at  all 
times  tending  to  augment  the  income  of  landlords,  to  give  them  both  a 
greater  amount  and  a  greater  proportion  of  the  wealth  of  the  community, 
independently  of  any  trouble  or  outlay  incurred  by  themselves.  They 
grow  richer,  as  it  were,  in  their  sleep,  without  working,  risking  or 
economising.  What  claim  have  they,  on  the  general  principle  of  social 
justice,  to  this  accession  of  riches? 

John  Stuart  Mill. 


256 


CHAPTER  I 
OUR   LAND    GRAFT 

TIME-HONOURED  way  of  characterising  men  who 
are  hopelessly  dishonest  is  to  say  in  colloquial  figure 
of  speech,  "  They  will  steal  anything  that  isn't  spiked 
down/'  This  metaphor,  in  view  of  recent  disclosures, 
is  rapidly  losing  its  literary  significance.  .So  cor- 
rupt have  become  these  United  States  of  Dollardom 
that  spiking  down  does  not  afford  the  slightest  protection  against 
theft;  in  fact,  the  very  worst  thefts  to  our  credit  have  occurred  in 
connection  with  a  thing  of  all  things  in  the  world  most  securely 
"  spiked  down/'  These  atrocious  land  crimes  have  been  consum- 
mated with  an  effrontery  which  is  astounding  and  upon  a  scale  which 
is  appalling. 

If  the  Reader  happen  to  be  one  of  those  who  expect  social  ameli- 
oration through  legislation,  let  him  reflect  that  these  thefts  which  we 
are  about  to  narrate  were  consummated  with  the  full  knowledge  of 
the  Interior  Department,  particularly  of  the  General  Land  Office. 
They  have  known  of  the  thefts,  we  are  told,  since  their  inception. 
The  department  of  justice  is  equally  well  aware  of  them. 

Congress  in  particular  is  chargeable  with  the  full  and  guilty 
knowledge  of  this  colossal  crime.  We  have  seen  how  200,000,000 
acres  of  land  were,  with  fatuous  generosity,  bestowed  by  Congress 
upon  the  railway  companies, —  an  area  as  great  as  the  combined 
areas  of  Maine,  Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Con- 
necticut, Rhode  Island,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, Maryland,  Virginia,  West  Virginia  and  North  Carolina, — 
and  we  are  now  to  see  how  during  the  last  fifteen  years  at  least 
150,000,000  acres, —  the  equivalent  in  area  of  thirty  states  the  size 
of  Massachusetts  —  have  been  stolen  and  added  to  this  stupendous 
total  of  alienated  lands.  Moreover,  the  best  authorities  assert  that, 
when  the  full  truth  is  known  the  150,000,000  acres  now  known  to 
have  been  stolen  will  very  probably  be  swelled  to  300,000,000  acres, 
or  an  area  approximately  equivalent  to  one  hundred  states  the  size  of 
Connecticut,  or  more  than  seven  times  the  gross  area  of  all  New 
England! 

Is  a  legislature  which  will  permit  such  wholesale  robbery  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  a  very  promising  body  for  that  people  to 
appeal  to  in  the  name  of  justice  to  right  its  wrongs  or  ameliorate  its 
sufferings?  As  well  beseech  a  highwayman  to  restore  the  purse  he 
has  just  secured  at  the  point  of  a  pistol.  When  social  regeneration 
comes,  it  will  begin  at  the  outside  of  the  body  politic  and  work  to- 
ward the  centre. 

Corruption  is  concentrative,  reform  will  be  dispersive.  Every 
grafter  wants  to  centralise  government  more  and  more.  There  is 
17  257 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

nothing  he  is  more  afraid  of  than  the  people.  Urge  municipal 
lighting  in  a  town  or  city,  and  straightway  these  gentry  raise  a  cry  that 
they  are  afraid  the  thing  will  "  get  into  politics/'  They  have  prac- 
tised saying  this  till  they  do  not  show  by  the  flicker  of  an  eyelash, 
the  quiver  of  a  muscle,  or  the  slightest  vocal  suggestion  of  a  circum- 
flex inflection,  that  they  are  aware  that  all  these  public-service  cor- 
porations maintain  active  lobbies  and  expend  immense  sums  for 
persistent  political  and  legislative  corruption.  Paraphrasing  Na- 
poleon's characterisation  of  the  Eussians,  we  may  say,  Scratch  an 
advocate  for  governmental  centralisation  and  you  will  find  a  grafter, 
in  spirit  if  not  in  fact. 

It  seems  a  fitting  place  here  to  assure  the  Reader  that  the  Gil- 
lette plan  for  social  redemption  looks  for  no  aid  from  Congress  or 
from  any  State  legislature,  neither  does  it  seek  to  work  through 
any  political  party.  For  the  intelligence  of  those  who  seek  to  abate 
the  awful  social  injustice  now  obtaining  by  joining  forces  with  po- 
litical corruptionists  for  the  sake  of  their  party  machinery,  Mr.  Gil- 
lette has  no  higher  opinion  than  justice  warrants.  His  plan  for 
the  redemption  of  society  is  in  its  last  analysis  decentralising,  as 
indeed  any  plan  must  be  which  guarantees  beyond  a  peradventure  to 
every  person  living  under  it  the  widest  possible  liberty  compatible 
with  equal  liberty. 

The  social  evolution  of  the  race  is  ever  toward  greater  liberty, 
and  any  plan  for  the  betterment  of  humanity  which  contemplates 
narrowing  this  ever  widening  range  of  individual  freedom  defies  the 
most  solemn  mandates  of  nature.  Had  there  been  any  virtue  in 
concentration  this  land  would  never  have  been  alienated  from  those 
for  whom  it  was  intended,  and  the  victims  of  this  and  the  many 
other  robberies  similarly  perpetrated  would  not  now  be  clamoring 
for  election  of  senators  by  direct  vote  of  the  people,  for  the  initiative, 
the  referendum  and  the  power  of  recall, —  in  short,  would  not  be 
girding  themselves  to  the  task  of  saving,  in  spite  of  their  legislators, 
what  little  is  possible  from  the  wreckage  caused  by  the  mis-repre- 
sentatives who,  for  a  lobbyist's  mess  of  pottage,  have  shamefully 
betrayed  them. 

Add  together  200,000,000  acres  of  land  given  to  the  railroads  and 
the  150,000,000  known  to  be  stolen,  and  you  have  the  tidy  total  of 
350,000,000  acres,  an  area  capable  of  supporting  a  population  more 
than  three  times  greater  than  the  present  population  of  the  United 
States. 

Consider  for  a  moment  what  this  means.  350,000,000  .acres  is 
546,875  square  miles. 

Estimating  the  present  population  of  the  United  States  at  some- 
thing less  than  eighty-four  millions  and  the  average  family  to  con- 
tain, say,  five  persons,  though  this  is  an  overestimate,  the  figures  in 
1900  being  4.7  persons  per  family, —  we  find  that  every  family  in 
the  United  States  has  been  robbed  of  a  farm  of  more  than  20  acres 
area.  When  we  wonder  at  the  poverty  which  stares  us  in  the  face 
on  every  hand,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  every  man,  woman  and 
child  in  our  great  country  has  been  robbed  of  the  means  of  a  hand- 
some competence  by  the  very  legislature  originally  designed  for  their 
protection. 


OUR    LAND    GRAFT 

In  proof  of  our  contention  that  this  alienated  land  would  support 
a  population  three  times  as  great  as  our  present  population  we  submit 
the  following  table  of  areas  and  populations  of  various  localities  to 
show  that  a  smaller  territory  is  actually  doing  so  at  the  present  writ- 
ing. 

Name.  Area.  Population. 

England    50,839  sq.  miles.  32,536,075 

Wales    7,470  "       " 

Scotland   29,785 

Ireland   .• 32,583 

Islands    302 

Japan  with  Formosa 147,655 

Italy    110,550 

Netherlands   12,648 

Belgium    11,373 

Switzerland 15,976 

Denmark    15,388 

Alsace-Lorraine   5,600 

Porto  Eico  3,606 

Hawaii    6,449 

Saxony    5,787 

Baden   5,821 

Wurtemburg    7,528 

Hamburg    158 

Bremen 99 

Brunswick    1,424 

Bavaria 29,282 

Hesse    2,965 

Mecklenburg-Schwerin    5,135 

Saxe- Weimar 1,388 

Anhalt    906 

Saxe-Meiningen 953 

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 755 

Saxe-Altenburg 511 

Lippe    469 

Keuss   (Younger  Line) 319 

Mecklenburg-Strelitz 1,131 


Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt 363 

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen  ....  333 

Lubeck 115 

Waldeck    433 

Schaumburg-Lippe    131 

Tahiti   600 

West  Indies  138 

Servia   18,630 

Hayti    10,204 

Guam    200 

Bermuda 19 

Barbadoes 166 

Malta,  &c 122 


Total 


,546,309 
359 


4,471,957 
4,456,546 
150,599 
49,732,952 
32,475,253 
5,347,182 
7,074,910 
3,315,443 
2,464,770 
1,719,470 
953,243 
154,001 
4,202,216 
1,867,944 
2,169,480 
768,349 
224,882 
464,333 
6,176,057 
1,119,893 
607,770 
362,873 
316,085 
250,731 
229,550 
194,914 
138,952 
139,210 
102,602 
93,059 
80,898 
96,775 
57,918 
43,132 
10,300 
30,527 
2,493,770 
1,294,400 
9,000 
17,536 
195,600 
188,141 

168,789,298 


In  summing  up  the  table  we  see  that  546,309  square  miles  is  now 
supporting  168,789,298  persons,  while  the  American  public  has  been 
robbed  of  546,875  square  miles,  an  excess  of  566  square  miles  over 
the  combined  areas  of  the  above  table. 

The  total  land  area  of  that  portion  of  the  United  States  east  of 
the  Mississippi  Eiver  is  854,805  square  miles.  The  total  area  of 
lands  known  to  have  been  alienated  as  aforesaid  is  546,875  square 
miles.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  American  people  have 
been  despoiled  of  a  landed  area  equal  to  more  than  63%  of  all  the 
land  east  of  the  Mississippi  Eiver!  And  this  with  the  knowledge, 
yea,  the  connivance,  of  Congressmen  chosen  to  safeguard  the  peo- 
ple's interests ! 

The  following  diagrams,  slightly  altered,  are  reproduced  •  from 
pages  43  and  57  of  Bolton  Hall's  "  Free  America/'  The  first  shows 
that  54:%  of  the  families  own  neither  farms  nor  homes;  15%  par- 
tially own  farms  or  homes  while  only  31%  actually  own  farms  or 
homes  free  and  clear.  The  second  answers  those  who  contend  that 
poverty  results  from  overcrowding. 

We  quote  the  following  from  "The  Menace  of  Privilege"  by 
Henry  George,  Jr. 

"  Much  of  the  land  of  the  United  States,  especially  the  Western 
and  .Southern  farming  land,  is  held  in  large  tracts.  For  instance, 
the  Texas  Land  Syndicate  No.  3  .owns  3,000,000  acres  in  Texas,  in 
which  such  English  noblemen  as  the  Duke  of  Eutland  and  Lord 
Beresford  are  largely  interested.  Another  syndicate,  the  British 
Land  Company,  owns  300,000  acres  in  Kansas,  besides  tracts  in 
other  States.  The  Duke  of  Sutherland  owns  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, and  Sir  Edward  Eeid  controls  1,000,000  acres  in  Florida.  A 
syndicate  containing  Lady  Gordon  and  the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie 
controls  2,000,000  acres  in  Mississippi. 

"  But  these  holdings  become  as  nothing  beside  some  of  the  stealings 
of  the  Western  land  thieves.  The  extent  of  their  operations  is  al- 
most beyond  belief." 

In  his  cyclopedic  work,  "The  Story  of  New  Zealand/'  Mr.  Frank 
Parsons  says :  "  The  United  States  has  given  enormous  quantities  of 
the  people's  land  and  money  to  railway  corporations,  more  than 
enough  sometimes  to  build  and  equip  the  whole  road,  but  the  people 
do  not  own  a  mile  of  these  railways;  the  private  companies  own 
them  all.  New  Zealand,  too,  has  put  the  people's  land  and  money 
into  railways,  but  it  keeps  the  roads  it  pays  for  to  be  the  property  of 
the  people.  New  Zealand  believes  that  when  she  invests  the  nation's 
money,  the  investment  should  belong  to  the  nation  and  not  to  a  pri- 
vate company." 

In  "  Free  America  "  Mr.  Hall  says :  "  As  a  sample  of  the  manner 
in  which  America  has  been  disposed  of,  take  the  grants  to  railways. 
To  record  all  the  wholesale  throwing  away  of  the  people's  land  would 
take  a  book  of  this  size.  Here  are  a  few  items.  To  the  Northern 
Pacific  Eailway  42  million  acres  were  given;  to  the  Union  Pacific  16 
million;  to  the  Central  Pacific  15  million;  and  to  the  Southern  Pa- 
cific 14  million.  The  Texas  Pacific  Eailway  got  13  million  acres. 
The  Oregon  Central,  a  comparatively  short  road,  got  4,700,000.  The 

260 


.s 


OUR   LAND   GRAFT 

Burlington  &  Missouri  Railway  was  presented  with  3,373,000  acres. 
And  the  list  might  be  continued  until  a  total  was  reached  of  over 
200  million  acres  given  to  railroads  alone. 

"  Do  you  realise  what  this  means  ?  It  means  that  a  few  corpora- 
tions, which  received  also  franchises  of  enormous  value,  have  been 
given  a  greater  acreage  of  fertile  lands  than  the  entire  land  area 
now  included  in  the  thirteen  original  states.  Suppose  the  proposi- 
tion had  been  made  in  1789  to  give  all  the  states  won  from  the 
British  at  the  cost  of  so  many  lives,  to  a  few  companies.  What 
would  Washington  or  Jefferson  have  said? 

"  Then  turn  to  private  land-owners  and  syndicates.  During  the 
past  fifty  years  almost  the  entire  area  of  the  fertile  lands  west  of 
the  Mississippi  has  been  gobbled  up,  part  of  it  being  subsequently 
sold  to  actual  settlers,  and  the  rest  held  as  a  speculation  until  in- 
creasing population  should  force  the  public  to  yield  to  extortionate 
terms.  Among  these  forestallers  of  natural  resources  are  reported 
the  Texas  Land  Syndicate  No.  3,  owning  3,000,000  acres  in  Texas, 
in  which  such  titled  foreigners  as  the  Duke  of  Eutland  and  Lord 
Beresford  of  the  English  nobility  are  large  owners.  Another  syn- 
dicate, the  British  Land  Company,  owns  300,000  acres  in  Kansas 
alone,  besides  other  lands  in  various  states.  The  Duke  of  Suther- 
land owns  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  in  Florida,  and  Sir  Ed- 
ward Reid  controls  1,000,000  acres  also  in  Florida.  A  syndicate  of 
which  Lady  Gordon,  the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie  and  other  titled  Brit- 
ishers are  members,  controls  nearly"  2,000,000  acres  in  Mississippi. 
As  these  lands  cannot  be  used  without  payment  to  their  so-called 
'  owners/  it  is  evident  that  a  good  many  citizens  of  this  republic 
are  contributing,  or  must  contribute  when  they  have  to  use  land  in 
these  states,  to  the  support  of  that  foreign  aristocracy  from  which 
our  forefathers  believed  we  had  been  forever  freed. 

"  Nor  is  the  ownership  of  America  by  foreigners  confined  to  the 
aristocracy.  Plain  Patrick  .Scully,  an  Irishman,  managed  a  number 
of  years  ago  to  secure  possession  of  large  tracts  of  land  in  Illinois, 
Iowa  and  Nebraska.  The  income  from  these  lands,  as  fast  as  they 
found  tenants,  was  used  to  buy  more  land,  so  that  Mr.  Scully  now 
owns  about  300,000  acres.  Whether  it  is  any  easier  for  a  tenant 
farmer  to  pay  rent  to  a  ( Mr/  than  to  a  *  Sir '  or  a  '  Duke ',  is  a 
question  which  awaits  an  answer.  In  fact  Scully  is  often  spoken  of 
as  '  Lord '  Scully. 

"  There  is,  however,  a  growing  sentiment  in  America  against  alien 
ownership  of  land,  and  it  has  been  urged  by  many  reformers  that 
Congress  should  pass  a  law  forbidding  aliens  to  own  land  in  this 
country.  This  suggests  the  further  question,  whether  it  is  any  easier 
to  pay  rent  to  a  citizen  of  Boston  or  Baltimore  than  to  a  citizen 
of  London  or  Berlin. 

"  What  has  been  done  by  the  syndicates  and  by  Mr.  Scully  has  been 
done  on  a  smaller  scale  by  thousands  of  other  corporations  and  land 
lords,  until  now  there  remains,  in  all  the  great  territory  of  the 
United  States,  practically  no  land  of  any  present  or  probable  value 
which  can  be  used  without  paying  someone  for  its  use.  East,  West, 
North  or  South,  wherever  wheat  or  cotton,  corn  or  sugar  or  anything 

263 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

can  be  profitably  raised,  everywhere  there  is  the  sign  '  No  Trespassing 
Allowed.'  The  man  who  wants  to  work  on  the  soil  finds  that  in 
every  direction  some  one  has  been  ahead  of  him  and  has  obtained  the 
exclusive  title  to  the  use  of  all  the  land  that  is  worth  anything.  To- 
day a  baby  has  no  right  to  be  born  on  the  land,  or  even  to  be  buried 
in  "it,  unless  someone  will  pay  for  its  grave. 

"  And  as  with  farm'  lands,  so  also  with  timber  and  mineral  lands. 
The  pines  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota,  the  gigantic  red- 
woods and  other  timber  of  the  Pacific  slope,  the  dense  forests  of 
Florida  and  Mississippi,  and  the  spruce  woods  of  Maine,  all  have 
owners  who  demand  '  stumpage '  for  each  tree  cut.  It  is  true  that 
some  of  these  forests  are  owned  by  companies  which  cut  the  lumber 
from  them,  but  in  these  cases  the  charge  for  permission  to  work 
on  timber  lands  is  just  as  certainly  paid  by  those  who  use  the  lumber. 
No  tree  is  so  remote  from  civilisation  as  not  to  have  an  owner,  who 
takes  care  that  no  idle  workman  shall  employ  his  time  in  converting 
it  into  a  useful  article. 

"  The  control  of  mineral  lands  is  still  closer  than  that  of  farm 
or  timber  land.  The  great  anthracite  coal  deposits  of  Pennsylvania 
are  in  the  firm  grip  of  a  few  persons  and  railway  corporations  who 
well  know  the  enormous  value  of  their  exclusive  privileges.  Having 
control  of  the  only  anthracite  coal  mines  in  the  country,  these  men 
and  companies  have  combined  to  limit  the  production  of  coal  and 
to  raise  its  price.  So  effectively  has  this  combination  worked  that 
the  price  of  coal  is  now,  on  an  average,  one  dollar  per  ton  more 
than  it  was  five  years  ago,  and  the  increasing  demand  for  coal  enables 
the  combine  to  give  the  screw  other  turns  and  force  the  price  higher 
and  higher. 

"  They  force  the  price  up  notwithstanding  the  superabundance  of 
coal.  President  Fowler,  of  the  New  York,  Ontario  &  Western  B. 
E.,  testified  in  1900  that  'without  some  restriction/  by  which  he 
meant  railroad  control,  'coal  would  be  a  drug  in  the  (New  York) 
market  at  $2  a  ton/  You  can  read  all  about  the  anthracite  coal 
monopoly  at  the  end  of  Dan  Beard's  '  Moonblight/ 

"  The  fields  in  which  bituminous  coal  is  found  being  nearly  one  hun- 
dred times  larger  than  the  anthracite  fields,  it  has  not  been  so  easy 
to  control  its  production.  Yet  every  known  coal  seam,  even  in  the 
remote  mountains  of  Tennessee,  Colorado  or  Montana,  is  ( owned ' 
by  some  one.  You  can  see  on  the  'Pennsylvania  coal  roads  four 
thousand  cars  as  big  as  houses,  all  marked  Berwind-White  Coal  Com- 
pany. But  most  of  the  fields  are  owned  by  people  who  do  not  in- 
tend to  mine  coal  but  who  expect  to  charge  others  royalties  for  the 
privilege  of  mining.  Every  ton  of  coal  which  goes  to  furnish  power 
for  hauling  freight  or  turning  mill-wheels  must  pay  a  tax  or  royalty 
to  the  lord  of  the  land  out  of  which  it  is  dug. 

'•'  The  same  is  true  of  iron  ore,  one  of  Nature's  most  important  gifts 
to  mankind.  In  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  of  West  Virginia, 
of  Tennessee  and  Alabama,  and  in  the  '  ranges '  of  Northwest  Mich- 
igan and  Minnesota  there  are  immense  bodies  of  the  raw  material 
for  the  various  products  of  the  iron  and  steel  industries." 

:<  The  total  area  of  land  granted  by  Congress  for  building  railwavs 

264  J 


OUR    LAND    GRAFT 

was  215,000,000  acres;  though  not  all  railways  were  built.  The 
land  office  estimated  that  the  area  taken  was  178,000,000  acres.  (Ex. 
Doc.  42.,  Forty-sixth  Congress) .  But  some  railways  fenced  in  much 
more  land  than  was  granted  to  them.  And  in  addition  to  the  na- 
tional grants,  the  State  of  Texas  gave  38,000,000  acres  to  rail- 
ways." .  .  . 

"  The  Anthracite  Strike  Commission  accepted  as  accurate  the  state- 
ment that  91  per  cent,  of  the  anthracite  lands  are  owned  by  the  six 
railroads  and  their  subsidiary  companies,  and  5  per  cent,  more  are 
controlled  by  them.  (Report  Dept.  Labor,  May,  1903,  page  448). 
There  are  only  about  150  individual  owners."  .  .  . 

"  It  would  only  waste  time  to  detail  how  other  natural  resources 
are  grabbed.  You  know  how  the  .Standard  Oil  Trust  has  got  the 
valuable  oil  fields  and  how  it  has  its  agents  continually  on  the  watch 
for  the  new  wells.  Just  as  soon  as  a  prospector  ' strikes  oil'  along 
comes  an  agent  and  buys  up  the  tract  of  land  in  which  the  oil  has 
been  found.  Not  in  order  to  produce  oil  —  there  is  as  much  oil 
already  being  produced  as  can  be  sold  at  present  prices  —  but  to  keep 
the  land  under  its  own  control  so  that  there  will  be  no  new  compe- 
tition. 

"  On  this  question  of  the  ownership  of  land  and  the  burden  it  lays 
on  the  people,  the  Hon.  Henry  A.  Robinson,  formerly  statistician  of 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  says  that  in  1890 

'  The  total  royalty  of  the  mines  worked,  stumpage  of  timber  paid, 
the  rent  of  the  water-power  and  ground  rent  of  building  sites 
amounted  to  at  least  $935,000,000.' 

"  Mr.  Robinson  was  not  figuring  on  interest  on  mortgages,  rents  for 
railway  and  franchise  grants,  and  other  like  items  which  enormously 
swell  the  total." 

In  "  Everybody's  Magazine,"  of  May,  1905,  is  an  article  by  Bailey 
Millard,  entitled  "  The  West  Coast  Land  Grafters."  Preceding  this 
is  the  following  note  by  the  editor :  "  In  1850  Henry  Miller  landed 
in  this  country,  a  poor  German  butcher  boy.  To-day  he  is  owner 
of  14,539,000  acres  of  the  richest  land  in  California  and  Oregon  — 
more  than  22,500  square  miles,  a  territory  three  times  as  large  as 
New  Jersey!  How  did  he  get  it?  Well,  here's  a  statement  that 
shows  how  some  other  Land  Kings  of  the  West -Coast  got  their  hold- 
ings, and  describes  the  amazing,  stupefying  graft  in  the  land  busi- 
ness of  the  West,  and  the  questionable  practices  for  which  Senator 
Mitchell  and  Congressman  Hermann  of  Oregon  stand  indicted  to- 
day. Here  are  given  details  showing  how  the  Government  and  the 
home-seekers  have  been  plundered.  The  career  of  John  A.  Benson,  from 
his  start  as  a  land  surveyor,  through  his  fraudulent  titles,  his 
false  measurements,  his  imaginative  maps,  to  his  selling  back  to  the 
Government  lands  stolen  from  it,  is  vividly  presented.  The  Oregon 
situation,  with  its  indicted  .Senator,  Representatives,  and  United 
States  District  Attorney,  is  clearly  described.  So  many  prominent 
men  have  been  indicted  for  Land  Graft  that  to  give  their  names 
would  be,  says  Mr.  Millard,  (  a  sort  of  roll-call  of  nearly  all  who 
have  secured  large  holdings  of  fertile  lands  in  Oregon  and  Cali- 
fornia ! '  And  this  is  only  a  beginning." 

265 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Mr.  Millard  explains  in  detail  how  these  great  land  crimes  were 
committed.  He  says  by  way  of  establishing  a  point  of  departure: 
"  Now,  many  times  before  I  had  heard  of  land  frauds  and  had  taken 
them  for  granted,  as  have  other  landless  and  incurious  citizens;  but 
when  the  busy,  buzzing  machinery  of  the  great  ring  of  grafters  was 
thus  vividly  exposed  to  my  view,  i  became  subtly  alive  to  the  mean- 
ing of  these  things.  Since  then  I  have  been  making  a  study  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  land  kings  of  the  Pacific  Coast  acquired  their 
tremendous  holdings,  and  have  been  pursuing  the  question  of  land 
frauds  generally,  beginning  with  the  manipulation  of  the  old  Spanish 
and  Mexican  grants  in  California,  and  looking  into  the  homestead, 
school-land,  timber-land  and  forest-reserve  iniquities  in  that  State 
and  in  Oregon.  And  I  will  say  right  here  —  and  my  language  is 
plain, —  that  such  a  mass  of  fraud  you  will  find  nowhere  else  on 
earth.  And  it  is  all  based  upon  that  insinuating,  self-serving,  and 
wonderfully  elastic  thing  which  I  call  Land  Conscience.  Land  Con- 
science is  common  enough.  A  man  who  would  not  dream  of  taking 
money  from  his  employer's  till,  a  man  who,  as  a  juror,  would  spurn 
a  bribe,  a  man  recognised  as  a  person  of  probity,  is  as  likely  to  be 
possessed  of  a  smooth,  easy-going,  self-deceptive  Land  Conscience  as 
the  gentleman  who  goes  forth  'o'nights  with  a  jimmy. 

"  When  the  sense  of  honour  of  a  United  States  Senator,  two  Repre- 
sentatives, a  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office,  a  United 
States  District  Attorney,  a  half-dozen  Surveyors-General,  and  other 
high  Federal  officials,  will  not  restrain  such  persons  from  permitting 
themselves  to  be  enlisted  on  the  side  of  graft  —  one  can  see  that  this 
Land  Conscience  may  be  lulled  as  by  a  Circean  song.  The  enmesh- 
ing in  the  legal  net,  by  indictment  after  indictment,  of-  Senator 
John  H.  Mitchell,  Representatives  Binger  Hermann  and  John  N. 
Williamson,  and  United  States  District  Attorney  John  H.  Hall,  on 
charges  of  conspiracy  against  the  Government  to  gain  possession  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  valuable  land  in  Oregon,  though  it 
may  be  more  conspicuous  and  more  arrestive  of  the  public  sense  than 
other  affairs  of  the  kind,  is  merely  incidental  to  the  great  campaign 
of  Graft  in  West  Coast  land  affairs." 

He  refers  to  John  A.  Benson  as  "the  King  of  the  land  grafters," 
and  details  methods  employed  by  his  majesty  which  for  unblushing 
effrontery,  and  barefaced  dishonesty  remind  one  of  the  works  of 
"  The  System "  as  described  by  Mr.  Lawson.  Mr.  Millard  says  of 
Benson :  "  It  was  while  working  about  the  Coast  with  transit  and 
pole  that  the  poor  young  surveyor  saw  the  possibilities  of  rolling  up 
a  large  fortune  that  awaited  the  touch  of  the  cunning  hand  of  Graft. 
After  a  little  study  he  became  versed  in  the  history  of  the  land 
frauds  in  California.  In  the  course  of  that  study  he  saw  how  Jose 
Limantour,  in  collusion  with  a  former  Mexican  Governor  of  Cali- 
fornia, had  easily  stolen  a  million  acres.  He  saw  how  old  grants 
had  been  stretched  to  include  three  times  their  original  territory. 
He  saw  how  the  Mariposa  grant,  originally  in  the  form  of  a  plain 
quadrangle,  was  '  floated '  miles  and  miles  out  of  its  first  boundaries, 
to  take  in  valuable  outlying  mines,  until  it  had  assumed  the  form 
of  a  boot.  He  saw  how  one  grant,  a  square,  inoffensive-looking  af- 

266 


OUR   LAND    GRAFT 

fair  on  the  map,  had  stretched  forth  legs  and  antennae  here  and 
there,  until  it  looked  for  all  the  world  like  a  huge  tarantula.  He 
saw  how  the  Los  Meganos  tract,  in  Contra  Costa  County,  had  been 
repeatedly  stretched  until  twenty-five  square  leagues  of  land  had  been 
claimed  when  only  three  could  be  located  by  proper  metes  and 
bounds.  He  learned  how,  in  measuring  the  grant-lands,  the  sur- 
veyors of  the  old  days  would  take  a  riata  of  a  certain  length  instead 
of  a  chain  and  stretch  it  and  their  Land  Conscience  as  far  as  they 
could,  and  then  drive  the  stakes  anywhere. 

"  He  saw  that  although  no  one  man  could  legally  acquire  more  than 
1,120  acres  under  any  combination  of  the  public-land  acts,  yet,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  single  individuals  and  companies  owned  vast  tracts 
which  a  few  years  before  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Government. 

"All  these  things  John  Benson  saw;  and  he  determined  to  profit 
by  the  understanding.  He  resigned  as  deputy  surveyor  and  mapped 
out  a  magnificent  plan  of  action,  which  comprehended  the  obtaining 
of  large  contracts  for  the  surveying  of  Government  lands,  the  em- 
ployment of  men  to  act  as  his  deputies  in  the  field,  the  securing  of 
allies  and  confederates  in  the  local  land  offices  and  those  of  the  vari- 
ous surveyors-general,  and  even  of  reaching  over  to  Washington  and 
enlisting  men  in  the  General  Land  Office  to  help  him  to  millions. 

"  There  had  been  def rauders  of  the  land  department  before  —  rob- 
ber-bees that  had  buzzed  about  and  belted  themselves  with  golden 
rings  —  but  Benson^  with  his  far-seeing  eye,  visualised  a  system  be- 
side which  all  the  schemes  in  this  line  looked  like  petty  larcenies. 
For,  after  all,  the  operations  of  the  whisky  ring,  of  the  Star  Koute 
swindlers,  of  the  Belknap  frauds,  have  been  as  nothing  to  those  of 
the  land  grafters  of  California  and  Oregon." 

Benson  even  carried  his  graft  into  official  Washington.  He  main- 
tained such  an  active  agency  there  that  whenever  there  was  any  hint 
that  a  special  agent  was  to  investigate  his  work  he  was  able  to  have 
the  agent  summarily  removed. 

At  last  a  man  named  Conrad,  a  particularly  shrewd  special  agent, 
was  sent  to  California  to  investigate  his  work.  Of  this  incident  Mr. 
Millard  says :  "  Conrad  studied  the  stupendous  scheme  of  fraud  to 
such  purpose  that  within  six  months  he  had  put  upon  paper  a  full 
statement  of  the  operations  of  the  Benson  gang.  Before  he  had 
an  opportunity  to  submit  his  report  he  was  quietly  forced  to  resign 
at  the  instance  of  Benson,  the  Washington  end  of  whose  machine 
was  still  in  full  working  order.  But  other  agents  and  other  reports 
followed,  and  in  1886  the  heavy  hand  of  the  Government  reached 
out  for  John  A.  Benson.  Both  civil  and  criminal  suits  were  begun  — 
the'  initial  steps  in  a  prosecution  in  which  no  fewer  than  eighty-six 
indictments  have  been  filed  against  Benson  and  his  colleagues  —  a 
prosecution  that  has  cost  the  Government  thousands  of  dollars  and 
up  to  the  present  has  not  deprived  the -shrewd  surveyor  of  his  liberty 
for  more  than  brief  periods  of  time,  and,  as  he  boasts,  has  not  cost 
him  so  much  as  an  hour's  sleep." 

Benson  pursued  several  methods  of  defrauding  the  government. 
For  example  he  would  secure  personally  or  through  a  dummy  a  con- 
tract to  survey  and  furnish  maps  and  field-notes  of  townships.  This 

267 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

work  would  be  estimated  at  the  highest  rate  allowed  by  law  and 
Benson  through  his  "  pals  "  at  Washington  would  often  secure  many 
times  the  amount  called  for  by  the  contract.  For  example  a  con- 
tract for  survey  of  eighteen  California  townships  stipulated  a  maxi- 
mum price  of  $1800,  but  Benson  received  nearly  seven  times  that 
amount,  viz.,  $12,168.39.  In  the  case  of  another  contract  calling 
for  $3,000,  this  and  no  more,  he  received  of  the  government  for  his 
beautiful  map  and  field-notes  the  tidy  sum  of  $30,139.40 ! 

And  these  artistic  maps  and  instructive  field-notes,  how  were 
they  prepared  ?  Let  Mr.  Millard  answer :  "  Simply  by  *  faking '  the 
surveys,  which  were  made  in  back  offices  in  San  Francisco  by  men 
who  did  not  go  within  a  hundred  miles  of  the  land.  The  surveyor 
would  take  .a  county  map,  which  showed  some  of  the  more  prominent 
topographical  features.  That  would  give  him  a  field  to  work  upon 
where  there  was  no  need  to  weary  himself  by  dragging  a  jingling 
chain  through  the  brush.  From  this  map  he  could  make  up  a  fanci- 
ful survey-plot  on  a  larger  scale,  showing  land-monuments,  blazed 
trees,  rocks,  hills,  and  other  natural  objects  for  the  prescribed  metes 
and  bounds.  Often  blazed  trees  would  be  put  into  an  utterly  treeless 
plain,  and  branches  of  streams  would  be  made  to  run  three  to  four 
miles  out  of  their  true  course.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the 
maps  of  these  surveys  were  among  the  finest  ever  sent  to  the  sur- 
veyor-general's office.  They  were  things  of  beauty,  full  of  fine  de- 
tails, and  so  satisfactory  that,  at  first,  there  was  not  the  slight- 
est hesitation  on  the  part  of  the  officials  in  signing  warrants  in  pay- 
ment for  them.  ...  In  less  than  five  years  Benson  made  over 
$2,000,000  out  of  his  contracts ;  but  as  he  was  always  a  free  spender, 
he  was  often  hard  pressed  for  funds.  In  1882  he  was  forced  to  as- 
sign, but  the  banks  advanced  money  on  new  surveys  and  he  went 
blithely  on." 

Elsewhere  Mr.  Millard  says :  "  Often  for  whole  seasons  the  field- 
work  of  the  Benson  gang  was  the  merest  sham.  In  the  California 
counties  of  Sonoma,  Mendocino,  and  Monterey,  township  after  town- 
ship for  which  survey-plots  were  made  and  field-notes  written  up 
was  never  seen  by  the  surveyor.  In  central  Monterey  County,  where 
mile  after  mile  of  lines  was  supposed  to  have  been  run,  not  a  stake 
was  driven.  Men  who  tried  to  locate  land  under  the  homestead  or 
timber-claim  acts  could  not  find  a  single  corner.  And  .yet  the  Gov- 
ernment accepted  the  Surveys  and  paid  Benson,  in  the  name  of  his 
dummies,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  for  them.  .  .  .  Spe- 
cial agents  were  set  to  work  in  a  manner  so  secret  that  Benson,  with 
all  his  boasted  knowledge  of  Government  land  affairs,  did  not  know 
what  they  were  doing.  These  agents  worked  for  two  years  and  dis- 
covered many  other  things  beside  fraudulent  surveys.  They  found 
that  where  the  Benson  gang  had  done  real  work  or  made  a  show 
of  doing  it  by  throwing  stakes  out  of  a  moving  wagon,  by  collusion 
with  the  surveyors-general,  they  were  often  paid  from  six  to  ten 
times  as  much  as  they  were  really  entitled  to  for  doing  good  work." 

Another  fraudulent  method  consisted  in  bribing  dummies  to  per- 
jure themselves  by  taking  up  land  under  an  agreement  to  deed  it  to 
Benson  while  swearing  under  oath  that  they  wanted  it  for  them- 

268 


OUR   LAND    GRAFT 

selves  and  were  not  acting  in  collusion  with  any  other  party  or  par- 
ties. Says  Mr.  Millard :  "  In  one  case  four  dummies  went  before  a 
corrupt  notary  and  took  up  forty  timber  claims,  for  which  the  notary 
received  $400  in  fees  —  $10  for  each  entryman.  A  man  would  come 
into  the  office  as  Jones,  then  go  out  and  come  in  as  Smith,  and  repeat 
the  operation  ten  times.  Hundreds  of  such  dummies  were  em- 
ployed. They  were,  for  the  most  part,  ranch-hands,  stenographers, 
sailors,  stevedores,  and  colored  janitors.  The  papers  were  all  signed 
in  blank  and  the  men  who  did  the  signing  rarely  knew  the  nature 
of  their  contents.  Each  dummy  received  a  small-  sum  for  his  services 
and  was  satisfied.  The  making  of  final  proof  was  a  matter  of  little 
concern  to  the  conspirators,  for  they  had  a  cohort  of  men  ready  to 
swear  they  knew  the  land,  had  lived  upon  it  for  the  prescribed 
length  of  time,  and  were  locating  upon  it  for  their  own  and  for 
nobody  else's  benefit.  .Some  of  the  syndicates  which  grabbed  king- 
doms made  contracts  with  the  grafters  to  furnish  final  proofs  at 
so  much  per  application.  ...  In  the  early  days  four  dummies 
went  forth  to  locate  land  in  the  Sacramento  Valley  for  Moneyed 
Principals.  By  a  simple  plan  the  years  of  actual  residence  required 
by  law  were  reduced  to  the  lowest  terms.  A  wagon,  with  a  few 
boards  nailed  over  the  top  of  it,  was  drawn  over  the  corner-stake 
of  four  quarter-sections,  all  of  which  were  taken  up.  The  wagon 
served  as  the  house  which  each  man  was  required  to  erect  by  the 
provisions  of  the  law.  Its  four  corners  were  so  placed  as  to  cover 
the  four  corners  of  the  land  and  in  each  corner  an  entryman  slept 
as  soundly  as  if  the  Land  Conscience  were  something  remote  and 
trivial.  The  wagon  was  moved  about  from  corner  to  corner,  and  it 
did  not  take  long  for  the  Moneyed  Principals  to  acquire  a  large 
territory.  The  grafters  practised  many  other  neat  little  frauds. 
One  man  made  his  residence  in  a  house  two  feet  high,  six  feet  long, 
end  three,  feet  wide,  which  he  removed  at  will  from  one  quarter- 
section  to  another. 

"  But  the  dummy  has  shown  more  iniquitous  energy  in  locating 
swamp  and  overflow  lands  than  in  any  other  way.  These  lands, 
situated  in  various  parts  of  California,  were  sold  by  the  State  to 
private  individuals  in  tracts  not  to  exceed  320  acres  to  any  one  per- 
son, at  $1.25  per  acre,  provided  the  land  should  be  reclaimed.  But 
by  the  use  of  dummies  one  of  the  land  kings  secured  over  17,000 
acres,  and  another  31,000.  It  was  in  the  reclamation  business  that 
Comedy  peeped  forth  in  the  schemes  of  the  grafters.  Much  of  the 
land  was  in  the  foot-hills  and  mountains,  where  there  were  large 
vacant  tracts  suitable  for  grazing.  These  tracts  were  often  glacial 
meadows,  partly  overflowed  in  the  spring,  but  dry  during  the  sum- 
mer, when  the  cattle  ranged  over  them.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
acres  of  these  meadows  were  applied  for  as  swamp  land.  The  act 
of  reclamation  was  charmingly  simple.  The  Land  Conscience  of  the 
dummy  was  appeased  by  the  mere  dragging  of  a  hoe  over  the  ground 
for  twenty  or  thirty  yards.  Down  in  Visalia  they  will  show  you 
a  historic  hoe  that  has  reclaimed  30,000  acres  of  rich  grazing-lands." 

Mr.  Millard  goes  on  to  state  that  one  hundred  men  in  the  great 
Sacramento  Valley  have  come  to  own  more  than  17,000,000  acres. 

269 


while  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  it  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  find 
a  single  name  standing  for  100,000  acres. 

"  These/'  says  Mr.  Millard,  "  are  only  little  extracts  from  the  main 
body  of  testimony,  in  which  many  other  vast  tracts  were  described 
in  the  same  loose  manner.  It  was  shown  that  in  all  Mr.  Mil  lei- 
owned  and  managed  22,717%  square  miles !  In  Fresno  County  alone 
his  holdings  were  921,600  acres,  while  in  Humboldt  and  Washoe  Coun- 
ties, Nev.,  they  were  over  3,500,000  acres,  and  in  Harney  and  Grant 
Counties,  Oregon,  they  were  nearly  7,000,000.  But  think  of  the 
aggregate  —  22,717%  square  miles,  or  14,539,200  acres!  That  is 
a  territory  as  large  as  the  four  States  of  New  Hampshire,  Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut,  and  Delaware!  It  is  three  times  as  large  as 
New  Jersey!  It  is  twice  as  large  as  Belgium!  It  is  bigger  than 
Switzerland,  it  is  much  larger  than  Denmark,  it  is  greater  than  all 
Greece! 

"  Then  there  is  the  Kingdom  of  Haggin,  a  most  delectable  domain ; 
the  Kingdom  of  Tevis,  the  ruler  of  which  has  been  called  to  a  still 
greater  estate;  the  Kingdom  of  Jack,  which  includes  nearly  half  of 
Monterey  County,  Cal.,  and  portions  of  adjacent  counties.  And 
besides  these  there  is  many  another  noble  monarchy.  Of  the  King- 
dom of  Carr  it  may  be  remarked  that  around  it  are  stretched  over 
100  miles  of  barbed  wire,  inside  of  which  are  whole  sections  of 
Government  land,  which  to  enclose  is  unlawful,  and  over  which  a 
holder  can  have  only  a  scrambling  and  tortious  possession,  as  the 
law-books  call  it. 

"  And  these  great  kingdoms  are  not  the  land  of  the  lean  kine,  but 
of  the  fat;  not  the  land  of  the  darnel,  but  of  the  full-headed  wheat 
—  the  land  of  the  fig,  the  olive,  and  the  vine  —  much  of  it  the 
richest,  fairest  land  that  lies  under  the  blue  arch  of  heaven." 

The  article  narrates  how  Benson  formed  an  alliance  with  Fred- 
erick A.  Hyde,  whose  "  operations  in  taking  up  whole  townships  by 
means  of  dummy  entrymen  attracted  Benson's  attention/'  and  how 
the  two  formed  a  plan  to  obtain  possession  through  dummies  of 
large  tracts  of  State  school-lands  and  other  lands,  and  to  "  dispose 
of  them  on  highly  advantageous  terms  to  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment itself!" 

In  this  connexion  Mr.  Millard  says :  "  Thousands  of  acres  of  the 
school-lands  '  stood  on  end/  as  the  real-estate  men  say  in  the  Sierras 
and  the  foot-hills.  Generally  they  were  of  little  value,  being  covered 
by  chaparral  and  dotted  with  granite  boulders.  How  was  it  possible 
to  unload  such  land  upon  the  Government?  Simply  by  interesting 
its  trusted  officers  in  the  plan.  The  Government  was  making  forest 
reservations  in  California  and  indemnifying  holders  of  land  forfeited 
for  that  purpose  by  giving  them  —  acre  for  acre  —  what  were  known 
as  '  lieu  lands/  to  be  selected  by  the  claimant  at  will  in  any  State 
where  Government  land  was  to  be  found.  Benson  and  Hyde's  long 
acquaintance  with  the  local  land  offices  and  the  offices  in  Washington 
placed  them  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  officials.  This  intimacy 
was  the  means  of  their  acquiring  advance  information  in  regard  to 
the  intentions  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior  and  the  Land  Office 
at  Washington.  The  information  enabled  them  to  influence  men  who 

270 


OUR   LAND    GRAFT 

would  recommend  to  the  Government  the  acquisition  of  certain 
tracts  as  forest  reserves.  Having  established  a  modus  vivendi  with 
these  men  on  a  money  basis  the  conspirators  not  only  decided  what 
land  should  be  recommended  for  forest  reservations,  but  even  drew, 
in  their  own  offices,  the  maps  which  subsequently  went  forward  to 
the  Government  with  the  recommendations  of  the  officials!  They 
made  the  forest-reserve  selections  so  as  to  include  the  property 
which  they  had  or  knew  they  could  get.  With  the  advantage  of 
knowing  the  lands  likely  to  be  declared  within  a  forest  reserve,  they 
went  to  work  to  'secure  persons  who  would  take  up  the  State  school- 
lands  in  those  prospective  reservations. 

"  This  was  accomplished  by  buying,  (as  the  testimony  before  United 
States  Commissioner  Heacock  showed),  anybody  and  everybody  who 
was  willing  to  sell  his  or  her  name  for  from  five  to  twenty  dollars. 
Mrs.  Belle  Curtis,  a  former  stenographer  in  Hyde's  office,  testified 
that  the  janitor  of  the  office,  several  of  his  colored  friends,  a  num- 
ber of  ranch-hands  from  Hyde's  ranches,  and  Stein,  Hyde's  barber, 
his  wife,  and  many  of  their  friends,  were  taken  to-  Hyde's  office, 
where  they1  signed  applications  for  State  school-lands  which  they  had 
never  seen,  which  might  be  in  Africa  for  all  they  knew.  For  sign- 
ing the  applications  and  the  assignments  of  their  rights  they  re- 
ceived from  five  to  ten  dollars.  Four  corrupt  notaries  received  the 
applications,  assignments,  and  affidavits  in  bunches  of  as  many  as 
forty  at  a  time  and  affixed  their  jurats,  though  they  knew  nothing 
of  the  persons  whose  names  "were  signed  to  the  documents. 

"  Having  the  title  to  the  school-lands,  the  next  step  of  the  schemers 
was  to  secure  the  '  lieu  lands/  which  was  easily  done  through  the 
obliging  officials.  It  was  shown  in  the  testimony  in  court  that  land 
costing  Hyde  and  Benson  $2  an  acre  was  disposed  of  to  the  Govern- 
ment for  lands  selling  for  $3  an  acre.  The  bribe  paid  to  the  offi- 
cials was  generally  ten  cents  an  acre  for  the  lands  actually  selected 
by  the  Government.  It  was  the  particular  mission  of  Henry  P. 
Dimond  to  push  the  matters  through  the  Land  Office  in  Washington; 
but  Hyde  and  Benson  had  still  other  agents.  William  E.  Valk  and 
Woodford  D.  Harlan,  of  the  General  Land  Office  at  Washington, 
confessed  that  they  were  in  the  employ  of  the  grafters  and  were  paid 
by  them.  Money  was  sent  in  letters  to  Valk,  to  Harlan,  to  J.  J. 
Barnes,  and  to  other  officials  at  Washington.  The  local  land  officials 
were  *  taken  care  of '  in  a  still  simpler  manner.  Greenbacks  were 
sent  in  envelopes  addressed  to  the  agents  of  the  different  land  offices, 
without  any  note  whatsoever.  These  facts  were  all  shown  in  court, 
and  as  the  result  of  the  untiring  efforts  of  Attorney  Heney,  the  Gov- 
ernment's powerful  instrument,  the  conspirators  have  been  held  for 
trial." 

Among  the  other  public  men  mentioned  by  Mr.  Millard  as  im- 
plicated in  this  enormous  graft  are  Binger  Hermann,  Representative 
from  Oregon  and  formerly  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Of- 
fice, John  H.  Hall,  United  States  District  Attorney  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  graft  charges,  Henry  Meldrum,  formerly  U.  S.  Surveyor  Gen- 
eral, S.  A.  D.  Puter,  .Senator  Mitchell  and  his  law-partner,  ex-Judge 
A.  H.  Tanner,  and  many  wealthy  men  of  the  West. 

271 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Among  those  indicted  on  Feb.  13,  1905,  for  "  conspiracy  to  de- 
fraud the  government  by  securing  possession  of  150,000  acres  of  land 
in  the  proposed  Blue  Mountain  Eeserve  and  transiting  them  into 
timber-land  scrip  by  reversion  of  title  to  the  Government "  were 
U.  S.  Senator  Mitchell,  State  Senator  Franklin,  Representatives 
Hermann  and  Williamson,  W.  N.  Jones,  P.  Mays,  George  Sorenson 
and  others. 

In  closing  his  disconcerting  expose  Mr.  Millard  says :  "  If  in  the 
foregoing  chapter  of  fraud  the  Eeader  thinks  that  he  has  read  the 
half  or  even  the  tenth  part  of  the  history  of  the  land-grafters  of 
California  and  Oregon,  let  him  not  deceive  himself.  Volumes  could 
be  written  upon  the  Mexican-grant  frauds,  the  railroad-grant  steals, 
the  timber-land  swindles,  the  desert-and  mineral-land  grabs  and  other 
giant  iniquities.  I  have  here  merely  touched  the  ground  in  the  high 
places,  taking  the  most  conspicuous  examples  of  this  greatest  of  all 
grafts.  And  at  the  bottom  of  it  all  is  that  cool,  indifferent,  easily 
satisfied  Land  Conscience,  one  of  the  most  baffling  elements  of  hu- 
man nature,  with  which  the  reformer  of  the  future  will  have  to 
deal/' 


CHAPTER  II 
THE   DESPOLIATION    OF   THE    PEOPLE 


273 


You  may  buy  land  now  as  cheap  as  stinking  mackerel. 

Shakespeare  —  Henry  IV. 

To  any  plain  understanding  the  right  of  property  is  very  simple.  It  is 
the  right  of  man  to  possess,  enjoy,  and  transfer,  the  substance  in  use  of 
whatever  he  has  himself  created.  This  title  is  good  against  the  world; 
and  it  is  the  sole  and  only  title  by  which  a  valid  right  of  absolute  private 
property  can  possibly  vest.  But  no  'man  can  plead  any  such  title  to  a 
right  of  property  in  the  substance  of  the  soil. 

James  Fintan  Lalor. 

Hither,  ye  blind,  from  your  futile  banding! 

Know  the  rights  and  the  rights  are  won. 
Wrong  shall  die  with  the  understanding, 

One  truth  clear,  and  the  work  is  done. 
Nature  is  higher  than  Progress  or  Knowledge 

Whose  need  is  ninety  enslaved  for  ten. 
My  word  shall  stand  against  mart  and  college: 

The  planet  belongs  to  its  living  men! 

John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 

Thieves  for  their  robbery  have  authority, 
When  judges  steal  themselves. 

Shakespeare  —  Measure  for  Measure. 

What  we  call  real  estate  —  the  solid  ground  to  build  a  house  on  —  is 
the  broad  foundation  on  which  nearly  all  the  guilt  of  this  world  rests. 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne  —  The  House  of  Seven  Gables. 


274 


HE  facts  recited  in  the  foregoing  chapter  are  not 
without  painstaking  and  elaborate  verification.  The 
testimony  of  Mr.  William  R.  Lighten,  of  Omaha, 
Nebraska,  who  has  made  a  careful  and  exhaustive 
study  of  this  subject  fully  bears  them  out.  Mr. 
Lighton  published  the  remarkable  results  of  his  in- 
vestigations in  a  series  of  seven  articles  which  appeared  in  the  Bos- 
ton Transcript  of  the  following  dates,  May  20  and  27,  June  3,  10, 
17  and  24,  and  July  1,  1905. 

In  these  articles  Mr.  Lighton  says :  "  Within  the  last  fifteen  years 
there  has  been  stolen  from  the  public  domain  not  less  than  150,- 
000,000  acres;  an  area  that  would  make  thirty  States  of  the  size 
of  Massachusetts,  five  .States  as  large  as  New  York,  or  three  States 
as  large  as  Kansas.  When  the  truth  is  known, —  as  it  may  be  by 
and  by, —  these  figures  will  doubtless  be  doubled,  trebled  or  quad- 
rupled. The  present  statement  is  one  justified  by  present  knowledge. 
A  recent  grand-jury  investigation  in  California,  backed  up  by  other 
official  inquiry,  disclosed  that  one  man  alone  in  that  .State  holds 
title  to  nearly  15,000,000  acres,  acquired  within  the  time  named  by 
the  flagrant  processes  of  theft.  There  are  dozens,  and  even  scores 
of  men  whose  stealings  will  run  from  10,000  to  1,000,000  acres  or 
more,  the  extent  of  their  grabs  depending  principally  upon  their 
.ability  to  swing  transactions  to  a  successsful  issue. 

"  No  reference  is  made  to  the  solemn,  semi-official  chicanery  of 
the  railroad  land  grants  or  to  the  equally  bald  grants  in  the  South- 
west, glossing  over  earlier  pilferings.  Those  deals  appear  by  com- 
parison impeccably  honest  and  above  reproach.  This  charge  relates 
only  to  such  downright,  outright,  deliberate  stealing  as  cannot  be 
described*  by  any  other  name,  bearing  no  stamp  of  formal  official 
approval. 

"  Wherever  there  is  a  body  of  public  land  large  enough  to  make  a 
bait  worth  swallowing,  there  the  thefts  are  going  on.  Lands  of 
every  description  are  included.  Millions  of  acres  in  the  rich  wheat 
valleys  of  California  have  been  stolen;  millions  of  acres  of  grazing- 
lands  on  the  plains  of  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Dakota,  Wyoming  and 
Montana  have  been  stolen ;  millions  of  acres  of  timber  land  in  north- 
ern California,  Oregon,  Washington,  Wyoming  and  Montana  have 
been  stolen,  not  to  mention  the  earlier  stealings  in  the  now  almost 
devastated  timber  regions  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota; 
and  now  the  lumber-thieves  are  plying  their  shameless  trade  un- 
hindered in  the  new  fields  of  Mississippi  and  other  undeveloped  dis- 

275 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

tricts  of  the  South;  unnumbered  acres  of  mineral  land  have  been 
stolen  —  in  fact,  nothing  worth  stealing  has  escaped  the  clutch  of 
these  bold  outlaws." 

These  "  bold  outlaws  "  it  should  be  remembered  are  considered  to 
be  eminently  respectable  men,  the  industrial  and  financial  barons  and 
kings  of  the  West.  So  popular  has  dishonesty  become  in  America 
that  only  petty  thieving  carries  with  it  the  sting  of  disapproval.  In 
good  sooth  may  it  be  said  of  us: 

"  In  the  corrupted  currents  of  this  world 
Offence's  gilded  hand  may  shove  by  justice; 
And  oft  'tis  seen  the  wicked  prize  itself 
Buys  out  the  law." 

Says  Mr.  Lighten :  "  One  of  the  thieves  is  a  U.  S.  Senator  who 
bought  his  seat  with  a  handful  of  the  small  change  from  his  timber 
and  gfazing-land  filchings. 

"  Another  is  Clark  of  Montana,  whose  thefts  in  timber  land,  amount 
to  millions  of  acres,  and  are  now  being  investigated  at  Helena. 
There  is  Warren  of  Wyoming,  Senator  Mitchell  of  Oregon.  Be- 
sides there  are  many  of  the  smaller  fry  from  the  same  school  of  fish 
filling  seats  in  the  lower  House  of  Congress. 

"But  as  a  general  proposition  the  biggest  and  most  notorious  of 
these  grafters  are  not  in  official  positions;  neither  are  they  seeking 
them.  In  the  language  of  one  bold  buccaneer  of  the  order,  '  It's 
easier  to  own  a  Judge  than  to  be  one.'  .  .  . 

"  The  Interior  Department,  particularly  the  General  Land  Office, 
has  been  aware  of  the  thefts,  since  their  inception;  and  knowledge 
has  not  been  merely  constructive  but  actual.  .  .  . 

"  The  Department  of  Justice  is  no  more  in  ignorance  than  the  Inte- 
rior Department.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  Congress  more  than,  any  other  branch  of  the  Government 
which  is  chargeable  with  full  and  guilty^  knowledge  of  this  stu- 
pendous crime." 

Under  date  of  May  27th.  he  publishes  a  most  instructive  table 
to  which  he  adds  comments  of  great  importance  to  all  interested  in 
his  subject.  He  says :  "  Some  conception  of  the  scope  of  recent 
operations  in  public  lands  may  be  got  from  a  glance  at  the  following 
table,  taken  from  an  official  source,  showing  the  total  alienations 
of  lands  by  the  Government  in  each  of  the  six  years  from  1898  to 
1903. 

1898  , 8,453,896  acres 

1899 9,182,413     " 

1900  13,453,887     " 

1901  15,562,796     " 

1902  19,488,538     " 

1903 22,824,299     " 

"  This  shows  a  total  of  nearly  90,000,000  acres  passed  from  the  U. 
S.  to  individuals  within  the  brief  period  named.  Compare  with  this 
the  estimate,  also  official,  that  there  now  remains  in  the  public  domain 

276 


THE    DESPOLIATION    OF   THE    PEOPLE 

only  about  200,000,000  acres  unappropriated  suitable  for  agriculture 
or  for  grazing. 

"  But  the  striking  feature  of  the  table  is  the  high  rate  of  increase 
apparent  from  year  to  year  —  an  increase  of  almost  200  per  cent  from 
1898  to  1903.  Most  of  this  has  been  taken  under  the  homestead  law, 
in  the  face  of  the  statement  repeatedly  made  that  the  lands  suitable 
for  homesteading  under  existing  laws  and  under  the  present  methods 
of  soil  culture  have  long  since  been  practically  exhausted.  This  was 
one  of  the  stoutest  arguments  advanced  in  support  of  national  irriga- 
tion legislation.  And  it  is  the  plain  truth.  These  lands  that  are 
being  so  industriously  homesteaded  are  for  the  most  part  grazing- 
lands  on  the  high  plains.  .  .  . 

"  In  1902  Binger  Hermann  of  Oregon  was  Commissioner  of  the  Gen- 
eral Land  Office,  and  in  his  report  for  that  year  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  he  wrote: 

'  It  appears  that  the  original  homestead  entries,  final  homestead 
entries  and  commutation  homestead  entries  made  during  the  last  fiscal 
year  aggregated  188,445  in  number  and  19,481,844  in  acres,  an 
increase  over  the  year  1901  of  77,055  in  number  and  4,026,786  in 
acre's,  a  very  gratifying  exhibit  of  the  appropriation  of  public  lands 
by  American  settlers/ 

"  But  observe !  As  an  appendix  to  this  complacent  document  there 
appears  a  report  of  a  special  agent  then  at  work  in  Nebraska,  in  the 
course  of  which  occurs  this  plain  English : 

"  The  '  Hobo  Filing/  This  method  of  securing  colour  of  title  to 
public  lands  has  grown  alarmingly  in  this  State  during  the  past  two 
or  three  years ;  these  filings  being  made  by  cattlemen  and  ranch  owners 
to  protect  their  fence  lines.  They  allude  to  them  as  '  our  filings  '  just 
the  same  as  so  many  cattle.  No  attempt  is  made  or  expected  to  be 
made  to  comply  with  the  law,  except,  perhaps,  to  erect  a  small  pen 
or  shack ;  and  in  some  cases  the  claimant  goes  onto  the  claim  once  in 
six  months,  so  that  he  can  declare  when  he  proves  up  that  he  has  not 
been  absent  from  the  claim  more  than  six  months  at  any  one  time.  In 
most  cases,  however,  no  attempt  is  made  at  all  toward  improvement 
or  compliance  with  the  homestead  law.  These  entries  are  made  by 
anybody  and  everybody  that  they  can  get  who  will  certify  to  the  oath  — 
loafers,  tramps,  railway  graders,  Negroes,  men  and  women.  .  .  . 

"  The  homestead  law  is  a  dead  letter,  absolutely  no  attention  paid 
to  it. 

"  Senator  W.  A.  Clark  of  Montana  has  acquired  more  than  1,000,000 
acres  of  timber  land. 

"  Another,  conspicuous  most  of  all,  perhaps,  is  the  case  of  Henry 
Miller  of  San  Francisco.  He  came  to  the  United  States  from  Ba- 
varia in  1847  and  worked  for  three  years  thereafter  as  a  butcher  in 
Washington  Market,  N.  Y.,  then  went  out  to  California  and  worked 
at  his  trade  there  until  1857  —  studying  American  institutions  mean- 
while, it  appears.  He  then  linked  his  fortunes  with  those  of  a  man 
named  Lux,  and  together  these  worthies  (in  the  naive  phrasing  of  an 
autobiographical  sketch  from  Miller's  hand)  'acquired  800,000  acres 
in  California,  besides  other  lands  in  Oregon  and  Nevada/  and  started 
in  the  live-stock  business.  At  one  time  they  had  80,000  cattle  and 

277 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

100,000  sheep  on  their  ranges.  This,  mind  you,  from  a  beginning  on 
butcher's  pay!  Furthermore,  Miller  now  has  title  to  mere  than 
13,000,000  acres,  'acquired'  by  methods  which  his  autobiography 
neglects  to  state." 

The  article  bearing  date  of  June  3,  is  replete  with  interesting  data, 
from  which  we  extract  the  following : 

"  The  soldier's  widow  was  an  important  factor  in  this  deal,  as  in 
many  another  like  it;  indeed  she  is  always  in  active  demand,  because 
of  the  comparative  ease  of  using  her.  Within  a  short  time  I  have  been 
able  to  verify  a  rather  startling  report  of  genuine  Yankee  thrift  in 
this  connection.  A  practising  physician  in  Omaha,  a  man  of  good 
standing  in  his  profession,  while  acting  as  a  pension  examiner  made 
a  contract  with  a  long-headed  ranch-man  in  the  western  end  of  the 
State,  by  the  terms  of  which  he  was  to  corral  soldiers'  widows  and 
send  them  out  to  make  homestead  filings  in  the  ranchman's  behoof ;  he 
to  receive  as  compensation  for  his  services  the  sum  of  $25  for  each 
widow  delivered  according  to  specifications.  In  the  course  of  time  his 
debit  account  amounted  to  $600.  Payment  was  refused  and  the  claim 
was  given  to  an  attorney  to  collect.  A  year  ago  a  Federal  grand 
jury  toyed  with  the  gentleman  for  a  time,  but  let  him  go.  ... 

"  For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1902,  the  land-office  agents  re- 
ported a  total  of  153  cases  of  unlawful  fencing,  in  the  whole  of  the 
public-land  region,  embracing  a  meagre  3,952,844  acres.  '  There  may 
be  a  few  more,'  added  the  complacent  Commissioner  Hermann,  '  but 
this  is  practically  the  total.' 

"  There  is  not  a  State  in  all  the  region  that  has  not  a  greater  total. 
Nebraska  alone  can  show  fifty  per  cent  more;  Wyoming,  with  her 
35,000,000  unappropriated  acres,  can  show  200  per  cent  more;  so 
can  Montana;  so  can  New  Mexico;  so  can  Arizona, 

"Last  April  (1904)  Senator  Warren  of  Wyoming  voiced  this 
challenge  to  the  ears  of  his  brethren :  '  If  all  these  frauds  exist,  as 
people  charge,  why  don't  the  Government  agent  find  them  ? '  To 
which  .Senator  Gibson  of  Montana  (an  awfully  plain-spoken  man)  re- 
plied : 

'  The  agents  of  the  Government  simply  do  not  do  their  duty.  They 
are  bought  off.'  And  he  went  on  to  mention  an  instance  or  two. 
Bather  curiously,  his  statement  created  not  so  much  as  a  ripple  of 
interest  or  excitement." 

The  article  of  June  17,  bears  the  title  "  The  Beneficent  Assistance 
of  Our  Congress."  It  contains  the  following :  "  Within  a  short  time 
past  I  have  talked  with  many  of  the  large  land-holders  of  Western  Ne- 
braska, Western  Kansas,  Wyoming,  Montana  and  Eastern  Colorado, 
repeating  this  question: 

*  Here,  suppose  the  General  Government  prosecutes  an  investigation 
some  time  and  brings  actions  for  the  recovery  of  these  lands.  What 
will  you  cattlemen  do  then  ?  '  One  answer,  received  from  half-a-dozen 
different  sources,  was  significent: 

'If  that  time  ever  comes,  Congress  will  simply  confirm  title  in  us. 
We  can't  give  up  the  land  without  utter  ruin.' 

"  There,  you  see,  comes  in  the  plea  of  the  sacred  '  Vested  Interest.'  " 

In  the  closing  article  of  the  series  —  that  of  July  1  Mr.  Lighten 

278 


says :  "  In  one  Public-Land  State  one  thief  in  particular  has  stolen 
on  a  scale  .of  vast  magnitude  —  hot  by  paltry  quarter  sections,  but  by 
tens  of  square  miles.  Whenever  necessary  to  the  furtherance  of  his 
infamous  designs,  he  has  not  hesitated  to  suborn  perjury  and  to 
commit  it  himself ;  he  has  not  hesitated  to  corrupt,  by  outright  bribery 
and  otherwise,  surveyors,  inspectors,  and  other  officials  of  the  General 
Land  Office  and  of  the  local  land  office  in  his  State ;  he  has  not  hesi- 
tated, when  the  need  arose,  to  spread  the  network  of  his  evil  influence 
over  the  Federal  bench  of  his  circuit  and  to  procure  a  Federal  Judge, 
to  give  solemn  legal  confirmation  to  his  acts  by  quieting  title  to  the 
stolen  lands,  upon  the  gauzy  pretext  that  this  sham«less  conspirator 
was  a  purchaser  in  good  faith  and  without  notice  of  the  frauds. 

"  This  is  what  is  going  on  to-day,  in  the  name  of  justice ;  and  this 
man  speaks  with  authority  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  Disclosures 
and  ample  proofs  will  be  forthcoming  in  due  time,  a  time  that  now 
promises  to  be  not  far  distant,  God  speed  the  day." 

In  "  The  Land  Question  From  Various  Points  of  View,"  published 
by  C.  F.  Taylor  of  Philadelphia  appears  an  article  by  J.  L.  McCreery 
of  Washington,  D.  C.,  entitled  "  Our  System  of  Distributing  the 
Public  Lands." 

The  writer  heads  the  article  with  this  sentence,  "  It  has  been  an 
Instrument  of  f  Fraud  and  Injustice  and  General  Demoralisation." 
Under  the  sub-heading,  "  Frauds  Under  the  Pre-emption  and  Home- 
stead Acts,"  Mr.  McCreery  says:  "Let  us  suppose  (to  invent  a 
name)  that  the  New  York  and  Nebraska  Land  and  Cattle  Company 
start  in  business  in  the  far  west.  It  has  in  its  employ  one  hundred 
'  cowboys.'  The  fertile  valley  of  a  stream  is  selected  for  its  opera- 
tions. At  the  instance  of  the  manager  of  the  company  each  of  the 
cowboys  files  a  pre-emption  declaratory  statement  for  a  quarter  sec- 
tion (160  acres)  of  land.  The  land  is  selected  in  such  a  form  as  to 
cover  as  much  space  as  possible  up  and  down  the  stream.  One  man's 
four  forty-acre  tracts  in  a  '  string '  can  often  be  made  to  cover  a  mile 
of  the  water  course.  Sometimes  not  more  than  three-quarters  of  a 
mile.  A  hundred  entrymen  can  thus  take  in  seventy-five  miles  of  the 
stream  —  the  richest  part  of  the  valley. 

"  The  pre-emption  law  requires  that  a  person  purchasing  land  there- 
under must  prove  that  he  has  inhabited  and  improved  such  land.  It 
does  not  say  haw  long  he  must  have  done  so.  The  General  Land  Office 
has  supplied  this  omission,  and  carried  into  effect  what  it  conceives  to 
be  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  law,  by  establishing  a  rule  that  such 
lesidence  and  improvement  must  have  continued  for  at  least  six 
months,  in  order  to  afford  a  presumption  that  the  settler  is  acting  in 
good  faith.  So  a  few  days  after  the  expiration  of  six  months  from 
the  date  of  the  entry  the  cowboys,  in  '  squads/  appear  at  the  local 
land  office,  and  '  prove  up.'  It  is  not  necessary  to  have  erected  a 
dwelling-house  upon  and  improved  the  land  if  the  entryman  and  his 
two  witnesses  have  sufficiently  elastic  consciences.  A  has  for  witnesses 
B  and  C ;  B  has  for  witnesses  A  and  C ;  C  has  for  witnesses  A  and  B. 
The  land  is  paid  for  in  cash  —  which  the  company  furnishes.  The 
cowboys  step  over  to  the  nearest  lawyer's  office,  or  more  likely  the  com- 
pany has  its  own  lawyer,  and  deed  every  acre  of  land  to  the  company. 

279 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"Having  exhausted  their  right  under,  the  pre-emption  law,  they 
forthwith  proceed  to  enter  as  much  more  land  under  the  homestead 
law.  At  the  end  of  six  months  they  pay  (with  money  furnished  by  the 
company)  for  the  land  under  the  commutation  provision  of  the  home- 
stead law,  and  at  once  transfer  it  to  the  company. 

"  But  the  end  is  not  yet.  True,  the  pre-emption  act  and  the  home- 
stead act  each  provides  that  no  person  shall  have  the  benefit  thereof 
more  than  once.  But  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  the  cowboy 
that  last  year  made  pre-emption  and  homestead  entry  of  certain  land 
under  the  name  of  John  Brown,  now  makes  entry  of  another  quarter 
section  under  the  name  of  Nicholas  Yost;  Frank  Smith  becomes 
Theophilus  Baxter;  Henry  Jones  becomes  Philip  Lingenfelter;  and 
seven  months  later  the  syndicate  obtains  possession  of  thirty  thousand 
acres  more  of  the  best  land  in  the  state. 

"  And  by  and  by  the  immigration  of  honest  settlers  begins.  They 
push  into  this  region  only  to  find  that  all  the  land  worth  having,  up 
and  'down  that  water  course  for  a  hundred  miles,  has  past  into  the 
hands  of  this  land  syndicate.  There  is,  at  a  moderate  estimate,  a 
space  of  ten  miles  on  each  side  of  this  stream,  and  whatever  tribu- 
taries run  into  it  —  twenty  miles  in  width  by  a  hundred  miles  in 
length,  covering  an  area  of  two  thousand  square  miles  —  in  which 
no  bona  fide  settler  can  find  a  foot  of  water  front." 

From  that  portion  of  Mr.  McCreery's  article  sub-headed,  "  Timber 
Frauds  Under  Colour  of  Law"  we  extract  the  following:  "The 
lumber  companies  (as  hereinbefore  explained  in  the  case  of  cattle 
companies)  use  their  employes  as  fictitious  homestead  entrymen  (or 
pre-emptors,  until  the  pre-emption  law  was  repealed) .  A  little  shanty, 
not  quite  the  size  of  a  street-car,  is  built  upon  '  skids/  so  that  it  can 
be  easily  drawn  from  a  piece  of  land  which  has  been  cleared  of  its 
merchantable  timber  to  one  which  the  company  proposes  next  to  de- 
nude. The  lumberman's  occasional  visit  to  this  ' claim  shanty'  is 
made  to  count  for  '  residence/  He  cuts  down  the  largest  trees  (for 
the  company's  use),  and  is  prepared  to  swear  that  he  has  been  '  clear- 
ing '  his  '  farm/  The  peelings  of  his  potatoes,  the  seeds  of  his  canned 
tomatoes,  etc.,  are  thrown  into  a  ditch  and  covered,  and  he  is  ready  to 
testify  that  he  has  done  a  little  something  in  the  way  of  '  cultivation/ 
The  seeds  of  such  apples  as  he  may  get  hold  of  and  eat  are  dropped 
somewhere,  and  furnish  a  foundation  for  the  statement  that  he  has 
plantel  a  few  fruit  trees.  Of  course,  it  is  all  a  wretched  farce,  but 
the  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office,  fifteen  hundred  miles 
away  in  Washington,  has  no  means  of  knowing  that.  The  local  officers 
have  little  inducement  to  ask  troublesome  questions.  Among  the 
*  silent  partners '  of  the  lumber  company  there  is  generally  at  least 
one  Senator  or  Eepresentative  in  Congress  to  whom  the  officers  owe 
their  position,  and  they  would  not  have  been  recommended  for  ap- 
pointment if  such  Senator  or  Eepresentative  had  not  supposed  them 
to  have,  if  not  'horse  SCLSC,'  at  least  as  much  sense  as  'the  ox  who 
knoweth  his  owner  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib/  " 

Under  the  caption  "  Bribery  of  Government  Officials "  the  author 
relates  how  "  land-proof  notices  "  were  published  in  a  few  papers  of 

flTl     IKKIIP    flft.pr    wVlir>Vi     +Vlo    nHvp-r-Hoornmri-c    WOT-O    "  li-Pfarl     m-it  "     ^-^A    J13 


an  issue  after  which  the  advertisements  were  "  lifted  out "  and  did 

280 


not  appear  in  the  copies  circulating  among  subscribers.  Apropos  of 
"  The  Stockman/'  printed  at  Springer,  Colfax  Co.,  New  Mexico,  he 
says:  "  There  is  also  on  file  an  affidavit,  dated  July  31,  1884,  from  the 
foreman  of  '  The  Stockman/  A.  L.  Clark,  in  which  (among  other 
things)  he  says: 

*  We  got  ten  dollars  for  each  of  these  fraudulent  notices,  and  five 
dollars  for  those  that  appeared  in  the  regular  and  full  issue.  The 
notices  came  from  the  Register,  with  a  check  or  mark  on  them  indi- 
cating which  were  to  go  into  the  regular  issue  and  which  into  the 
fraudulent/  .  .  .  Olney  Newell,  who  was  the  actual  owner  of  the 
'  Stockman/  told  me  that  he  establisht  said  paper  in  Springer  for 
the  express  purpose  of  printing  fraudulent  land  notices." 

Another  audacious  steal  from  the  Government  was  in  connection 
with  an  Act  of  Congress  of  July  5,  1886,  granting  the  State  of  Oregon 
"  lands  to  the  extent  of  1920  acres  per  mile  to  aid  in  the  construction 
of  a  military-waggon  road  from  Albany  to  the  eastern  boundary  of 
the  state."  Section  4  of  this  act  provided  that : 

"  When  the  Governor  of  said  State  shall  certify  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  that  any  ten  continuous  miles  of  said  road  are  completed, 
then  a  quantity  of  land  hereby  granted,  not  to  exceed  thirty  miles, 
may  be  sold,  coterminous  to  said  completion  of  said  road;  and  so 
from  time  to  time  until  said  road  is  completed." 

Various  Governors  of  Oregon  certified  at  different  times  to  the 
completion  of  numerous  ten-mile  sections  of  the  road,  the  United 
States  conveyed  title  to  the  land  as  provided  by  Act  of  Congress,  and 
the  State  of  Oregon  disposed  of  the  land  to  various  parties  who 
hastily  sold  it  to  third  persons.  Later  an  official  investigation  dis- 
closed the  fact  that  only  a  small  portion  of  the  pretended  357  miles 
of  road  had  been  constructed.  The  United  States  instituted  suit  for 
the  recovery  of  its  lands,  and  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  ruled 
that,  since  Congress  had  delegated  to  the  governor  of  Oregon  the  au- 
thority to  determine  whether  or  not  the  road  had  been  built  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  law,  his  certificate  to  the  effect  that  the  road  had 
been  properly  built,  whether  true  or  false,  was  conclusive  and  there- 
fore the  government  could  not  recover  its  lands. 

By  reference  to  Vol.  147  of  U.  S.  Supreme  Court  Reports,  page 
165,  etc.,  the  Reader  will  find  the  particulars  of  one  of  the  most  bare- 
faced swindles  ever  perpetrated  upon  our  government. 

He  will  see  how  the  Union  River  Railroad  Company  in  Washing- 
ton (then  a  territory)  secured  a  right-of-way  from  the  government  to 
haul  timber  to  tide-water  over  government  lands,  and  then  stole  the 
timber  so  hauled  from  the  government.  "  Just  think,"  says  a  recent 
writer  in  regard  to  this  episode,  "  of  the  e  cheek '  required  to  obtain 
from  the  government  a  right-of-way  over  which  to  carry  to  market 
timber  stolen  from  the  government ! " 

Nor  does  this  close  the  long  series  of  land  crimes.  We  have  touched 
only  the  more  conspicuous  and  typical,  lack  of  space  preventing  any- 
thing like  an  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  subject.  One  more  land 
outrage  has  yet  to  be  mentioned  because  of  its  recent  occurrence,  its 
picturesque  death's-head-and-cross-bones  piracy,  and  the  light  it  casts 
upon  the  supposed  spotless  sanctity  of  the  judicial  ermine.  We  refer 

281 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

to  the  land  thefts  of  Alaska.  This  subject  has  recently  been  most 
ably  treated  by  Mr.  Eex  E.  Beach  in  a  series  of  articles  entitled  "  The 
Looting  of  Alaska,"  published  in  "  Appleton's  Booklover's  Magazine," 
beginning  in  the  January,  1906,  number.* 

Those  who  wish  the  full  story  of  this  unexampled  bit  of  brigandage 
are  referred  to  Mr.  Beach's  articles.  We  can  only  offer  here  a  brief 
skeleton  of  the  shameless  crime,  a  crime  which  was  perpetrated  through 
the  assistance  of  members  of  Congress  and  of  the  judiciary. 

We  ask  the  Header's  careful  attention  to  this  statement  because 
we  hope  to  convince  him,  even  though  he  be  an  optimist,  that  any 
real  reform  which  requires  special  legislation  to  put  it  in  practice  is 
not  likely  to  be  adopted  by  a  purchasable  Congress  which  though 
nominally  representing  the  voters  of  the  country,  is  actually  in  the 
pay  of  special  privilege.  He  will  see  that  here  as  elsewhere  it  is  the 
same  familiar  story  of  official  and  judicial  corruption,  and  it  is  be- 
lieved that  he  will  come,  in  the  end,  to  realise  that  if  anything  is  to 
be  done  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  unprivileged  labourer,  it 
must  be  done  by  the  labourer  himself  without  the  aid  of  Congress  or 
Courts. 

It  is  related  that  a  well-known  Westerner  by  the  name  of  Hoxie  paid 
the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  to  influence  a  verdict  in  his  favour. 
When  charged  with  bribery  he  admitted  having  paid  the  money  but 
repudiated  the  charge  saying,  "  Your  Honour,  I  paid  that  money  in  the 
interests  of  truth.  I  want  only  justice,  but  justice  comes  high  in 
this  locality."  That  was  years  ago  and  the  disease  has  spread  till 
now,  with  regret  be  it  said,  justice  comes  high  anywhere  in  the  United 
States, —  so  high  that  for  the  most  part  only  Special  Privilege  and 
Corruption  can  pay  the  price. 

The  looting  of  Alaska  swings  about  one  Alexander  McKenzie  as  a 
central  pivot. 

The  character  which  Mr.  Beach  bestows  upon  this  worthy  might  be 
compounded  as  follows,  from  Mr.  Lawson's  characterisations  of 
frenzied  financiers.  Take  the  initiative  he  has  given  H.  H.  Eogers, 
the  conscience  he  has  bestowed  upon  J.  Edward  O'Sullivan  Addicks,  if 
it  can  be  found,  and  the  insatiate  greed  ascribed  to  John  D.  himself, 
stir  well  and  season  with  the  daredeviltry  of  a  drunken  highwayman, 
and  you  have  the  "  Czar  of  North  Dakota  "  as  described  by  Mr.  Beach. 

This  McKenzie  is  the  man  who,  according  to  Mr.  Beach,  all  but 
succeeded  in  "  fixing "  North  Dakota  legislation  so  as  to  permit  the 
Louisiana  Lottery  to  enter  that  State.  Indeed  he  had  gotten  the  press 
muzzled  and  the  law-makers  corrupted  to  his  complete  liking,  when, 
bv  the  merest  chance,  the  "  'Pioneer  Press  "  of  St.  Paul  got  wind  of 
the  matter  and  sent  a  member  of  its  staff,  Mr.  Conde  Hamlin,  to  the 
North  Dakota  Capital,  to  air  the  matter.  When  Mr.  Hamlin  made 
known  his  errand  his  life  was  threatened.  So  desperate  were  the 
McKenzie  gang  that  Mr.  Hamlin  was  obliged  to  go  into  hiding.  He 
was  spied  upon  and  assaulted,  yet  he  continued  his  work.  His  life 
was  attempted,  yet  he  did  not  desist  until  he  had  given  the  conspirators 

*  Copyright,  1906,  by  D.  Appleton  and  Company.  Reprinted  by  permis- 
sion from  "  Appleton's  Magazine  "  for  January,  1906. 

282 


THE   DESPOLIATION   OF  THE   PEOPLE 

such  publicity  and  created  such-  a  public  sentiment  that  the  legislature 
was  constrained  to  kill  once  and  for  all  the  measure  which  but  for 
Hamlin's  work  would  have  disgraced  North  Dakota  for  thirty  years. 

This  incident  in  McKenzie's  career  shows,  to  use  Mr.  Beach's  words, 
"  the  calibre  and  ability  of  the  man  who  now  turned  his  attention  to 
Alaska,  the  newest,  the  richest,  and  the  weakest  of  our  possessions. 
To  one  who  had  moved  a  capitol,  handled  a  railroad,  smothered  a 
legislature,  and  done  other  things  on  a  like  scale,  the  plunder  of  a 
province  was  but  a  step/' 

In  the  winter  of  1899-1900  Congress  passed  a  bill  providing  civil 
government  for  Alaska.  A  code  of  laws  was  prepared  which,  among 
other  things,  gave  unusual  political  and  judicial  powers  to  the  United 
States  judges.  The  code  provided  that,  "  The  title  of  any  lands  hereto- 
fore conveyed  shall  not  be  questioned  nor  in  any  manner  affected  by 
reason  of  the  alienage  of  any  person  from  or  through  whom  such 
title  may  have  been  derived."  This  was  simply  applying  to  Alaska 
mining  laws  already  existing  in  other  portions  of  the  United  States. 

Now  it  seems  that  Alexander  McKenzie,  the  Czar  of  North  Dakota, 
0.  P.  Hubbard,  the  Alaskan  lawyer,  Robert  Chipps,  the  claim  jumper, 
H.  E.  Hansbrough,  Senator  from  North  Dakota,  and  Senator  Thomas 
H.  Carter,  under  whose  supervision  the  Alaskan  code  of  laws  was  pre- 
pared, had  been  in  consultation  in  Washington  when  Congress  was 
about  to  establish  civil  government  in  Alaska.  "  The  fifteen  million 
dollar  Alaska  Gold  Mining  Company  had  been  incorporated,"  says 
Mr.  Beach,*  "to  exploit  the  worthless  mining  titles  of  the  claim- 
jumpers,  and  a  plastic  tool,  Arthur  H.  Noyes,  of  Minneapolis,  had 
been  picked  as  a  judge  to  administer  the  laws  for  the  Nome  district. 
.  .  .  That  he  was  in  many  ways  a  good  choice  for  the  clique  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  his  Alaskan  record  is  too  extraordinary  for 
belief. 

"  The  United  States  Constitution,  the  code  under  which  he  held 
office,  the  laws  of  ordinary  honour  and  decency,  were  to  him  as  dead  as 
the  Sanskrit  and  as  unsanctified  as  a  soap  advertisement.  First,  he 
gained  general  hatred  until  his  weakness  and  vacillation  appeared,  and 
although  there  is  still  cherished  in  Alaska  the  bitterest  enmity  for 
McKenzie,  yet  for  Arthur  H.  Noyes,  his  miserable,  liquor-sodden  ac- 
complice, there  remains  nothing  but  contempt. 

"  An  illuminating  incident  anent  his  appointment  and  showing  the 
character  of  men  behind  the  plot,  is  that  Senator  Bard,  of  California, 
who  had  just  taken  his  seat,  was  promised  the  Alaskan  judgeship  for  a 
friend  who  had  helped  in  his  election.  It  was  so  well  settled  that  his 
friend  was  to  receive  the  position  that  his  fellow-Senators  congratu- 
lated him  upon  obtaining  such  a  good  appointment  so  early  in  the 
game.  Just  before  confirmation,  however,  President  McKinley  called 
him  in,  stating  that  such  pressure  had  been  brought  to  bear  that  he 
was  forced  to  break  his  word  and  give  to  Mr.  Noyes  the  position  he 
had  promised  the  Senator's  friend.  An  influence,  indeed,  to  make 
William  McKinley  break  a  promise ! " 

*  Copyright,  1906,  by  D.  Appleton  and  Company.  Reprinted  by  permis- 
sion from  "Appleton's  Magazine"  for  January,  1906. 

283 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Now  the  idea  of  this  precious  band  was  to  secure  for  its  own  use  and 
behoof  temporary  control  of  valuable  mining  property  already  owned 
by  others  and  to  "  gut "  it  before  they  could  be  dispossessed. 

Their  first  move  was  to  get  Senator  Hansbrough  to  introduce,  in  lieu 
of  the  above-quoted  section  of  the  code  forbidding  the  questioning  of 
title  on  account  of  alienage,  the  following :  "  Aliens  shall  not  be 
permitted  to  locate,  hold,  or  convey  mining  claims  in  said  District 
of  Alaska ;  nor  shall  any  title  to  a  mining  claim  acquired  by  location 
or  purchase  through  an  alien  be  legal.  In  any  civil  action,  suit,  or 
proceeding  to  recover  the  possession  of  a  mining  claim,  or  for  the 
appointment  of  a  receiver,  or  for  an  injunction  to  restrain  the  working 
or  operation  of  a  mining  claim,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  court  to 
inquire  into  and  determine  the  question  of  the  citizenship  of  the 
locator,  etc."  Commenting  on  this  Mr.  Beach  says :  *  "  Although  the 
amendment  would  have  been  unconstitutional,  still,  if  passed,  it  would 
have  given  the  conspirators  a  peg  to  hang  upon  until  it  had  been  re- 
pealed or  reviewed  by  the  Supreme  Court.  Before  action  could  be 
taken  they  would  have  gutted  the  mines,  floated  the  big  company,  and 
sold  out." 

A  battle  royal  ensued  over  this  point.  Congressman  John  F.  Lacey 
of  Iowa,  Senator  Stewart  of  Nevada  and  others  saw  what  it  meant  and 
lined  up  against  it.  So  stubbornly,  however,  did  Hansbrough  and 
his  clique  fight  that  the  debate  lasted  nearly  a  month,  before  the 
amendment  was  voted  down.  This  left  the  Alaskan  mining  laws  the 
same  as  those  of  Colorado,  Montana  and  other  States. 

This  defeat  caused  the  conspirators  to  change  their  tactics.  If 
they  could  not  make  laws  to  their  liking,  the  next  best  thing  was  to 
administer  those  already  made  according  to  their  own  sweet  wills,  and 
this,  Mr.  Beach  shows,  is  precisely  what  they  'did.  We  have  seen  how 
pressure  was  brought  to  bear  on  President  McKinley,  with  the  result 
that  he  was  led  to  "  break  a  promise  "  and  to  give  the  Alaskan  judge- 
ship  to  Arthur  H.  Noyes. 

What  more  did  McKenzie  need?  Late  in  the  preceding  summer, 
great  excitement  had  been  caused  by  a  rich  gold  "  find  "  in  the  beach 
sands  at  Nome.  An  army  of  miners  had  flocked  thither  and  were 
peacefully  and  industriously  working  the  "pay  dirt,"  shoulder  to 
shoulder.  All  that  was  necessary  was  for  the  Czar  and  his  retinue  to 
repair  to  Nome,  dispossess  the  miners  of  their  claims,  and  "  gut "  them 
during  the  pendency  of  any  litigation  which  might  result.  We  fancy 
we  hear  you  say  that  the  law  would  not  permit  such  an  outrageous 
injustice.  The  law  was  McKenzie.  Justice  breathed  through  the 
Czar's  lungs.  He  is  quoted  as  boasting  on  one  occasion  that  "  he  had 
the  Nome  courts  in  his  vest  pocket,"  and  he  amply  proved  the  as- 
sertion in  due  course. 

To  attempt  a  brief  explanation  of  this  extraordinary  proceeding 
would  be  to  do  the  subject  injustice.  We  prefer  to  quote  Mr.  Beach's 
own  words  at  some  considerable  length.  After  describing  the  un- 
paralleled activity  along  the  water-front  following  the  discovery  of 
gold  in  the  beach  sands  he  goes  on  to  say : 

*  Copyright,  1906,  by  D.  Appleton  and  Company.  Reprinted  by  permis- 
sion from  "  Appleton's  Magazine  "  for  January,  1906. 

284 


THE    DESPOLIATION    OF   THE    PEOPLE 

"  Upon  this  scene  of  vigour  and  progress  the  new  court  officials  ap- 
peared late  in  July.  t  Four  days  later  Alexander  McKenzie  was  in  pos- 
session of  the  mines  he  coveted,  the  owners  had  been  thrown  off,  and 
in  two  days  more  he  had  taken  everything  the  unfortunates  owned, 
even  to  personal  property,  such  as  tents,  houses,  horses,  books,  clothes, 
and  gold  which  had  been  mined' elsewhere.  Within  a  week  his  system 
was  running  smoothly,  his  court  was  grinding  out  orders  unheard  of  in 
law,  in  decency,  or  in  dreams;  and  the  stream  of  gold  dust  had  been 
diverted  from  the  .Swedes  into  the  pockets  whose  bottoms  reached  to 
Washington. 

"  His  beach-mining  outfit  was  established  and  waiting  when  he  ar- 
rived, so  one  of  his  first  acts  was  to  instruct  Judge  Noyes  to  issue 
orders  ejecting  the  miners  along  the  shore.  Although  Congress  had 
just  fixed  a  strip  of  sand  which  should  ever  remain  open  and  free 
to  all,  nevertheless,  in  direct  disregard  of  this,  soldiers  were  sent 
out  to  arrest  the  poor  men  hunting  for  a  winter's  grubstake.  Noyes 
construed  the  law  in  such  a  manner  as  to  limit  them  to  a  tiny  strip 
only  a  few  feet  wide  at  the  water's  edge. 

"  On  the  afternoon  of  his  arrival  McKenzie  entered  the  law  offices 
of  Hubbard,  Beaman  &  Hume,  demanding  of  them  a  half  interest 
in  the  jumper's  titles  which  they  owned,  stating  that  he  controlled 
the  judge  and  district  attorney,  and  that  if  they  desired  their  cases 
to  reach  a  hearing  at  all  they  must  '  dig  up/  The  lawyers  consented, 
receiving,  in  lieu  of  the  supposed  titles,  stock  in  the  Alaska  Gold 
Mining  Company.  The  politician  further  demanded  that  a  one- 
quarter  interest  in  their  entire  law  business  be  given  to  his  district 
attorney,  Joseph  K.  Woods,  promising  in  return  to  appoint  Hume  as 
Wood's  assistant.  On  the  following  day  he  came  to  them  again,  de- 
manding an  additional  one-quarter  interest  in  their  general  business 
for  himself.  After  demurring,  the  partners  did  this  also.  Inasmuch 
as  the  firm  had  most  of  the  contested  title  cases  of  the  district, 
in  this  way  McKenzie  and  his  coterie  became  interested  in  both  sides 
of  the  resultant  litigation,  contingent  interest  being  demanded  from 
both  litigants. 

"  The  lawyers  did  not  give  up  one-half  of  their  business  without  a 
struggle,  but  they  were  threatened  with  utter  ruin,  both  to  them- 
selves and  clients,  so,  rather  than  be  crushed,  they  acceded.  Straight- 
way an  extra  corps  of  stenographers  was  employed  preparing  docu- 
ments asking  for  the  appointment  of  a  receiver  in  five  suits.  The 
papers  were  presented  to  Judge  Noyes  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening 
at  his  hotel,  and  he  acted  on  them  without  even  reading  the  affidavits. 
McKenzie  was  appointed  receiver  in  each  case  with  instructions  to  take 
immediate  possession,  work  the  mines,  and  preserve  the  proceeds  sub- 
ject to  the  court's  orders.  The  defendants  were  ordered  to  deliver 
possession  and  were  enjoined  from  in  any  manner  Interfering  with  his 
management.  In  each  case  the  receiver's  bond  was  fixed  at  five  thou- 
sand dollars,  although  the  output  from  each  mine  was  known  to  be 
from  five  thousand  to  fifteen  thousand  dollars  per  day.  He  was 
appointed  during  the  evening,  before  any  bonds  had  been  filed,  before 
the  necessary  papers  were  filed  by  the  clerk,  and  even  before  the  sum- 

285 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

mons  had  been  issued.  At  midnight  he  had  ejected  the  rightful  own- 
ers and  was  in  possession.  •  . 

"  All  this  was  done  in  absolute  disregard  of  law,  coming  as  a  total 
surprise  to  the  defendants,  who  were  not  only  ignorant  of  any  action 
taken,  but  were  not  even  cited  to  appear  in  their  own  defence  and 
argue  why  such  orders  should  not  be  entered  in  court.  To  analyse 
the  turpitude  of  this  action  further,  the  simple  holding  of  court  in 
Nome  was  directly  in  disregard  of  and  contrary  to  the  terms  of  the 
Alaskan  Code,  which  provided  that  the  judge  should  reside  at  Saint 
Michaels,  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  distant,  and  should  hold 
court  elsewhere  only  upon  thirty  days'  notice.  Added  to  this,  Noyes 
had  assured  the  claim-owners  that  his  shop  would  be  open  for  no 
business  until  his  return  from  Saint  Michaels. 

"  In  granting  these  injunctions  without  sufficient  bond,  he  again  vio- 
lated the  Alaskan  Code,  which  provides  that  before  allowing  an  injunc- 
tion in  any  case  the  plaintiff  must  give  a  suitable  and  sufficient  bond 
to  pay  all  costs  and  resultant  damages  to  the  defendants  if  the  in- 
junction prove  wrongful  or  without  sufficient  cause.  In  the  face  of 
this,  for  the  protection  of  mines  earning  as  high  as  fifteen  thousand 
dollars  daily,  Noyes  required  a  surety  of  five  thousand  dollars. 

"  Comment  is  unnecessary  upon  his  disregard  for  a  well-established 
principle  of  law  in  appointing  the  receiver  ex  parte;  that  is,  without 
notice  to  the  opposing  faction. 

"  Bearing  in  mind  that  the  jumpers'  titles  were  now  largely  vested 
in  McKenzie,  neither  is  comment  necessary  upon  the  unique  situation 
of  his  appointment  as  receiver  for  his  own  property,  something 
ridiculous  in  law. 

"  The  appointment  of  a  receiver  for  a  placer  was  something  unheard 
of  in  our  entire  mining  history,  being  manifestly  unjust  and  dan- 
gerous, for  the  law  aims  only  at  protection.  A  receiver  was  not 
needed  to  protect  this  property.  The  gold  lay  safely  stored  in  the 
ground;  it  could  not  get  away  nor  deteriorate.  All  that  could  have 
been  justly  asked  was  an  injunction  to  keep  the  claims  in  statu  quo, 
until  the  title  had  been  determined.  McKenzie  was  not  a  miner,  was 
not  competent  to  run  a  mine  in  a  practical  manner,  yet  he  was  put 
in  charge  of  his  own  property  to  conserve  the  interests  of  his  con- 
testants. 

"  The  very  question  of  alienship  upon  which  the  suits  were  brought 
had  been  declared  of  no  avail  by  the  Congress  which  gave  this  court 
life,  and,  although  the  defendants  appeared  with  exemplified  copies  of 
their  naturalisation  papers  in  proof  that  the  actions  should  fall  of 
their  own  weight,  the  judge  refused  to  heed  them. 

"  Fearful  of  complications,  the  Swedes,  or  Pioneers,  as  they  were 
called,  had  imported  from  San  Francisco  some  good  lawyers  a  few 
weeks  before,  as  had  Charles  D.  Lane,  the  man  who  had  bought  cer- 
tain of  the  original  titles.  These  attorneys  immediately  got  busy. 
They  undertook  to  have  Noyes  rescind  his  arbitrary  rule. 

"  On  the  day  following  McKenzie's  appointment,  they  tried  to  get 
an  order  setting  it  aside,  appearing  before  the  judge  with  properly 
prepared  papers,  praying  that  a  hearing  be  granted  at  once.  The  value 
of  haste  may  be  appreciated.  He  refused.  They  argued  the  matter 

286 


THE    DESPOLIATION    OF   THE    PEOPLE 

twice  within  a  few  days,  but  he  delayed  his  opinion  until  August  10th, 
over  two  weeks,  then  decided  adversely  to  them.  Later  they  prayed  for 
an  appeal  from  the  decisions  of  Noyes's  court.  He  refused  to  allow 
it.  Meanwhile  the  receiver  had  hired  all  the  available  men,  and  was 
working  day  and  night  to  gut  the  mines. 

"  On  July  25th,  two  days  after  the  first  move,  Noyes  issued  a  further 
order  which  was  so  much  worse  than  his  previous  ones  as  to  elicit  the 
following  criticism  from  the  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  at  San  Fran- 
cisco : 

'  The  order  was  so  arbitrary  and  unwarranted  in  law  as  to  baffle 
the  mind  in  its  effort  to  comprehend  how  it  could  have  issued  from  a 
court  of  justice.' 

"  Its  history  is  this :  When  the  posse  of  hirelings  ousted  the  owners, 
they  found  large  quantities  of  supplies,  tools,  tents,  horses,  and  other 
things,  among  which  were  considerable  sums  of  gold,  part  of  which 
had  been  taken  from  the  claims  in  dispute  and  part  of  which  had 
come  from  other  mines  not  in  controversy  at  all.  This  was  too  good 
to  lose.  Also,  it  is  well  to  leave  an  opponent  the  least  possible  means 
with  which  to  fight.  Through  his  judge,  McKenzie  issued  an  order 
enlarging  his  own  powers  to  take  in  all  of  this.  He  was  directed 
to  grab  everything  on  and  about  the  mines  as  follows : 

t —  Take  possession  of  all  sluice  boxes,  pumps,  excavations,  ma- 
chinery, pipe,  plant,  boarding  houses,  tents,  buildings,  safes,  scales,  and 
all  personal  property  fixed  and  movable,  gold,  gold  dust,  and  precious 
metals,  money  boxes  or  coin,  and  all  personal  property  upon  said 
claims/ 

"  He  did  so,  even  taking  the  tents  and  beds  of  the  men,  their  own 
personal  property,  their  boxes  of  gold  dust,  gold  taken  from  other 
claims  in  which  he  could  have  no  interest,  time  books  of  these  and  other 
claims  which  the  defendants  were  working.  There  was  no  redress. 
Criticism  of  such  action  is  futile. 

"  Before  doing  this,  Noyes  boasted  that  he  would  tie  up  the  de- 
fendants all  around  so  that  if  they  wanted  anything  they  would  have 
to  apply  to  Mr.  McKenzie. 

"  In  the  case  of  Chipps  vs.  Linderberg,  the  receiver  was  ordered  to 
take  possession  thus  of  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
personal  property,  without  even  an  averment  in  the  complaint,  or  in 
any  other  pleading,  that  the  property  belonged  to  the  complainant. 
McKenzie  took  possession  and  held  it  without  bond  or  any  other  au- 
thority than  the  arbitrary  order  of  the  court,  which  order  was  made 
without  pleading,  petition,  or  written  application  from  any  person 
whatever. 

"  One  naturally  says,  *  Surely  there  must  have  been  some  redress.' 
What  was  it  ?  Alaska  was  not  even  a  territory.  Laws  had  been  fixed 
for  her,  and  there  was  no  higher  authority  in  the  land  than  the  Fed- 
eral judge  who  applied  them.  He  was  ruler  of  the  land,  appointed 
directly  from  the  nation's  head.  The  military  were  here  to  preserve 
order  and  enforce  his  mandates.  Where  could  relief  come  from  ? 

"  We  see  the  scheme  working  now,  a  perfect  piece  of  political  job- 
bery, backed  by  the  weight  of  United  States  courts  and  enforced  by 
the  troops  in  blue.  Mines  wrested  from  their  owners,  laws  construed 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

to  suit  the  gang,  personal  property  purloined  to  cripple  the  victims, 
the  right  of  appeal  denied  — !  " 

The  Header  will  marvel  how  all  this  could  be  accomplished  with- 
out bloodshed.  He  will  ask  himself  if  the  American  spirit  is  broken. 
He  will  wonder  if  the  memory  of  1776  has  departed  out  of  the  earth. 
Of  one  thing  he  may  be  assured  —  American  character  is  vastly  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  was  in  revolutionary  times.  We  are  more  "  law 
abiding  "  now.  We  have  such  a  tender,  raw-sore  respect  for  "  rights 
of  property  "  that  nothing  could  now  induce  us  to  make  a  teapot  of 
Boston  Harbor.  Taxation!  We  are  perfectly  dead  to  it!  We  have 
had  the  very  gastric  juice  taxed  out  of  us  until  we  should  feel  almost 
ill  at  ease,  if  railroads,  beef-trusts,  coal-combines,  oil-trusts  and  in- 
numerable other  "  gentlemen's  agreements  among  hogs  "  did  not  go 
through  our  pockets  every  hour  of  the  day  and  night.  The  American 
people  has  had  faith  in  its  courts .  and  legislatures  and  has  come  to 
regard  an  appeal  to  any  other  tribunal  as  quite  out  of  the  question. 
Slowly,  but  the  more  surely  because  slowly,  they  are  waking  from 
their  long  sleep.  They  rub  their  eyes  and  *ask  "  What,  are  those 
Pinkertons,  and  are  they  actually  shooting  at  unarmed  American 
citizens  ?  "  They  see  themselves  robbed  of  their  most  fundamental 
rights  by  injunctions;  they  witness  their  fellow-men  torn  from  their 
homes,  in  defiance  not  only  of  justice  and  of  law  but  of  court  orders, 
imprisoned,  ill-treated,  killed,  deported,  and  they  begin  to  draw  their 
breath  a  trifle  quicker.  The  American  people,  Oh  ye  hosts  of  Mam- 
mon! are  patient,  law-abiding,  long-suffering,  and  very  sleepy,  but 
they  have  a  limit  which  must  not  be  exceeded  or  they  will  awake, 
and  if  ever  they  do  awake  to  what  is  being  done  to  them  —  ! 

The  following  from  the  "  Baltimore  American  "  is  suggestive  upon 
this  subject. 

"SOUNDS  OF  THE  TIMES." 

"  Father,  what  is  that  noise  I  hear? " 

"What  is  it  like,  my  son?" 
"  Like  the  crack  of  fireworks  going  off, 

Like  the  roar  of  a  minute  gun, 
Like  the  crash  and  the  dash  of  the  ocean  waves 

When  ships  they  are  breaking  up; 
Like  the  thunder  when  the  lightning  strikes." 
"  That's  the  people  waking  up, 

My  son, 
That's  the  people  waking  up." 

"  Father,  what  is  that  sound  I  hear?  " 

"What  is  it  like,  my  boy?" 
"  Like  the  piercing  din  of  escaping  steam, 

Like  the  shriek  of  a  whistling  buoy, 
Like  the  yell  of  an  Indian  getting  scalped, 

Like  lots  of  crockery  crashed." 
"  That's  the  ballot's  hammering  at  strenuous  work  — 

That's  the  rings  that  are  getting  smashed, 
My  boy, 

That's  the  rings  that  are  getting  smashed." 

288 


THE   DESPOLIATION    OF   THE    PEOPLE 

"  Father,  what  is  that  moan  I  hear?  " 

"What  is  it  like,  my  lad?" 
"  Oh,  it  is  like  a  shivering  ghost, 
So  faint  and  weary  and  sad! 
It  is  like  the  wail  of  a  midnight  wind, 

Like  the  sob  of  a  mighty  loss, 
Like  the  dying  groan  of  a  deep  despair." 
"That's  the  passing  of  the  boss, 

My  lad, 
That's  the  passing  of  the  boss." 

Most  of  those  who  were  robbed  in  Alaska  were  not  Americans. 
Perhaps  the  thing  could  not  have  been  done  had  they  been.  Mr. 
Beach  thinks  not,  but  it  seems  to  us  that  Colorado  has  about  as  weird 
a  tale  to  tell. 

Mr.  Beach  says :  *  "  Perhaps  you  said,  on  beginning  this  story,  that 
the  writer  assumed  an  attitude  too  aggressive,  that  he  used  too  many 
superlatives?  The  facts  stated  and  to  come  are  more  superlative 
than  any  language  in  his  vocabulary. 

"  The  story  of  Graft  is  old.  We  are  growing  to  realise  dimly  that 
our  nation  is  permeated  with  it,  that  our  body  politic  is  built  upon 
corruption.  There  w.as  a  time  when  we  looked  with  reverence  and  re- 
spect upon  the  makers  and  givers  of  our  law,  but  it  is  so  no  longer. 
Honours  bestowed  do  not  purge  the  recipient.  A  senator  may  be  a 
rogue,  a  judge  a  charlatan.  Graft  was  in  the  land  before  our  time  — 
we  have  merely  seen  it  grow  and  reach  out.  But  few  of  us  have  seen 
its  birth.  This  is  a  tale  of  its  beginnings  in  a  virgin  land.  Upon 
perusal  it  appears  an  extraordinary  affair  by  reason  of  its  ingenuity, 
its  invention,  its  daring  —  but  it  is  not!  It  is  extraordinary  because 
it  is  so  ordinary,  so  very  ordinary,  because  it  has  happened  before, 
because  the  trail  is  so  well  trodden,  because  here,  in  our  own  time, 
is  brought  up  the  spectacle  of  corruption  in  its  early  stages,  as  it 
must  have  existed  in  our  boy-hood  or  in  our  fathers'  times. 

"  Had  the  abuses  we  detailed  in  the  preceding  chapter  occurred  in 
any  other  Western  mining-camp,  or  been  directed  at  ordinary  Amer- 
ican citizens,  blood  would  have  run  at  once,  even  in  the  face  of  mili- 
tary protection ;  and  it  speaks  volumes  for  the  law-abiding  character 
of  Alaskans  that  no  more  drastic  measures  were  taken.  Many  of 
the  defendants  were  Scandinavians,  easy  going  and  slow  to  wrath, 
their  actions  approving  a  saying  of  McKenzie : 

'  Give  me  a  barnyard  of  Swedes  and  I'll  drive  them  like  sheep/ 

"  Moreover,  the  scheme  was  so  bold,  so  efficient,  so  undreamed  of 
in  its  prostitution  of  the  whole  sacred  machinery  of  government,  that 
the  victims  were  confused  and  required  time  to  shape  their  cam- 
paigns. This  suited  the  clique  precisely.  Delay  was  all  they  asked. 
Every  sun  meant  thousands  to  them.  Added  to  this,  the  nearest  Court 
of  Appeals  was  at  San  Francisco,  three  thousand  miles  away  by  water, 
with  no  telegraph.  This  had  all  been  counted  upon,  as  has  before 
been  said ;  the  plan  being  to  tie  up  the  mines,  then  strip  them  during 
the  pendency  of  the  suits." 

*  Copyright,  1906,  by  D.  Appleton  and  Company.    Reprinted  by  permis- 
sion from  "  Appleton's  Magazine  "  for  January,  1906. 
19  289 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Referring  to  the  backers  of  the  North  Dakota  Czar,  Mr.  Beach  says : 
"  McKenzie  often  expressed  absolute  confidence  in  the  ability  of  his 
backers  to  force  a  favorable  decision  from  the  superior  courts  in  case 
of  an  appeal,  and  during  the  first  flush  of  success,  when  the  whole 
district  lay  helpless  under  his  heel,  he  made  the  mistake  of  talking 
too  much.  A  serious  mistake  for  one  of  his  accomplishments.  He 
spoke  of  those  who  backed  him,  the  strongest  in  public  life,  and  it 
became  a  matter  of  gossip  that  here  was  a  combination  too  huge  to 
break,  that  the  Alaska  Gold  Mining  Company  had  been  organised 
with  governmental  backing  for  the  sole  and  avowed  purpose  of  looting 
the  land  it  was  named  for,  that  its  stock  was  distributed  through 
Washington  circles  wherever  it  would  do  the  most  good. 

"I  propose  to  show  evidence  strongly  confirming  this  startling 
theory,  to  show  that  others  even  more  exalted  than  those  I  have  men- 
tioned were  entangled  in  this  plot.  Whether  they  were  the  innocent 
dupes  of  more  designing  men,  or  whether  they  hoped  to  share  in  the 
spoils,  I  shall  not  discuss.  The  facts  should  tell  the  story  without 
extraneous  comment.  The  finger  should  point  where  the  blame  be- 
longs. It  leads  to  Washington. 

"  After  Noyes  had  appointed  a  receiver  in  the  Anvil  Creek  cases, 
something  unheard  of  and  utterly  vicious  in  its  possibilities,  and  after 
he  had  further  denied  the  defendants  an  appeal  which  would  have 
carried  with  it  a  stay,  certified  copies  of  the  court  record  were  filed 
with  United  .States  Attorney-General  Griggs,  and  the  removal  of  Noyes 
was  asked  on  the  ground  of  incompetency.  Griggs  refused !  Indeed, 
Noyes  boasted  that  the  Attorney-General  had  in  a  personal  letter  ap- 
proved his  action. 

"  If  such  a  proceedure  as  the  mere  appointment  of  a  placer  mine  re- 
ceiver was  unprecedented,  what  then  is  to  be  said  of  the  action  of  the 
Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  in  publicly  praising  such  a 
step  and,  worse  yet,  of  his  meddling  with  a  case  at  law  during  its 
trial?  It  was  the  same  in  effect  as  though  a  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  had  indorsed  the  decisions  of  an  inferior  court  judge  during 
the  trial  of  a  suit  which  was  later  to  be  appealed  to  his  own.  This 
action  of  Griggs  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  ever  known  in  the 
judiciary  of  this  or  any  other  civilised  country.  His  conduct  went 
far  toward  proving  that  McKenzie's  was  no  idle  boast  when  he  said : 

'  To  hell  with  them  all !  Nobody  can  hurt  me !  I  am  too  strong 
at  headquarters ! ' ; 

We  shall  refer  in  another  chapter  to  the  judicial  and  legislative 
corruption  brought  to  light  by  this  episode.  Suffice  it  here  to  say  that 
when  the  removal  of  McKenzie's  tool,  Noyes,  was  demanded,  "  certain 
of  our  worthy  United  States  Senators  rose  up  on  the  Capitol  floors 
and  fought  bitterly  for  him,  for  McKenzie,  and  for  their  accom- 
plices/' What  is  the  explanation  of  it  all  ?  The  following  from  the 
"  Peoria  Star,"  entitled  "  The  Gradations  of  Theft/'  will  go  a  long 
way  towards  helping  the  thoughtful  to  an  answer : 

"  Stealing  a  million  —  genius. 
Stealing  $500,000  —.sagacity. 
Stealing  $100,000  —  shrewdness. 
290 


THE   DESPOLIATION   OF  THE   PEOPLE 

.Stealing  $50,000  —  misfortune. 
Stealing  $25,000  —  irregularity. 
Stealing  $10,000  —  misappropriation. 
Stealing  $5,000  —  speculation. 
Stealing  $2,500  —  embezzlement. 
Stealing  $1,250  —  swindling. 
Stealing  $100  —  larceny. 
Stealing  $10  —  theft. 
Stealing  a  ham  —  war  on  society. — " 

The  Reader  may  be  interested  to  know  the  denouement  of  this  loot- 
ing of  Alaska  so  far  as  the  Czar  of  Dakota  is  concerned.  The  case 
was  finally  taken  into  the  California  courts,  and  Judge  Morrow  sent 
two  deputies  to  arrest  him.  McKenzie  tried  intimidation  and  bluffing, 
but  we  are  informed  that  it  was  of  no  avail.  He  was  taken  and 
brought  to  California. 

"  On  February  11,  1901,"  says  Mr.  Beach,*  "  he  was  sentenced  to  a 
term  of  one  year  in  prison,  six  months  each  in  two  cases.  By  the 
'  wise  ones '  back  East  this  trial  of  the  Boss  of  the  Northwest  for  a 
little  grafting  was  considered  something  of  a  joke.  As  well  try  to 
salt  the  tail  of  a  bald  eagle  as  to  jail  Alec  McKenzie.  It  was  a 
political  impossibility. 

"  In  sooth  it  was  a  joke,  observed  in  its  true  light.  Here  was  the 
head  of  a  conscienceless  conspiracy,  a  corrupter  of  men,  as  true  a 
pirate  as  Morgan,  LaFitte,  or  Kidd,  brought  to  the  bar  at  last,  being 
tried,  not  for  his  real  infamies,  but  on  a  pitiful  charge  of  contempt  of 
court."  .  .  . 

"  Of  course  his  case  was  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  and  he 
was  admitted  to  bail,  pending  further  proceedings.  After  hearing 
the  evidence,  the  court  denied  his  petition  for  a  writ  of  c&rtiorari,  and 
he  was  committed  to  the  Alameda  County  Jail.  When  his  actual 
plight  became  known,  great  indignation  was  roused  in  public  circles. 
The  mails  became  choked  with  letters,  telegrams,  and  protests.  The 
judges  were  beset  with  offers  of  a  million  dollars  bail  for  this  man. 
Such  steps  were  taken  to  secure  his  pardon  as  to  cause  President  Mc- 
Kinley  to  remark  that  he  had  never  before  seen  as  much  influence 
brought  to  bear  for  an  individual. 

"  Investigation  was  made  and  Judge  Morrow  presented  a  resume  of 
the  case  to  Attorney-General  Knox,  who  had  succeeded  Griggs,  in 
which  he  stated  that,  in  view  of  the  evidence,  he  could  not  recom- 
mend a  pardon.  Nevertheless,  agitation  increased  until  Mr.  McKinley 
yielded.  He  was  about  to  make  a  Western  trip  at  this  time,  and  it  is 
reported  upon  credible  authority  that,  before  leaving,  he  instructed 
the  Attorney-General  to  make  out  two  pardons  for  McKenzie  —  one 
based  on  the  ground  of  extenuating  circumstances,  the  other  alleging 
the  prisoner's  health  to  be  so  shattered  that,  to  save  his  life,  clemency 
was  necessary.  Instructions  were  left  for  the  first  pardon  to  be  sent 
upon  receipt  of  a  certain  telegram,  the  second,  if  the  wire  read  dif- 
ferently. 

*  Copyright,  1906,  by  D.  Appleton  and  Company.  Reprinted  by  permis- 
sion from  "  Appleton's  Magazine  "  for  January,  1906. 

291 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

u  Upon  reaching  San  Francisco,  Mr.  McKinley  spoke  to  one  of  the 
judges : 

'I  never  had  such  pressure  exerted  on  me  before.  Are  there  no 
extenuating  circumstances  —  no  reasons  why  a  pardon  should  issue 
to  my  old  friend  McKenzie  ? ' 

( Mr.  President/  replied  the  judge,  *  in  going  over  the  evidence,  I 
find  twenty  reasons  why  his  punishment  should  have  been  more  se- 
vere, but  not  one  why  he  should  be  freed.' 

'  But  he  is  a  very  sick  man/  Mr.  McKinley  urged. 

'  Of  course  he  is.  It  makes  anyone  sick  to  be  -caught  red-handed 
with  the  spoils/ 

"  Nevertheless,  in  the  face  of  these  judges,  a  few  days  later  came  a 
pardon  issued  on  the  ground  of  ill  health/' 

In  summing  up  the  McKenzie  part  of  the  episode  Mr.  Beach  pays 
eloquent  tribute  to  the  moral  degeneration  of  America.  He  says: 
"  In  this  way  was  the  master  rogue  punished  for  his  thievery,  to  wit, 
by  a  brief  imprisonment  and  the  restoration  of  a  slender  part  of  the 
money  he  had  taken.  His  reputation  was  not  damaged,  however. 
While  in  jail  he  was,  as  he  is  to-day,  a  member  of  the  Republican 
National  Committee  —  that  body  which  shapes  our  political  destinies. 
He  has  been  one  of  the  Eepublican  National  Advisory  Committee  as' 
well  as  one  of  the  Republican  Executive  Committee,  and  is  politically 
more  powerful  now  than  ever !  His  is  a  familiar  figure  in  Eepublican 
politics,  State  and  National,  from  Bismarck  to  Washington,  and  he  is 
reputed  to  be  operating  heavily  in  Wall  .Street  by  means  of  his  sena- 
torial backing." 

We  might  submit  a  long  list  of  other  land  crimes  less  typical  in 
kind  and  less  important  in  size,  but  enough  has  been  written  amply  to 
prove  all  we  have  contended,  and  to  lead  every  right-minded  American 
citizen  to  look  with  eager  longing  toward  any  system  which  will  make 
such  outrages  impossible  for  all  time.  This  is  precisely  what  is 
claimed  for  Mr.  Gillette's  plan  for  social  redemption,  a  claim  which 
will  be  fully  substantiated  later. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE    LAWLESSNESS   OF   THE    LAW 


293 


What  is  the  cause  of  the  grave  changes  that  are  coming  over  the 
American  Republic  —  the  extraordinary  inequality  in  the  distribution  of 
wealth  manifested  on  every  hand;  the  rise  of  class  feeling;  the  growth  of 
the  aristocratic  idea;  the  lapse  from  morals  in  business  and  private  rela- 
tions among  the  very  rich;  the  growth  of  elements  of  physical,  mental 
and  moral  deterioration  among  the  working  masses;  the  appearance  of 
militant  trade-unionism;  the  perversion  of  the  injunction  principle  and 
the  use  of  soldiers  in  strikes;  the  corruption  of  Federal,  State  and  munic- 
ipal politics;  the  deterring  of  press,  university  and  pulpit  from  an  open 
expression;  the  centralisation  of  government;  the  advances  in  foreign 
aggression? 

Such  things  did  not  exist  at  the  foundation  of  the  Republic.  Why 
should  they  now  appear  when  we  have  grown  so  wonderfully  in  popula- 
tion and  wealth?  Why  should  this  age  contrast  so  unfavorably  with  that 
when  the  nation  numbered  less  than  our  chief  city  now  contains? 

The  answer  is  that  something  is  rampant  now  that  existed  only  in 
rudimentary  form  then.  That  something  is  Privilege. 

Henry  George  Jr. —  The  Menace  of  Privilege. 

The  great  ones  of  the  world  have  taken  this  earth  of  ours  to  them- 
selves; they  live  in  the  midst  of  splendour  and  superfluity.  The  smallest 
nook  of  the  land  is  already  a  possession;  none  may  touch  it  or  meddle 
with  it. 

Goethe  —  Wilhelm  Meister. 

The  workmen  desire  to  get  as  much,  the  masters  to  give  as  little,  as 
possible.  The  former  are  disposed  to  combine  in  order  to  raise,  the  lat- 
ter in  order  to  lower,  the  wages  of  labour.  .  .  .  We  rarely  hear,  it  has 
been  said,  of  the  combinations  of  masters,  though  frequently  of  those  of 
workmen.  But  whoever  imagines,  upon  this  account,  that  masters  rarely 
combine,  is  as  ignorant  of  the  world  as  of  the  subject.  Masters  are  al- 
ways and  everywhere  in  a  sort  of  tacit,  but  constant  and  uniform,  combi- 
nation, not  to  raise  the  wages  of  labour  above  their  actual  rate. 

Adam  Smith  —  Wealth  of  Nations. 

Action  causes  reaction  and  organisation  begets  counter  organisation. 
Walter  G.  Cooper  —  Fate  of  the  Middle  Classes. 


294 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  LAWLESSNESS  OF  THE  LAW. 
AND  INJUNCTIONS 


STRIKES 


HEN"  any  noteworthy  cry  is  raised  that  certain  acts 
committed  or  proposed  are  anarchistic,  one  need 
never  look  to  see  whence  it  proceeds.  It  comes  in- 
variably from  the  so-called  "better  class,"  that 
class  which  delights  to  describe  itself  as  the  creator 
and  preserver  of  law  and  order.  At  first  blush  this 
seems  natural  enough,  but  what  shall  we  say  when  we  learn  that 
practically  all  the  real  anarchists  with  which  our  country  is  afflicted 
are  members  of  this  same  supposed  superior  class  which  so  delights 
in  raising  the  cry  of  "  Anarchy ! "  when  none  exists  save  in  its  own 
acts  ?  Does  this  seem  an  extreme  statement  ?  Let  us  test  it. 

Take  the  case  of  the  so-called  Chicago  anarchists.  Could  a  better 
illustration  of  the  truth  of  our  assertion  be  found?  These  men  were 
convicted  and  punished  with  little  or  no  pretence  of  administering 
even-handed  justice,  simply  because  public  opinion  demanded  a  scape- 
goat. 

Innocent  men,  men  who  not  only  were  not  but  could  not  have 
been  guilty  of  the  crime  charged  against  them,  were  some  of  them 
hanged  and  others  imprisoned,  simply  to  appease  the  clamour  of  the 
"better  classes"  and  to  serve  as  a  warning  to  other  anarchists. 
Seldom  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  there  been  perpetrated  a 
judicial  crime  so  outrageous  as  this.  When  the  mischief  had  been 
done,  part  of  it  past  all  remedy,  vengeance  was  satisfied,  and  the 
people  were  in  a  condition  to  view  the  matter  more  soberly. 

What  was  the  net  result  of  this  tardy  sanity?  This, —  that  the 
Chicago  Anarchists  were  innocent  of  the  crime  for  which  they  had 
been  punished.  Thousands  of  Chicago  citizens,  among  them  the  most 
influential  and  wealthy  men  in  the  city,  signed  petitions  addressed 
to  the  Governor  of  Illinois  praying  that  he  pardon  the  imprisoned 
anarchists.  Mr.  Lyman  J.  Gage  was  one  of  the  active  men  in  this 
movement. 

Afraid  to  confess  the  lamentable  mistake  which  had  been  made,  the 
petitioners  gave  as  their  reason  for  seeking  clemency  for  the  incar- 
cerated men,  that  they  had  sufficiently  expiated  their  crime. 

The  Governor  of  Illinois,  a  most  able  lawyer,  replied  in  effect : 
These  anarchists  are  guilty  or  they  are  not.  If  guilty  and  their 
guilt  properly  proven,  they  have  not  expiated  their  crime  and  should 
not  be  set  free.  If  not  guilty,  they  should  be  set  free,  not  as  criminals 
who  have  been  sufficiently  punished,  but  as  innocent  men  improperly 
convicted. 

295 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Governor  Altgeld,  who  was  admittedly  an  able  jurist,  now  proceeded 
to  make  a  critical  analysis  of  the  whole  case.  He  found  that  the 
trial  was  a  ridiculous  farce;  that  the  jury  was  packed;  and  that 
jurors,  instead  of  being  drawn  in  the  usual  manner  from  the  body 
of  the  county,  had  been  secured  in  a  most  singular  way.  The  prose- 
cuting attorney  selected  a  man,  and  the  trial  judge  appointed  him  a 
special  officer  to  summon  whomsoever  he  pleased.  Commenting  upon 
this  proceeding,  a  Chicago  paper  said  editorially :  "  This  officer 
boasted,  in  advance  of  the  trial  and  while  selecting  jurors,  that  he 
was  managing  the  case  and  that  the  prisoners  would  hang  as  certain 
as  death,  because  he  was  calling  such  men  as  the  prisoners  would  have 
to  challenge  peremptorily,  thereby  wasting  their  challenges,  and  that, 
when  these  had  been  exhausted,  they  would  have  to  take  such  jurors 
as  the  prosecution  wanted.  And  it  all  came  out  in  that  way.  The 
prisoners  did  exhaust  their  challenges,  and  consequently  did  have 
thrust  into  the  jury-box  to  try  them  for  their  lives  a  body  of  men 
almost  every  one  of  whom  had  confessed  in  open  court,  upon  entering 
the  jury-box,  that  he  was  prejudiced  against  the  prisoners."  There 
were  many  other  improprieties  and  irregularities  which  the  Governor's 
investigation  unearthed,  and  as  the  result  of  them  all  he  more  than 
pardoned,  he  acquitted  the  imprisoned  men  and  in  effect  rehabilitated 
the  good  name  of  those  who  had  been  unjustly  hanged. 

We  must  confess,  therefore,  that  the  so-called  law-and-order  party 
were  the  real  anarchists  in  the  above  case. 

Another  case  in  point  is  graphically  described  in  the  following  quo- 
tation from  Mr.  Upton  Sinclair's  great  work,  "  The  Jungle."  It  per- 
tains to  a  strike  which  occurred  some  few  years  ago  in  Packingtown : 
"  Meantime  the  packers  had  set  themselves  definitely  to  the  task  of 
making  a  new  labour  force.  A  thousand  or  two  of  strike-breakers  were 
brought  in  every  night,  and  distributed  among  the  various  plants. 
Some  of  them  were  experienced  workers, —  butchers,  salesmen,  and 
managers  from  the  packers'  branch  stores,  and  a  few  union  men  who 
had  deserted  from  other  cities ;  but  the  vast  majority  were  '  green ' 
negroes  from  the  cotton  districts  of  the  far  South,  and  they  were 
herded  into  the  packing-plants  like  sheep.  There  was  a  law  for- 
bidding the  use  of  buildings  as  lodging-houses  unless  they  were 
licensed  for  the  purpose,  and  provided  with  proper  windows,  stair- 
ways, and  fire-escapes ;  but  here,  in  a  *  paint-room/  reached  only  by  an 
enclosed  *  chute,'  a  room  without  a  single  window  and  only  one  door, 
a  hundred  men  were  crowded  upon  mattresses  on  the  floor.  Up  on 
the  third  story  of  the  '  hog-house '  of  Jones's  was  a  store-room,  with- 
out a  window,  into  which  they  crowded  seven  hundred  men,  sleeping 
upon  the  bare  springs  of  cots,  and  with  a  second  shift  to  use  them 
by  day.  And  when  the  clamour  of  the  public  led  to  an  investigation 
into  these  conditions,  and  the  mayor  of  the  city  was  forced  to  order 
the  enforcement  of  the  law,  the  packers  got  a  judge  to  issue  an  in- 
junction forbidding  him  to  do  it! 

"  Just  at  this  time  the  mayor  was  boasting  that  he  had  put  an  end  to 
gambling  and  prize-fighting  in  the  city;  but  here  a  swarm  of  pro- 
fessional gamblers  had  leagued  themselves  with  the  police  to  fleece 
the  strike-breakers;  and  any  night,  in  the  big  open  space  in  front  of 

296 


THE    LAWLESSNESS   OF   THE    LAW 

Brown's,  one  might  see  brawny  negroes  stripped  to  the  waist  and 
pounding  each  other  for  money,  while  a  howling  throng  of  three  or 
four  thousand  surged  about,  men  and  women,  young  white  girls  from 
the  country  rubbing  elbows  with  big  buck  negroes  with  daggers  in  their 
boots,  while  rows  of  woolly  heads  peered  down  from  every  window 
of  the  surrounding  factories.  The  ancestors  of  these  black  people  had 
been  savages  in  Africa ;  and  since  then  they  had  been  chattel  slaves,  or 
had  been  held  down  by  a  community  ruled  by  the  traditions  of  slavery. 
Now  for  the  first  time  they  were  free, —  free  to  gratify  every  passion, 
free  to  wreck  themselves.  They  were  wanted  to  break  a  strike,  and 
when  it  was  broken  they  would  be  shipped  away,  and  their  present 
masters  would  never  see  them  again;  and  so  whiskey  and  women 
were  brought  in  by  the  car-load  and  sold  to  them,  and  hell  was  let 
loose  in  the  yards.  Every  night  there  were  stabbings  and  shootings; 
it  was  said  that  the  packers  had  blank  permits,  which  enabled  them 
to  ship  dead  bodies  from  the  city  without  troubling  the  authorities. 
They  lodged  men  and  women  on  the  same  floor;  and  with  the  night 
there  began  a  saturnalia  of  debauchery  —  scenes  such  as  never  before 
had  been  witnessed  in  America.  And  as  the  women  were  the  dregs 
from  the  brothels  of  Chicago,  and  the  men  were  for  the  most  part 
ignorant  country  negroes,  the  nameless  diseases  of  vice  were  soon  rife ; 
and  this  where  food  was  being  handled  which  was  sent  out  to  every 
corner  of  the  civilised  world." 

The  many  negro  lynchings  which  have  occurred  in  all  but  a  few 
states  in  the  Union,  offer  an  abundance  of  testimony  to  the  same 
effect. 

It  is  almost  invariably  the  self-styled  law-and-order  faction  which 
thus  anarchistically  defies  the  law  and  harks  back  to  the  ethics  of  the 
jungle. 

The  whitecaps  are  another  case  in  point.  The  eastern  "  legalised  " 
atrocities  committed  upon  the  striking  coal  miners,  the  western  out- 
rages upon  the  miners  of  Colorado,  of  which  we  shall  have  more  to 
say,  the  treatment  of  Emma  Goldman  and  John  Turner,  already 
adverted  to,  the  judicial  assault  upon  the  rights  of  jurors,  and  the 
defiance  of  court  orders  by  the  Standard  Oil,  Beef  Trust,  and  other 
octopi,  are  all  illustrations  of  anarchy  in  the  so-called  upper  classes. 
Over  against  this  what  can  be  offered  in  the  way  of  the  less  "  respect- 
able "  anarchy  of  the  poor  ? 

Leon  Czolgosz,  a  poor,  misguided  youth  whose  mind  was  in  all 
probability  unhinged,  assassinates  President  McKinley,  and  straight- 
way the  country  goes  into  hysterics  against  anarchy.  Both  the  pulpit 
and  the  press,  with  rare  exceptions,  lose  their  heads.  A  wild  cry  for 
vengeance, —  the  word  is  used  advisedly  —  is  heard  in  all  parts  of  the 
land.  To  read  the  press  reports  one  would  think  the  President  were  a 
being  capable  of  a  million-fold  the  suffering  of  an  unofficial  man.  In 
our  own  town  one  shop-keeper  filled  one  of  his  windows  with  miniature 
instruments  of  torture,  with  placards  indicating  that  they  should  be 
applied  to  the  assassin.  A  Methodist  clergyman  of  Chicago  hys- 
terically exclaimed :  "  Pray  for  Czolgosz  ?  No.  The  assassin  is  fixed 
irrevocably.  No  murderer  shall  enter  the  kingdom.  This  is  enough. 
Man  might  as  well  pray  for  the  devil." 

297 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Chancellor  Huntington,  of  the  Nebraska  Wesleyan  university,  gave 
utterance  to  a  similar  brand  of  "  Christianity  "  in  an  address  to  the 
students  of  his  university.  The  Kev.  John  W.  Malcolm,  of  Cleve- 
land, uttered  the  following  noble  protest  against  the  cheap  clamour 
of  those  who  mistook  their  brutal  desire  for  vengeance  for  a  genuine 
sympathy : 

'  "  Ah,  my  friends,  a  true  sorrow  does  not  play  with  language.  A 
man  who  really  mourns  neither  swaggers  nor  swears.  People  truly 
sad  have  few  words  and  no  revenge.  It  isn't  possible  for  a  man  or 
woman  to  feel  real  grief  and  real  revenge  at  the  same  time.  It  isn't 
possible  for  a  man  or  woman  in  the  tears  of  a  wounded  love  to  talk 
blood  and  bereavement  in  the  same  breath.  All  this  bluster  and 
threat  have  betrayed  both  a  lack  of  character  and  the  lack  of  a  genuine 
sense  of  loss." 

A  little  later  a  wave  of  hysterical  anti-anarchistic  legislation  swept 
the  country.  And  what  was  the  cause  of  it  all  ?  This.  Czolgosz  as- 
serted that  he  had  derived  his  murderous  inspiration  from  a  lecture 
delivered  by  Emma  Goldman  at  Cleveland.  The  "  Chicago  Tribune  " 
published  an  abstract  of  the  speech  referred  to,  from  which  it  ap- 
pears that  the  speaker  not  only  did  not  advocate  assassination  but  op- 
posed it.  There  has  never  been  anything,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  to 
indicate  that  the  assassin  acted  on  any  other  than  his  own  initiative 
or  that  he  took  anyone  else  into  his  confidence.  He  himself  stated 
emphatically  that  no  one  else  had  anything  to  do  with  his  crime  or 
knew  of  his  intent  to  commit  it.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the 
atrocious  act  was  not  part  of  a  conspiracy  and  was  in  no  way  charge- 
able to  anarchists  as  a  class. 

Some  years  ago  a  Massachusetts  religious  fanatic  offered  up  his 
son  in  sacrifice.  He  drew  his  inspiration  from  the  Bible,  but  we  are 
not  aware  that  anyone  proposed  to  interdict  the  Book  on  that  account. 
An  unhinged  mind  may  draw  inspiration  for  the  foulest  of  crimes  from 
the  noblest  sources. 

One  other  alleged  case  of  "  anarchy  "  among  the  "  working  classes  " 
must  be  mentioned.  We  refer  to  the  dynamiting  of  a  railway  sta- 
tion at  Independence,  in  the  Cripple  Creek  region,  during  the  recent 
Colorado  episode.  Eegarding  this,  we  need  only  say  that  it  has  never 
been  proven  that  the  miners  had  anything  whatever  to  do  with  this. 
No  miner  has  yet  been  convicted  of  having  any  connection  with  the 
tragedy,  and  the  only  clue  that  had  any  appearance  of  reality  pointed 
directly  to  a  man  formerly  employed  by  the  so-called  party  of  law- 
and-order,  the  Mine  Owners'  Association.  In  other  strikes  the  story 
is  much  the  same.  If  there  is  rioting  it  is  almost  invariably  caused 
deliberately  and  with  malice  prepense  by  the  "  law-and-order  "  fac- 
tion. The  reason  for  this  is  not  far  to  seek.  Let  us  examine  into  it. 
A  strike  is  threatened.  Labour,  as  is  all  but  invariably  the  case, 
offers  to  arbitrate;  capital  almost  always  refuses  to  do  so,  generally 
replying  with  its  favorite  phrase  "  we  have  nothing  to  arbitrate." 
Even  while  we  write,  this  familiar  bit  of  history  is  repeating  itself 
in  the  anthracite  coal  region.  The  employers'  refusal  to  arbitrate 
shows  a  spirit  of  unfairness  at  the  start,  which  effects  not  only  their 
employes  but  the  public  opinion  of  their  neighbourhood  as  well.  A 

298 


THE    LAWLESSNESS    OF   THE    LAW 

strike  or  a  lockout  occurs,  it  matters  not  which,  and  employer  and 
employed  prepare  for  the  conflict.  The  employer  has  learned  that 
soldiers  are  the  thing  for  him,  particularly  soldiers  who  are,  in  the 
first  place,  mere  disciplinary  machines  and  who,  in  the  second  place, 
know  nothing  of  the  facts.  Soldiers  have  been  known  to  lay  down 
their  arms  rather  than  fire  upon  their  friends,  and  they  have  also 
been  known  to  make  cash  contributions  to  the  fund  of  the  very  men 
they  were  supposed  to  suppress.  All  this  the  capitalistic  side  of  the 
controversy  knows  very  well.  In  seeking  soldiers,  therefore,  the 
employers  always  look  with  longing  eyes  at  the  Federal  troops.  But 
how  are  they  to  get  these?  One  easy  way  is  to  foment  discord  by 
Pinkerton  thugs,  or  in  any  other  way,  until  there  is  a  pretext  to  claim 
that  the  U.  S.  mails  are  being  interfered  with.  If  the  executive  be  of 
their  sort,  there  need  be  no  more  truth  in  this  claim  than  there  was 
when  President  Cleveland  invaded  the  statehood  rights  of  Illinois  by 
sending  Federal  troops  to  Chicago  without  the  invitation,  and  against 
the  protest,  of  the  Governor  of  the  State. 

Another  common  way  of  securing  troops  is  to  claim  that  the  local 
police  cannot  or  will  not  maintain  order  and  protect  property.  A 
railroad  company  sets  fire  to  a  few  of  its  cars,  or  sends  its  Pinkertons 
to  create  street  brawls,  and  then  asks  for  troops.  Sometimes,  if  there 
be  a  strong  color  prejudice,  they  import  gangs  of  the  worst  negroes 
procurable,  trusting  in  the  well-known  weakness  of  human  nature  to 
do  the  rest.  No  community  takes  kindly  to  having  soldiers  quar- 
tered upon  it.  The  presence  of  a  bluejacket  in  such  a  capacity  is  an 
insult  to  the  American  idea,  besides  which,  so  corruptive  is  power,  that 
the  soldier  cannot  refrain  from  continually  exceeding  the  authority 
vested  in  him. 

We  shall  see  in  due  course  several  instances  of  this  sort,  and  it  is 
believed  the  thoughtful  reader  will  be  convinced  that,  in  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  cases  where  real  anarchy  is  found  to  exist,  it  is 
directly  chargeable  to  that  class  which  is  loudest  in  arrogating  to  itself 
the  duty  of  preserving  law  and  order. 

Let  us  consider  first  the  lawlessness  of  the  law.  We  have  already 
elsewhere  referred  to  certain  phases  of  this  subject,  and  shall  confine 
ourselves  here  chiefly  to  the  ever-growing  abuses  of  injunctions. 

Comparatively  few  laymen  are  aware  that  the  injunction  as  applied 
to  labour  disputes  is  a  legal  balloon.  It  is  a  structure  absolutely  with- 
out foundation.  It  rests  on  nothing.  Originally  it  was  built  upon  a 
temporary  staging.  Subsequently  this  was  knocked  from  under  it  and 
demolished,  and  the  superstructure,  instead  of  having  the  good  sense 
to  fall  to  the  ground,  remained  balloon-like  floating  in  thin  air. 
True  to  its  gauzy  and  gaseous  nature,  it  has  grown  bigger  and  bigger 
as  the  surrounding  pressure  diminished,  until  to-day  it  is  threatening 
to  overwhelm  our  most  cherished  institutions  of  liberty.  This  is  no 
idle  phrase  of  an  alarmist.  The  injunction  has  already  earned  the 
hatred  and  contempt  of  all  well-informed  lovers  of  American  prin- 
ciples. We  cannot  afford  space  to  go  into  a  detailed  history  of  the 
application  of  the  injunction  to  labour  troubles.  The  subject  is  very 
ably  treated  by  Mr.  Henry  George  Jr.  in  his  chapter  on  the  "  Use  of 
the  Courts  by  Privilege,"  in  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege."  The  fol- 

299 


lowing  brief  outline  extracted  therefrom  must  suffice  for  present  pur- 
poses. Mr.  George  says :  "  Our  practice  of  applying  injunctions  to 
labour  disputes  originated  with  a  case  in  England  in  1868.  Upon 
that  foundation  all  our  wonderful  edifice  of  industrial  court  orders  has 
been  built  up.  And  yet  mark  how  unsubstantial  this  foundation! 
The  English  case  is  known  as  Springhead  Spinning  Co.  vs.  Riley  (6  L. 
R.  Eq.  Gas.  551).  In  that  case  members  of  a  labour  union  were  re- 
strained from  issuing  placards  which  requested  'all  well-wishers'  of 
the  union  '  not  to  trouble  or  cause  any  annoyance  to  the  Springhead 
Spinning  Company  Lees  by  knocking  at  the  door  of  their  offices,  un- 
til the  dispute  between  them  and  the  self-actor  reminders  is  finally 
terminated.'  Vice-Chancellor  Malms,  who  sat  in  the  case,  held  that 
the  defendant  workmen  were  in  this  issuing  of  placards  guilty  of 
'  threats  and  intimidation,  rendering  it  impossible  for  the  plaintiffs 
to  obtain  workmen,  without  whose  assistance  the  property  became 
utterly  valueless  for  the  purposes  of  their  trade.'  The  court,  there- 
fore, held  that  it  should  interfere  by  injunction  to  restrain  such  acts, 
insomuch  as  they  also  tended  to  the  destruction  or  deterioration  of 
property/' 

Now  this  injunction  was  only  temporary,  and  the  Vice-Chancellor 
expressed  doubts  as  to  its  standing  on  subsequent  hearing,  should 
argument  be  made  for  making  the  order  permanent.  He  doubted  if 
the  court  would  be  found  to  have  jurisdiction  in  the  premises.  Ap- 
parently the  issue  was  never  further  argued,  probably  -  because  the 
strike  could  not  survive  the  temporary  injunction.  In  such  cases  the 
effect  of  these  orders  or  court  is  much  as  it  would  be  were  a  man 
"  temporarily  enjoined "  from  eating  or  drinking  anything  and  the 
date  for  final  hearing  set  three  months  ahead, —  he  would  not  be  pres- 
ent to  show  cause  why  the  injunction  should  not  be  made  permanent. 
It  was  such  ridiculous  rulings  as  these  we  have  cited  that  are  hit  off 
by  the  proverb,  "  First  hang  and  draw,  then  hear  the  cause  by  Lind- 
ford's  law." 

The  order  issued  against  the  striking  spinners  "lapsed  into  des- 
uetude" and  a  year  later,  *1869,  the  same  Vice-Chancellor  issued  a 
mate  to  it  in  the  case  of  Dixon  vs.  Holden.  This,  not  being  appealed 
to  a  higher  court,  went  the  way  of  its  fellow. 

In  1875,  however,  both  these  cases  were  cited  as  precedents  for  an 
injunction  case  known  as  the  Prudential  Assurance  Co.  vs.  Knott  (10 
L.  R.  Chancery  Appeals,  page  142,  1875).  This  case,  unlike  its 
predecessors,  was  carried  to  the  Chancery  Court  of  Appeals,  which 
is  the  highest  equitable  tribunal.  This  highest  court  deliberately, 
emphatically  and  unanimously  repudiated  the  Vice-Chancellor's  ac- 
tion. It  was  held  that  the  Court  had  no  jurisdiction  to  restrain  the 
publication  of  a  libel,  as  such,  even  if  it  is  injurious  to  property. 
Referring  to  the  Vice-Chancellor's  restraining  orders  of  six  or  seven 
years  before  Lord  Chancellor  Cains  of  the  Appellate  Court  said : 

"  I  am  unable  to  accede  to  these  general  propositions.  They  appear 
to  me  to  be  at  variance  with  'the  settled  practice  and  principles  of 
this  court,  and  I  cannot  accept  them  as  an  authority  for  the  present 
application.  I  think  that  this  appeal  must  be  refused  with  costs." 

Lord  Justice  James  said :  "  I  think  that  Vice-Chancellor  Malins, 

300 


THE    LAWLESSNESS    OF   THE    LAW 

in  the  case  of  Dixon  vs.  Holden,  was,  by  his  desire  to  do  what  was 
right,  led  to  exaggerate  the  jurisdiction  of  this  court  in  a  manner 
for  which  there  was  no  authority  in  any  reported  case,  and  no  founda- 
tion in  principle.  I  think  it  right  to  say  that  I  hold  without  doubt 
that  the  statement  of  the  law  in  that  case  is  not  correct." 

Lord  Justice  Melligh  said :  "  I  am  also  entirely  of  the  same 
opinion/' 

Commenting  upon  these  decisions,  Mr.  George  says  in  "  The  Menace 
of  Privilege  " :  "  Could  anything  be  stronger  and  clearer  than  this  ? 
The  Chancery  Court  of  Appeals  unanimously  negatived  Vice-Chan- 
cellor Malins's  action  on  the  ground  that  it  was  '  at  variance  with 
the  settled  practice  and  principle '  of  the  Chancery  Court ;  that  it  had 
'no  authority  in  any  reported  case';  that  it  had  'no  foundation  in 
principle.' 

"  Yet  clearly  and  emphatically  as  all  this  appears  in  the  law  reports, 
in  1888  —  twenty  years  after  the  Springhead  Spinning  injunction,  and 
thirteen  years  subsequent  to  that  injunction's  repudiation  by  the  Eng- 
lish Chancery  Court  of  Appeals  —  a  Massachusetts  court,  in  the  case 
of  Sherry  vs.  Perkins  (147  Mass.  212),  took  Vice-Chancellor  Malins's 
action  as  a  precedent  for  the  issuance  of  a  similar  restraining  order. 
It  was  held  that  the  displaying  of  a  banner  constituted  intimidation, 
deterring  others  from  working  for  the  employer.  The  only  visible 
sign  of  a  conspiracy  which  the  court  found  to  exist  was  the  following 
inscription  upon  a  banner :  '  Lasters  are  requested  to  keep  away 
from  P.  P.  Sherry's.  Per  order  L.  P.  U.' 

"  This  enjoining  order  of  1888  in  the  Sherry  vs.  Perkins  case  began 
the  long  procession  of  American  injunctions  in  labour  disputes.  And 
then  when  this  plant,  which  had  been  uprooted  from  English  soil, 
took  root  in  American  soil  and  grew  to  size  and  strength,  behold  what 
happened,  all  ye  who  put  your  faith  in  the  consistency  of  courts ! 
The  English  Chancery  courts  began  to  cite  the  American  equity  courts 
for  injunction  precedents,  entirely  ignoring  the  former  declaration  of 
its  own  Chancery  Court  of  Appeals  that  all  such  action  was  'at 
variance  with  the  settled  (Chancery)  practice  and  principle.' 

"  To  pile  wonder  on  wonder,  the  Canadian  courts  have  now  begun  to 
cite  those  recent  English  Chancery  cases  for  the  issuance  of  restrain- 
ing orders,  and  doubtless  ere  long  our  courts  will  quote  the  Canadian 
judges  as  additional  injunction  authorities. 

"  Thus,  while  an  attorney  for  a  great  monopoly  corporation  will  now 
quote  a  perfect  cloud  of  American  and  English  labour  injunction  au- 
thorities, the  facts  are  that  they  all  sprang  up  in  America  since  1888, 
and  that  in  England  and  America  they  came  from  a  single  temporary 
injunction  issued  by  an  English  Vice-Chancellor  in  1868,  who  had 
some  doubt  of  his  jurisdiction;  which  jurisdiction  was  subsequently 
declared  by  the  highest  equity  court  in  England  not  to  exist. 

"Upon  such  a  foundation  rests  the  recent  great  construction  of  la- 
bour injunctions." 

•  The  extent  to  which  injunction  abuses  obtain  is  well  illustrated  by 
a  case  now  under  discussion  in  the  public  prints.  On  the  23d  day  of 
February,  1906,  Edwin  R.  Wright,  President  Typographical  Union 
No.  16.  and  Edward  E.  Bessette,  an  organiser  of  the  Union,  were 

301 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

arrested  and  sent  to  jail' for  30  days  for  contempt  of  an  injunction 
issued  by  Judge  Holdom  in  behalf  of  the  Typothetffi,  the  employing 
printers'  union.  In  addition  they  were  fined  $1000  and  $50  re- 
spectively. 

The  accused  did  not  deny  that  they  had  used  legitimate  persuasion 
with  offers  of  pay  and  expenses  to  any  strike-breakers  who  would  quit 
work,  but  they  positively  and  circumstantially  denied  resorting  either 
to  violence  or  intimidation.  At  the  hearing  in  proceedings  for  con- 
tempt before  Judge  Holdom,  the  defendants  asked  for  a  jury  trial 
upon  disputed  questions  of  fact.  This  Judge  Holdom  denied.  The 
defendants  objected  that  he  could  not  punish  for  contempt  of  the 
injunction  until  it  had  been  sustained  by  the  higher  court  before 
which  it  was  then  pending  an  appeal. 

Judge  Holdom  overruled  this  objection  and  tried  the  case  himself 
upon  affidavits,  convicted  the  defendants  and  imposed  the  aforemen- 
tioned penalties. 

Here  we  see  a  judge  granting  an  injunction  which  may  or  may  not 
be  just  and  equitable.  From  this  the  defendants  appeal.  Before  the 
higher  court  reviews  the  order,  the  defendants  are  pronounced  in  con- 
tempt. They  dispute  certain  allegations  and  ask  that  a  jury  shall 
determine  these  questions  of  fact.  This  the  judge  denies.  He  fur- 
thermore repudiates  their  right  of  appeal  by  rendering  it  abortive, 
since  he  punishes  them  for  what  he  alleges  to  be  an  offence  before 
the  higher  court  decides  whether  or  not  they  have  offended. 

Plutarch  said,  "  No  man  may  be  both  accuser  and  judge,"  yet  here 
is  a  man  wh6  is  not  only  both  of  these  but  is  also  maker  of  the  law 
in  question.  When  such  things  can  occur  we  need  not  marvel  at  the 
collocation  in  the  proverbial  phrase,  "  Hell  and  chancery  are  always 
open." 

It  is  precisely  as  if  a  man  who  has  appealed  from  a  sentence  of 
murder  in  the  first  degree  should  be  executed  during  the  pendency 
of  his  case  before  the  higher  court.  It  is  a  most  unique  way  of  mak- 
ing sure  the  defendant  does  not  escape  punishment,  and  it  has  the 
further  peculiarity  of  doing  away  with  all  punitive  distinctions  be- 
tween guilt  and  innocence. 

As  a  result  of  this  t*nd  similar  injunction  abuses  the  Kansas  So- 
ciety of  Labour  and  Industry,  meeting  at  Topekg,  in  February  of  this 
year  (1906),  passed  a  resolution  urging  "  '  all  labour  and  other  organi- 
sations that  have  the  public  welfare  at  heart '  to  consider  whether  the 
time  has  not  come  to  hold  a  national  conference  for  the  purpose  of 
agreeing  upon  the  best  plan  for  preventing  further  aggressions,  re- 
covering lost  ground,  and  securing  such  a  basis  for  law  as  will  in- 
crease instead  of  decrease  respect  for  the  courts." 

The  Chicago  typographical  union  recently  passed  the  following  reso- 
lution : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  president  appoint  a  committee  of  five  to  draw 
up  a  plan  of  forming  an  anti-injunction  league,  the  sole  purpose  of 
which  shall  be  to  compel  every  candidate  for  office,  without  regard  to 
political  affiliation,  either  national,  State  or  municipal,  to  place  him- 
self on  record  as  opposed  to  the  injunction  as  applied  to  trades 
unions,  to  the  end  that  freedom  of  thought,  action,  and  speech,  the 

302 


THE  LAWLESSNESS  OF  THE  LAW 

foundations  of  American  institutions,  may  be  allowed  the  fullest  lati- 
tude both  in  the  case  of  employer  and  employe,  as  contemplated  in  the 
Constitution/' 

Commenting  upon  Judge  Holdom's  singular  bias,, "The  Public" 
prints  the  following  editorially  under  the  heading  "More  'Govern- 
ment by  Injunction  ' " : 

"Judge  Holdom,  of  Chicago,  has  availed  himself  of  another  op- 
portunity to  strengthen  his  reputation  as  a  '  government  by  injunc- 
tion '  judge.  Acting  as  his  own  jury,  he  has  convicted  two  officers  of 
the  printers'  union  of  an  offense  unknown  to  the  law  —  inducing  im- 
ported non-unionists  to  join  the  union  and  paying  their  expenses 
home,  and  has  imposed  a  penalty  in  his  own  discretion.  Under  his 
sentence  the  men  are  now  in  jail.  Holdom's  decision  was  expressed  in 
terms  which  clearly  disclosed  a  bias  that  would  have  disqualified  any 
man  for  jury  service,  but  he  refused  to  refer  the  case  to  a  jury,  and 
incompetency  for  bias  is  an  unknown  disqualification  under  the  prac- 
tice and  procedure  of  *  government  by  injunction/  However,  Judge 
Holdom  is  not  the  man  to  be  criticised.  He  went  frankly  enough  be- 
fore the  public  for  reelection  as  an  employers'  judge.  As  such  he  was 
supported  by  employers'  organisations.  They  knew  and  he  knew  that 
he  was  the  kind  of  judge  they  wanted.  If  the  labour  organisations 
didn't  recognise  him  as  unfair,  it  was  no  fault  of  his.  Some  of  them 
evidently  did,  for  he  was  badly  cut  at  the  polls.  But  if  they  had  been 
as  solicitous  for  public  interests  as  their  employers  were  for  '  business  * 
interests,  Judge  Holdom  would  have  to  fight  labour  organisations,  if 
he  fought  them  at  all,  in  a  different  and  somewhat  less  influential  ca- 
pacity." 

So  replete  with  injunction  outrages  is  our  recent  history  that  it  is 
impossible  within  reasonable  space  to  mention  more  than  a  few  of  the 
most  flagrant.  In  an  article  entitled  "  The  Abuses  of  Injunctions  " 
published  in  "  The  Arena,"  June,  1903,  Judge  Seabury  traces  the 
rapid  development  of  the  injunction  principle,  showing  how  the 
wedge  once  entered  was  pushed  nearer  and  nearer  home  at  the  behest 
of  privilege.  We  cannot  illustrate  all  the  stages,  but  will  advert  at 
once  to  one  of  the  most  celebrated  cases  which  has  ever  occurred, 
that  growing  out  of  the  Pullman  strike  in  1894. 

The  Pullman  Company  proposed  to  reduce  wages  and  refused  to 
arbitrate  the  question.  As  a  consequence  their  employes  struck.  As 
they  were  members  of  The  American  Eailway  Union,  a  boycott  was 
declared  on  all  Pullman  cars.  Eugene  V.  Debs,  the  president  of  the 
union,  was  arrested  on  July  10th  upon  indictments  charging  ob- 
struction of  the  mails  and  inter-State  commerce. 

Commenting  on  this  arrest,  Mr.  George  says,  in  "  The  Menace  of 
Privilege  " :  "  He  was  arraigned,  but,  despite  his  demands  to  be  tried, 
the  case  was  abandoned  by  the  prosecution  —  for  want  of  proper  evi- 
dence, it  was  commonly  believed  at  the  time,  in  absence  of  adequate 
explanation.  President  Cleveland's  Strike  Commission  subsequently 
declared,  '  There  is  no  evidence  before  the  Commission  that  the  officers 
of  the  American  Railway  Union  at  any  time  participated  in  or  ad- 
vised intimidation,  violence  or  destruction  of  property/  But  if  a  jury 

303 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

would  not  punish  when  it  had  no  evidence,  another  way  might  be 
found.  It  was  found  through  an  injunction  without  a  jury. 

"  An  '  omnibus'  enjoining  order  was,  on  July  17,  issued  by  Federal 
Judges  Woods  and  Grosscup  against  Debs  and  the  officers  of  his 
union,  all  of  whom  it  specifically  named.  It  also  included  all  per- 
sons whomsoever  (158  IT.  S.  564).  It  was  served  on  some  persons 
in  the  accustomed  way  by  presentation  in  person;  but  on  all  the 
persons  not  named  it  was  served  by  publication  in  newspapers,  tacking 
on  telegraph-poles  and  on  freight-cars  and  reading  aloud  to  a  great 
crowd  of  strikers  and  others. 

"  Presumably  on  the  ground  that  the  American  Eailway  Union  was 
obstructing  the  United  States  mails  in  spite  of  the  restraining  order, 
although  the  soldiers  that  President  Cleveland  insisted  on  sending 
into  Chicago  were  sent  to  the  stock-yards  district,  where  there  were 
no  mail  cars,  Debs  and  others  were  arrested  for  contempt  of  court. 
They  were  not  sentenced  until  December.  Judge  Woods,  without 
trial  of  the  cases  before  a  jury,  condemned  Debs  to  six  months'  im- 
prisonment and  his  associates  to  three  months'.  Appeal  was  taken 
to  the  Supreme  Court  for  release  on  habeas  corpus,  the  ground  being 
that  an  equity  court  had  no  right  to  issue  such  an  injunction,  and 
thus  deprive  men  of  trial  by  jury.  But  the  higher  court  sustained 
the  lower  one." 

When  the  Supreme  Court  gets  to  the  point  where  it  can  sustain 
such  a  decision  as  this,  it  is  not  to  be  marveled  at  that  the  thinking 
people  of  America  have  a  growing  distrust  of  their  judiciary.  No  won- 
der that  we  see  in  the  public  prints  an  ever  increasing  number  of 
paragraphs  like  the  following : 

"  When  the  justices  of  the  .Supreme  Court  file  into  the  court  room 
to  begin  a  session,  an  officer  announces :  '  Hear  ye,  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  is  now  in  session,'  and  then,  as  if  inspired 
with  prophetic  vision  or  foreboding,  he  cries,  '  God  save  the  United 
States ! ' ; 

This  reminds  one  of  the  story  told  of  a  somewhat  ignorant  and 
irascible  Western  judge  who  was  noted  for  the  frequency  of  his  con- 
tempt proceedings.  One  day  while  walking  along  the  street  he  was 
much  annoyed  by  some  mischievous  boys.  His  ire  was  quickly  aroused 
and  he  shouted  to  them :  "  You  young  '  varmints '  I'll  fine  everyone 
of  you  for  contempt  of  court !  "  To  this  threat  the  ringleader  of  the 
urchins  jauntily  replied,  "  0  but  you  can't,  judge !  You're  not  in  ses- 
sion now  and  we  can't  commit  contempt." 

"  Ye  can't,  eh  ?  "  thundered  His  Honour.  "  I'd  have  you  know  that 
this  court  is  always  in  session  and  is  always  an  object  of  contempt!" 

Under  the  caption,  "  Do  Judges  Stagnate  ?  "  Mr.  John  P.  Altgeld, 
who  certainly  was  well  qualified  to  answer  his  own  question,  says,  in 
"  The  Cost  of  Something  for  Nothing  " : 

"The  question  is  frequently  asked:  'Why  does  a  man  cease  to 
grow  after  he  goes  on  the  bench  ? ' 

"  As  a  rule,  men  elected  to  the  bench  have  established  a  reputation 
of  being  men  of  strong  character  and  growing  intelligence,  and  if  they 
had  remained  off  the  bench  they  would  have  continued  developing. 
But  as  soon  as  a  man  is  elected  to  the  office  of  judge,  all  growth, 

304 


THE    LAWLESSNESS    OF   THE    LAW 

seems  to  cease;  and  after  years  of  experience  on  the  bench,  he  not 
only  has  not  grown  but  he  has  deteriorated. 

"  There  are  several  reasons  for  this.  In  the  first  place,  his  active 
life  ceases.  He  literally  and  figuratively  sits  down.  Growth,  strength 
and  greatness  come  from  contest."  ... 

"  Instead  of  the  independence  which  comes  from  fighting  life's  bat- 
tles, which  develops  greatness,  the  judge  too  often,  unintentionally 
and  unconsciously,  becomes  merely  the  expression  of  what  is  for  the 
time  the  dominant  influence  of  the  land.  This  dominant  influence  is 
like  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere;  it  envelops  him,  and  is  almost 
irresistible.  It  requires  tremendous  strength  of  character  to  rise 
above  it  and  be  guided  solely  by  the  pole-star  of  justice.  Yet  the 
judge  who  gives  way  to  the  pressure,  and  allows  his  high  office  to  be 
used  for  purposes  of  oppression  and  of  wrong,  is  a  curse  to  his 
country." 

There  is  a  growing  sentiment  in  these  United  States  that  many 
of  our  judges  as  well  as  our  lawyers  fill  the  above  specification  far 
too  well.  "  If  the  judge  be  your  accuser,  may  God  be  your  help," 
say  the  Turks,  and  it  may  be  confidentially  wagered  that  Mr.  Eugene 
V.  Debs,  in  common  with  many  another  who  has  been  similarly 
deprived  of  the  most  fundamental  and  elementary  rights  of  American 
citizenship,  fully  endorses  the  Moslem  sentiment.  When  Powell  said, 
"  Nothing  is  law  that  is  not  reason,"  he  had  not  been  favoured  with 
an  acquaintance  with  our  latter-day  judiciary. 

Reviewing  the  progress  of  the  injunction  evil  up  to  that  time  in 
'•"  Injunctions  and  Organised  Labour,"  (see  17th  Report  American 
Bar  Association),  Mr.  C.  C.  Allen  says:  "The  Attorney-General  of 
the  United  States,  acting  for  the  United  States  in  the  exercise  of  its 
sovereignty  as  a  nation,  has  sued  out  injunctions  in  nearly  every  large 
city  west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  Injunction  writs  have  covered 
the  sides  of  cars ;  deputy  marshals  and  Federal  soldiers  have  patrolled 
the  yards  of  railway  termini,  and  chancery  process  has  been  executed 
by  bullets  and  bayonets.  Equity  jurisdiction  has  passed  from  the 
theory  cf  public  rights  to  the  domain  of  political  prerogative.  In 
1888  the  basis  of  jurisdiction  was  the  protection  of  the  private  right 
of  civil  property;  in  1893  it  was  the  preservation  of  public  rights; 
in  1904  it  has  become  the  enforcement  of  political  powers." 

We  ask  the  Reader's  special  attention  to  the  utterly  indefensible 
action  of  President  Cleveland  during  this  strike, —  an  act  so  palpable 
an  infringement  of  statehood  rights,  so  manifestly  unconstitutional, 
so  glaringly  unfair  and  uncalled  for,  that  history  will  reserve  for  it  a 
foremost  place  full  "  on  the  line  "  in  its  Hall  of  Infamy.  Had  Presi- 
dent Cleveland  been  avowedly  the  attorney  for  the  Pullman  Company 
he  could  scarcely  have  shown  a  more  partisan  bias. 

Commenting  upon  this  disgraceful  incident,  Mr.  George  says : 

"  And  most  of  this  change  came  under  the  Sherman  Inter-State 
Commerce  Act,  which  organised  labour  had  done  so  much  to  have 
passed  against  the  trusts.  Such  a  possible  use  of  the  law  had  never 
been  dreamed  of  by  workmen,  whereas  what  they  deemed  the  essen- 
tial feature  of  it  was  made  a  dead  letter.  President  Cleveland  during 
the  Pullman  strike  actually  selected  as  special  counsel  for  the  United 
20  305 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

States  Government,  at  Chicago,  Mr.  Edwin  Walker,  who  was  at  that 
very  time  general  counsel  for  the  General  Managers'  Association,  rep- 
resenting the  twenty-four  railroads  centring  or  terminating  in  Chi- 
cago, and  operating  in  utter  defiance  of  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust 
Law/' 

Think  of  the  unblushing  effrontery  of  such  a  bias  and  note  its  re- 
sults. To  make  these  clearer  a  word  of  explanation  is  necessary. 
In  1886  the  twenty-four  railroads  centring  or  terminating  in  Chicago 
formed  a  voluntary,  unincorporated  body  under  the  name  of  the 
General  Managers'  Association. 

Of  this  Association  the  Commission  which  President  Cleveland  ap- 
pointed at  the  close  of  the  strike  to  investigate  its  causes  and  its 
course  said :  "  If  we  regard  its  practical  workings  rather  than  its 
professions  as  expressed  in  its  constitution,  the  General  Managers' 
Association  has  no  more  standing  in  law  than  the  old  Trunk  Line  Pool. 
It  cannot  incorporate,  because  railroad  charters  do  not  authorise  roads 
to  form  corporations  or  associations  to  fix  rates  for  services  and 
wages,  nor  to  force  their  acceptance,  nor  to  battle  with  strikers.  It 
is  a  usurpation  of  power  not  granted." 

To  this  judgment  Mr.  George  very  properly  adds,  "  The  Commis- 
sion might  have  added  that  the  association  was  obviously  in  conflict 
with  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law." 

The  real  menace  of  this  illegal  but  powerful  association  was  not 
borne  in  upon  the  railroad  employes  until  March,  1893,  when  it  ar- 
rayed itself  in  solid  phalanx  in  answer  to  the  demand  of  the  switch- 
men of  each  road  for  more  pay.  The  association,  speaking  for  all  of 
the  twenty-four  roads  at  once,  informed  the  men  that  they  were  al- 
ready paid  enough ;  if  anything  they  were  overpaid. 

"This  was  the  first  time,"  says  the  report  of  the  Cleveland  Com- 
mission, "when  men  upon  each  line  were  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  fact  that  in  questions  as  to  wages,  rules,  etc.,  each  line  was  sup- 
ported by  twenty-three  combined  railroads.  .  .  .  This  associa- 
tion likewise  prepared  for  its  use  elaborate  schedules  of  the  wages 
upon  the  entire  lines  of  the  twenty-four  members.  The  proposed 
object  of  these  schedules  was  to  let  each  road  know  what  other  roads 
paid.  ...  It  was  an  incident  of  the  General  Managers'  Associa- 
tion to  'assist'  each  road  in  case  of  trouble  over  such  matters,  one 
form  of  assistance  being  for  the  association  to  secure  men  enough 
through  its  agencies  to  take  the  places  of  all  strikers." 

Now  it  was  this  very  association  which  by  its  aggressiveness  forced 
the  general  organisation,  in  1893,  of  all  the  employes  of  these  roads, 
under  the  name  of  the  American  Eailway  Union,  with  Eugene  V. 
Debs  as  president. 

Upon  this  point  the  aforementioned  Commission  is  most  explicit 
in  its  report,  which  calls 'attention  to  the  fact  that  "  it  should  be  noted 
that  until  the  railroads  set  the  example,  a  general  union  of  railroad 
employes  was  never  attempted." 

Now,  on  June  22,  the  General  Managers'  Association  assumed  direc- 
tion and  control  of  the  employers'  end  of  the  strike.  It  stood  for  all 
the  roads  and  used  every  resource  known  to  or  possessed  by  any  of 
them,  in  crushing  the  strike 

306 


THE    LAWLESSNESS    OF   THE    LAW 

With  this  explanation  we  are  now  in  a  condition  to  understand 
the  enormity  of  President  Cleveland's  course.  We  need  not  go  ex- 
haustively into  detail.  One  of  the  first  means  employed  by  the  Gen- 
eral Managers'  Association  for  the  purpose  of  "  crushing  the  strike  " 
was  to  procure  the  appointment  of  the  aforementioned  Edwin  Walker, 
as  special  counsel  for  the  Government.  Notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  this  same  Edwin  Walker  was  as  that  very  moment  counsel  for  the 
Managers'  Association,  President  Cleveland  made  the  appointment 
through  Attorney-General  Olney. 

Did  ever  any  act  assail  the  nostrils  of  Justice  with  a  more  putrid 
stench?  Here  was  the  chief  executive,  whose  attitude  should  have 
been  judicial,  practically  appointing  one  of  the  contesting  parties 
to  judge  both  his  own  case  and  that  of  his  opponent!  One  of  the 
litigants,  as  it  were,  was  invited  to  mount  the  bench  and  determine 
both  the  law  and  the  evidence.  It  was,  of  course,  the  beginning  of 
the  end,  for  "  accusing  is  proving  where  malice  and  force  sit  judges." 
Nothing  now  remained  for  the  General  Managers'  Association, —  a 
body  existing  in  defiance  of  law  but  now  practically  made  co-partners 
with  Uncle  Sam, —  but  to  go  through  such  magician-like  passes  as 
it  deemed  necessary  to  keep  up  a  show  of  respectability  before  the 
uncritical  and  draw  the  issue  to  a  close  pleasant  to  themselves  as 
litigants,  judges,  jurors  and  all  the  court  impedimenta  common  to  a 
stone-blind  Justice  whose  scales  are  over  her  eyes  —  not  in  her  hand. 

And  thus  it  fell  out.  On  a  flimsy  pretext,  having  no  basis  in  fact, 
Walker  "asked  for  and  obtained  the  judicial  and  military  arms- of 
the  Federal  Government  to  crush  the  strike.  For  it  was  Walker  who 
petitioned  and  received  from  Federal  Judges  Woods  and  Grosscup  the 
now  famous  or  infamous  blanket  injunction  referred  to  in  a  previous 
chapter.  It  was  likewise  Walker  who  asked  for  and  obtained  an 
army  of  Federal  marshals.  Later  it  was  Walker  who  asked  for  and 
obtained  Federal  troops,  writing  Attorney-General  Olney  that,  '  the 
aid  of  the  regular  army '  was  necessary  to  enforce  the  orders  of  the 
court  and  to  protect  the  railroad  companies  in  moving  their  trains, 
freight  and  passenger,  including  the  mails." 

According  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Cleveland's  own  commission, 
the  mails  were  not  accumulating  and  trains  were  running  nearly  on 
time,  and  there  was  very  little  disorder,  up  to  the  arrival  of  the  Fed- 
eral troops  on  July  3d.  We  read  that  on  June  30th  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  railway  mail-service  reported  to  the  department,  "  No 
mails  have  accumulated  at  Chicago  so  far;  all  regular  trains  are 
moving  nearly  on  time  with  a  few  slight  exceptions." 

We  quote  from  Mr.  George :  "  On  July  2  the  General  Managers' 
Association  published  reports,  stating  that  freight  and  passenger 
trains  generally  were  running  without  interruption.  The  Strike  Com- 
mission quoted  the  superintendent  of  police  as  saying :  '  So  far  as  I 
understand,  serious  violence  or  depredations  had  not  been  committed 
prior  to  the  3d  of  July,  when  the  troops  arrived.'  According  to  the 
Chicago  fire  department's  official  report,  the  total  damage  up  to  July 
6  had  been  less  than  $0,000.  In  addition  to  these  facts  the  then 
mayor,  John  P.  Hopkins,  a  political  partisan  of  President  Cleve- 
land's, testified  before  the  Strike  Commission :  '  So  far  as  I  know, 

307 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

ond  I  believe  I  am  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  case,  the  police 
did  all  the  work  required  of  them.  In  fact,  I  have  the  assurance  of 
the  officials  of  the  different  railroads  that  they  received  the  most 
efficient  protection  they  had  ever  received  during  similar  troubles. 
That  condition  of  things  existed  until  July  5.' 

"  Indeed,  there  was  so  little  trouble  in  Chicago  up  to  this  time  that 
the  mayor  said  there  was  no  need  of  even  issuing  a  proclamation 
against  rioting;  and  he  did  not  do  so  until  July  6.  And  not  until 
that  date  did  he  call  for  State  troops.  Governor  Altgeld  immediately 
sent  a  brigade. 

"  Yet  in  face  of  all  this  the  General  Managers'  Association  obtained, 
first,  the  appointment  of  United  States  deputy-marshals  and  then,  on 
July  3,  United  States  regulars.  Ostensibly  these  deputy-marshals  and 
regulars  were  obtained  to  uphold  the  law  and  protect  life  and  prop- 
erty. Really  they  were  to  uphold  the  unprecedented  and  revolution- 
ary injunction  the  General  Managers  had  obtained  from  the  Federal 
Court  —  an  injunction  intended  to  crush  the  strike  and  the  strikers' 
union. 

"  In  regard  to  the  marshals,  the  Strike  Commission  in  its  report  had 
this  to  say :  '  United  States  deputy-marshals  to  the  number  of  3600 
were  selected  by  and  appointed  at  request  of  the  General  Managers' 
Association  and  of  its  railroads.  They  were  armed  and  paid  by  the 
railroads,  and  acted  in  the  double  capacity  of  railroad  employes  and 
United  States  officers.  While  operating  the  railroads  they  assumed 
and  exercised  unrestricted  United  States  authority  when  so  ordered 
by  their  employers,  or  whenever  they  regarded  it  as  necessary.  They 
were  not  under  the  direct  control  of  any  Government  official  while 
exercising  authority.  This  is  placing  officers  of  the  Government  un- 
der control  of  a  combination  of  railroads.  It  is  a  bad  precedent, 
that  might  well  lead  to  serious  consequences.' " 

Governor  Altgeld  protested  vigourously  against  Cleveland's  invasion 
of  the  .State  of  Illinois  by  Federal  soldiers  and  asked  that  they  be 
withdrawn.  The  President  replied  that  the  troops  were  sent  to  Chi- 
cago strictly  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution  and  the  law.  Reply- 
ing to  this,  and  again  asking  that  the  troops  be  withdrawn,  Governor 
Altgeld  said: 

"The  statute  authorising  Federal  troops  to  be  sent  into  States  in 
certain  cases  contemplated  that  the  State  troops  shall  be  taken  first. 
This  provision  has  been  ignored,  and  it  is  assumed  that  the  Executive 
is  not  bound  by  it.  ... 

'•'  You  calmly  assume  that  the  Executive  has  the  legal  right  to  order 
Federal  troops  into  any  community  of  the  United  States,  in  the  first 
instance,  whenever  there  is  the"  slightest  disturbance,  and  that  he  can 
do  this  without  any  regard  to  the  question  as  to  whether  that  com- 
munity is  able  to  and  ready  to  enforce  the  law  itself.  And,  inasmuch 
as  the  Executive  is  the  sole  judge  of  the  question  as  to  whether  any 
disturbance  exists  or  not  in  any  part  of  the  country,  this  assump- 
tion means  that  the  Executive  can  send  Federal  troops  into  any  com- 
munity in  the  United  States  at  his  pleasure,  and  keep  them  there  as 
long  as  he  chooses.  If  this  is  the  law,  then  the  principle  of  self- 
government  either  never  did  exist  in  this  country  or  else  has  been  de- 

308 


THE    LAWLESSNESS    OF   THE    LAW 

stroyed,  for  no  community  can  be  said  to  possess  local  self-government, 
if  the  Executive  can,  at  his  pleasure,  send  military  forces  to  patrol  its 
streets  under  pretence  of  enforcing  some  law.  The  kind  of  local  self- 
government  that  could  exist  under  these  circumstances  can  be  found 
in  any  of  the  monarchies  of  Europe,  and  it  is  not  in  harmony  with 
the  spirit  of  our  institutions. 

"  The  Executive  has  the  command  not  only  of  the  regular  forces  of 
all  the  United  States,  but  of  the  military  forces  of  all  the  States,  and 
can  order  them  to  any  place  he  sees  fit ;  and  as  there  are  always  more 
or  less  local  disturbances  over  the  country,  it  will  be  an  easy  matter 
under  your  construction  of  the  law  for  an  ambitious  Executive  to 
order  out  the  military  forces  of  all  of  the  States,  and  establish  at  once 
a  military  Government.  The  only  chance  of  failure  in  such  a  move- 
ment could  come  from  rebellion,  and  with  such  a  vast  military  power 
at  command  this  could  readily  be  crushed,  for,  as  a  rule,  soldiers  will 
obey  orders." 

Governor  Altgeld's  protests  against  the  chief  Executive's  invasive 
action  were  so  unanswerable  apparently  that  Mr.  Cleveland  dared  not 
enter  into  discussion  with  him  upon  the  subject. 

After  death  had  forever  silenced  John  P.  Altgeld,  Grover  Cleveland 
published  his  views  of  the  strike  which  had  been  history  for  ten  years. 
The  article  appeared  in  "  McClure's  Magazine  "  for  July,  1904.  In 
the  course  thereof  Mr.  Cleveland  intimates  that  Federal  troops  were 
dispatched  to  Chicago  because  "there  was  plenty  of  domestic  vio- 
lence "  there  and  because  "  very  little  mail  and  no  freight  was  mov- 
ing." These  statements  are  in  direct  and  irreconcilable  conflict  not 
only  with  the  testimony  of  the  men  who  at  the  time  of  the  strike 
held  the  offices  of  Governor  of  Illinois  and  Mayor  of  Chicago,  but 
also  with  that  of  the  General  Managers'  Association,  the  superin- 
tendent of  Chicago  police  and  of  his  own  investigating  commission. 
They  are  furthermore  negatived  by  the  indisputable  fact  that  the 
very  troops  ostensibly  despatched  to  "  protect  the  mails  "  were  sent  to 
the  stock-yards  district  where  there  were  no  mail-cars  to  protect. 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  the  3600  United  States  deputy- 
marshals  "were  selected  by  and  appointed  at  the  request  of  the  Gen- 
eral Managers'  Association  and  of  its  railroads." 

The  railroads  armed  them,  paid  them  and  used  them  in  the  double 
capacity  of  United  States  officers  and  employes,  so  that  we  have  here 
an  actual  concrete  example  of  what  has  often  been  claimed,  to  wit,  that 
favored  corporations  and  individuals  use  government  officials  for  their 
own  selfish  ends. 

Is  not  this  a  fine  way  to  secure  justice?  Why  not  extend  the 
principle  and  let,  say,  "  The  United  Order  of  Benevolent  Burglars  " 
choose,  arm  and  pay  the  policemen  who  are  to  patrol  the  districts 
in  which  they  operate.  If  this  were  done,  on  pretence  of  protecting 
the  property  of  the  citizens  at  large,  it  would  doubtless  cause  them 
all  to  sing  that  touching  political  refrain,  "  Give  us  four  more  years 
of  Grover." 

Had  the  combined  force,  consisting  of  the  General  Managers'  Asso- 
ciation, nearly  four  thousand  United  States  deputy-marshals,  the  Fed- 
eral troops,  the  Federal  courts,  the  Attorney-General  and  the  Chief 

309 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Executive,  failed  to  "  crush  "  the  strike,  what  a  shocking  commentary 
it  would  have  been  upon  official  efficiency!  • 

Can  we  wonder  that  the  respect  for  law  is  breaking  down  in  the 
United  States  ?  William  Pitt  said,  "  Where  law  ends  tyranny  begins." 
The  great  statesman  and  orator  probably  had  no  idea  that  he  was 
voicing  one  of  those  Christian-Science  sentences  which  are  just  as  true 
stated  backwards.  Where  tyranny  begins  law  ends  is  quite  as  true  as 
the  original  statement,  provided  by  "  law  "  we  mean  anything  worthy 
the  respect  of  a  free  and  intelligent  citizen. 


310 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE   COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 


311 


The  very  idea  of  the  power  and  the  right  of  the  people  to  establish 
Government,  presupposes  the  duty  of  every  individual  to  obey  the  es- 
tablished Government.  All  obstructions  to  the  execution  of  the  laws,  all 
combinations  and  associations,  under  whatever  plausible  character,  with 
the  real  design  to  direct,  control,  counteract  or  awe  the  regular  delibera- 
tion and  action  of  the  constituted  authorities,  are  destructive  of  this 
fundamental  principle,  and  of  fatal  tendency. 

Washington  —  Farewell  Address. 

The  Standard  Oil  Monopoly  is  well-known  to  be  one  of  the  arch-offenders 
of  the  age,  an  utterly  conscienceless  law-breaker  and  criminal. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons  —  The  City  for  the  People. 


312 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE    COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 


HE  almost  unbelievable  legal  abuses  which  are  the 
direct  spawn  of  the  government  by  injunction,  to 
which  this  country  has  been  subjected,  have  scarcely 
been  more  than  hinted  at  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
Hardly  a  week  passes  but  some  new  outrage  is  perpe- 
trated upon  the  American  principle,  in  the  name  of 
this  legal  quackery.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  however,  we  find  no  less 
a  personage  than  Justice  Brewer,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  looking  long- 
ingly forward  to  the  time  when  the  popular  outcry  against  injunc- 
tions "will  spend  itself."  How  well  this  judge's  position  illustrates 
the  marvelous  foresight  displayed  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  when  he 
warned  his  countrymen  more  than  a  century  ago  that  it  is  of  the  na- 
ture of  courts  to  draw  autocratic  power  to  themselves. 

We  extract  the  following  from  an  editorial  comment  on  Justice 
Brewer's  utterances,  printed  in  "  The  Public,"  of  Chicago : 

"It"  (the  injunction)  "is  a  device  that  originates  not  with  the 
people  but  with  the  judiciary ;  one  which  has  been  adopted  contrary  to 
custom,  even  judicial  custom,  and  without  statutory  sanction;  one 
which  enables  judges  to  enact  special  legislation  in  their  own  dis- 
cretion for  each  case  as  it  comes  before  them ;  and  one  which  deprives 
persons,  falsely  charged  with  wrongdoing,  of  at  least  five  elementary 
rights  —  the  right  to  an  inquiry  by  a  grand  jury,  the  right  to  be  con- 
fronted in  open  court  with  hostile  witnesses  and  to  cross-examine  them, 
the  right  to  know  in  advance  the  penalty  they  incur,  the  right  to  trial 
by  jury,  and  the  right  to  be  tried  only  once  for  the  same  wrong. 

"  When  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  sanctions  a  judicial  revo- 
lution which  involves  the  abrogation  of  such  rights,  especially  when 
that  Supreme  Court  Justice  is  on  record  in  an  address  before  another 
bar-association  some  years  ago,  as  having  urged  the  future  importance 
of  the  judiciary  to  the  privileged  classes  as  their  protection  against 
hostile  legislation,  the  progress  of  government  by  injunction  may  fairly 
be  regarded  with  even  more  alarm  than  its  own  inherent  iniquity 
might  warrant.  What  may  be  the  limit  of  judicial  usurpation?  be- 
comes in  those  circumstances  a  burning  question.  If  the  judiciary 
may  so  far  depart  from  its  legitimate  function  of  interpreting  and 
applying  the  laws  that  the  people  enact  through  their  law-making 
representatives  —  if  it  may  depart  from  that  function  so  far  as  to  set 
aside  the  very  fundamentals  of  laws  so  sanctioned  and  to  enact  a  new 
system  to  suit  its  own  ideas  of  what  the  new  times  need,  then  how  far 
in  the  way  of  usurpation  may  it  not  go  ?  "  .  .  . 

"  This  reaching  out  for  judicial  power  has  gone  so  far  in  one  di- 

313 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

rection  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  has  actually  managed 
a  notorious  brothel  through  receivers  (unknown  to  the  court,  to  be 
sure,  though  not  to  the  receivers),  while  in  another  direction  the  courts 
are  grasping  at  the  governmental  powers  of  legislation  and  adminis- 
tration." .  .  . 

"  When  judges  make  their  own  law,  apply  it  in  their  own  way,  try 
accusations  under  it  according  to  their  own  standards,  fix  penalties  to 
suit  themselves,  and  all  without  other  legal  sanction  than  judge-made 
law  and  in  total  disregard  of  constitutional  safeguards,  they  very  easily 
fall  into  a  line  of  conduct  which  fairly  brings  their  impartiality 
under  suspicion.  Let  that  happen  and  the  usefulness  of  the  judiciary 
is  practically  at  an  end.  This  suspicion  has  already  become  so  general 
in  the  United  States,  under  the  regime  of  government  by  injunction, 
that  no  one  any  longer  expects  impartial  decisions  in  labor-injunction 
cases.  Workingmen  do  not,  and  they  are  mad  about  it;  employers 
do  not,  and  they  are  glad  of  it.  The  demoralising  effect  is  the  same 
in  either  case/' 

Very  much  saner  than  Justice  Brewer's  ideas  on  injunctions  are 
those  of  Judge  Seabury,  already  referred  to  as  the  author  of  "  The 
Abuses  of  Injunctions."  He  says :  "  The  courts  have  not  only  prohib- 
ited persuasion,  when  accompanied  by  intimidation  and  threats,  but 
they  have  actually  denied  the  right  of  workmen  peaceably  to  persuade 
their  fellows  to  join  them  on  strikes."  As  an  illustration  he  cites  the 
words  of  the  court  in  the  case  of  the  York  Manufacturing  Company  vs. 
Obedick,  (10  Penn.  D.  Eep.  463),  to  wit:  "It  is  seriously  contended 
by  counsel  for  the  respondents  that  they  have  a  legal  right  to  ap- 
proach other  workmen  in  the  employ  of  the  complainant,  and  to  per- 
suade and  induce  them  either  to  quit  or  not  to  accept  such  employ- 
ment. .  .  .  There  is  no  such  legal  right." 

Commenting  on  this  Mr.  George  says  in  his  "  The  Menace  of  Privi- 
lege": 

"  In  like  manner  '  there  is  no  legal  right '  for  many  things  in  the 
eyes  of  some  of  the  Federal  judges,  who,  owing  their  places  not  to 
popular  suffrage,  act  as  if  above  all  regard  for  the  body  of  the  people. 
For  instance,  in  1899  an  injunction,  was  issued  out  of  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court  of  West  Virginia  in  the  interest  of  the  Wheeling 
Railway  Company  against  '  John  Smith  and  others/  without  naming 
the  others.  It  was  the  now  familiar  blanket  type  of  injunction.  Two 
men,  not  parties  to  the  action,  nor  found  to  be  agents  of  '  John  Smith 
and  others,'  were  punished  for  contenipt  of  court.  Wherein  were  they 
in  contempt  ?  asks  a  committee  of  the  Social  Reform  Club  of  New  York, 
appointed  to  report  on  the  ominous  progress  of  injunctions.  The  com- 
mittee answers :  The  men  *  were  punished  for  contempt  of  court  for, 
among  other  things,  '  reviling '  and  '  cursing '  employes  of  the  rail- 
road company.  If  these  men  had  not  actually  served  out  an  impris- 
onment in  jail  for  thirty  days  as  a  punishment  for  contempt  of  cor- 
poration, it  might  be  thought  that  your  committee  had  taken  this 
example  from  opera  bouffe.  The  legality  of  this  punishment  was 
never  passed  on  by  the  Supreme  Court,  for  the  reason,  as  your  com- 
mittee understand,  that  the  parties  were  unable  to  bear  the  expense 
of  taking  it  there,  and  so  served  their  term  in  jail/ 

314' 


THE   COURTS    FS.   JUSTICEv 

"More  recently,  during  a  great  coal  strike  involving  most  of  the 
mines  of  West  Virginia,  United  States  Judge  Keller,  in  the  southern 
judicial  district,  issued  a  blanket  injunction  covering  some  fifty  mines 
along  or  near  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Railway.  He  prohibited  even 
*  assembling  near '  the  mines.  He  went  further  and  restrained  na- 
tional officers  of  the  mine  workers'  organisation  from  purchasing  and 
distributing  food  to  the  West  Virginia  strikers.  At  the  same  time 
Judge  Jackson  in  the  northern  district  issued  injunctions  very  similar 
in  import,  and  between  the  two  judges  most  of  the  mines  of  the  State 
were  covered  by  restraining  orders.  Some  of  the  national  organisers 
of  the  mine  workers'  general  organisation,  disregarding  Judge  Jack- 
son's orders,  were  arrested  and,  by  summary  process  and  without  a 
jury  trial,  were  by  him  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  contempt  of 
court,  the  judge  calling  them  '  vampires  that  live  and  fatten  on  the 
honest  labour  of  the  coal  miners  of  the  country.' " 

In  another  part  of  the  article  already  mentioned  Judge  Seabury 
shows  how  these  enjoining  orders  emanating  from  courts  of  equity  are 
not  only  in  defiance  of  the  time-honoured  principles  of  law  but  are 
invasive  of  fundamental  rights.  "  Assuming,"  he  says,  "  for  the  sake 
of  the  argument,  that  in  every  instance  the  workmen  were  engaged  in 
acts  in  violation  of  the  criminal  law,  these  injunctions  were  unneces- 
sary and  unjustifiable.  If  the  acts  were  not  criminal,  then  the  theory 
upon  which  the  injunctions  were  issued  is  incorrect,  and  they  were 
admittedly  without  justification.  If  the  acts  were  criminal,  the  crim- 
inal law  provides  the  punishment  to  be  imposed  and  the  procedure  to 
be  followed.  The  fact  is  that  the  only  reason  for  issuing  injunctions 
in  those  cases,  where  the  prohibited  acts  are  in  violation  of  the  crim- 
inal law,  is  to  dispense  with  a  trial  by  jury. 

"  Consider  the  protection  with  which  the  law,  as  a  result  of  cen- 
turies of  struggle  and  experience,  safeguards  the  liberty  of  the  lowest 
citizen.  If  he  is  charged  with  a  crime,  there  must  be  a  hearing  before 
a  magistrate,  a  grand  jury  must  be  satisfied  that  a  crime  has  been 
committed,  and  that  reasonable  ground  for  believing  the  accused  guilty 
exists.  Upon  the  indictment  found  by  the  grand  jury  he  is  tried  by  a 
petit  jury,  and  even  their  verdict,  if  improperly  arrived  at  or  contrary 
to  the  law,  may  be  set  aside  up«n  appeal.  This  protection  safeguards 
the  rights  of  one  accused  even  of  murder. 

"  How  different  is  the  new  method,  introduced  by  these  injunctions. 
A  judge  sitting  in  his  chambers,  upon  the  ex  parte  application  of  a 
private  person  or  corporation,  makes  an  order  commanding  not  only 
the  defendant  in  the  suit,  but  all  the  world,  to  do  or  refrain  from  do- 
ing certain  things  which  are  specified  in  the  order.  Those  violating 
the  order  are  summarily  arrested  and  brought  before  the  judge  whose 
ukases  they  are  accused  of  violating.  He  inflicts  punishment  upon 
them.  He  is  judge,  jury  and  executioner,  and  if  he  had  jurisdiction, 
his  acts  cannot  be  reviewed  upon  appeal,  and  the  accused  is  not  en- 
titled to  counsel.  The  committing  magistrate,  the  grand  jury,  the 
petit  jury,  the  right  of  appeal  and  the  right  to  have  counsel  are  all 
dispensed  with. 

"Under  this  system  a  person  can  be  punished  twice  for  the  same 
offense.  He  may  be  fined  or  imprisoned  summarily  for  contempt  in 

315 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

disobeying  an  injunction  issued  against  him,  and  for  the  criminal 
offense  charged  he  may  be  fined  and  found  guilty,  and  be  subjected 
again  to  fine  or  imprisonment,  or  both. 

"  The  sweeping  character  of  these  injunctions  may  be  realised,  when 
it  is  recalled  that  they  are  issued  not  merely  against  the  parties  to 
the  action,  but  against  all  mankind.  In  the  Debs  case,  the  injunction 
was  issued  against  all  the  persons  named  in  the  bill,  and  against  all 
the  members  of  the  American  Railway  Union  who  were  engaged  upon 
twenty-three  railroad  systems,  and,  lest  some  should  be  forgotten, 
against  *  all  other  persons  whomsoever/ 

"In  no  legal  sense  is  such  an  order  an  injunction  at  all.  It  is 
simply  a  general  police  proclamation,  putting  the  community  in  general 
under  peril  of  punishment  for  contempt  if  the  proclamation  is  diso- 
beyed/' 

The  unconstitutionally  of  the  above  mentioned  procedure  will  be 
rendered  apparent  by  a  perusal  of  Articles  V.  and  VI.  of  the  Amend- 
ments. The  former  reads :  .  .  .  "  Nor  shall  any  person  be  sub- 
ject for  the  same  offence  to  be  twice  put  in  jeopardy  of  life  or  limb 
.  .  .  nor  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty  or  property  without  due  process 
of  law.  .  .  ."  The  latter  reads :  "  In  all  criminal  prosecutions  the 
accused  shall  enjoy  the  right  to  a  speedy  and  public  trial  by  an  im- 
partial jury  of  the  State  and  district  wherein  the  crime  shall  have 
been  committed."  We  see,  therefore,  that  even  the  Federal  courts 
have  acted  and  are  acting  in  utter  defiance  of  constitutional  guarantees. 
We  submit  that  it  is  about  time  every  American,  who  has  any  regard 
for  his  country's  ideals  or  his  own  liberty,  should  consider  just  what 
this  statement  means.  If  his  sacred  bill  of  rights  is  to  be  interpreted 
with  a  garrote,  the  sooner  he  finds  it  out  the  better  for  him. 

If  Americans  generally  come  to  accept  as  sober  truth  the  Russian 
proverb, —  "  Truth  is  straight  but  judges  are  crooked,"  these  injunc- 
tion despots  will  have  themselves  to  thank  for  it. 

We  might  fill  the  compass  of  this  entire  work  with  the  recital  of 
judicial  crimes  against  liberty,  equality  and  justice,  but  we  must  con- 
tent ourselves  with  selecting  a  few  of  the  best  known  cases. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  the  use  of  the  injunction  to  subvert  the  will 
of  the  people  as  expressed  at  the  polls.  It  will  astonish  some  of  our 
readers  to  learn  that  in  "  free  America  "  monopoly  has  used  the  courts 
to  strike  at  the  ballot  itself.  Such,  alas,  is  the  case !  Only  a  short 
time  ago  the  combined  railroad,  mining  and  smelting  monopolists 
of  Colorado  induced  two  or  three  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  to 
enjoin  certain  persons  from  committing  election  frauds  in  the  1904 
gubernatorial  election, —  election  frauds,  bear  in  mind,  which  were 
crimes  under  the  law.  This  order  had  no  just  ground  for  existence, 
since  the  law  had  already  provided  for  such  cases  of  fraud.  We  shall 
see,  however,  why  it  was  issued.  After  the  election  the  judges  who 
had  issued  the  injunction  ordered  that  all  the  ballots  of  certain  voting 
precincts  should  be  thrown  out,  "not,"  as -a  well-known  writer  re- 
marks, "  because  the  vote  was  tainted  by  fraud,  as  was  commonly  be- 
lieved, nor  yet  because  the  statutes  authorise  such  action,  for  they  do 
not.  The  exclusion  was  made  solely  on  the  ground  that  acts  were 
committed  in  those  precincts  in  violation  of  the  injunction."  .  . 

316 


THE    COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 

Commenting  on  this  singular  perversion  of  a  court  of  equity,  Mr. 
Louis  F.  Post  of  Chicago  said :  "  The  integrity  of  elections  in  Colo- 
rado is  by  that  decision  removed  from  the  protection  prescribed  by  the 
election  statutes;  and  the  function  of  regulating  the  voting  at  elec- 
tions and  determining  the  results  is  arbitrarily  assumed  by  the  Su- 
preme Court,  sitting  simply  as  a  court  of  equity.  So  sitting,  it  makes 
no  discrimination  between  honest  and  fraudulent  voting,  but  throws 
out  whole  precincts  upon  learning  that  its  injunction  has  been  to  any 
extent  violated.  In  this  way  a  Legislature  is  packed  by  the  Supreme 
Court;  not  in  regular  statutory  proceedings,  but  in  extraordinary  in- 
junction proceedings.  If  fear  of  popular  outbreak  does  not  deter 
them,  even  the  governorship  will  probably  be  determined  by  these 
usurping  judges  ^ through  this  wholesale  throwing  out  of  precincts  in 
proceedings  for  contempt  of  a  '  prerogative '  writ  of  injunction." 

The  above  quotation  is  reproduced  from  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege," 
and  Mr.  George  there  makes  this  interesting  comment  upon  it : 

"Mr.  Post's  observation  was  prophetic.  Although  on  the  face  of 
the  returns  Alvah  Adams  was  elected  Governor  by  a  large  plurality, 
the  Legislature,  packed  by  the  Supreme  Court,  seated  J.  H.  Peabody 
in  the  Executive  Chair,  as  a  result  of  a  post-election  gubernatorial 
contest,  the  understanding  being  that  Peabody  would  at  once  resign 
and  give  place  to  J.  F.  McDonald,  who  had  run  for  the  office  of 
Lieutenant-Governor  on  the  ticket  with  him.  This  was  done,  and 
the  present  Governor  of  the  State  of  Colorado  may  properly  be 
called  an  injunction-made  Executive. 

"  After  such  things  what  is  not  possible  for  courts  sitting  in 
equity  ?  " 

In  "  The  Arena  "  for  July,  1903,  Mr.  Ernest  Crosby  has  an  article 
upon  injunctions  which  is  so  clear,  so  sane  and  so  just  that  we  feel 
warranted  in  quoting  from  it  at  considerable  length.  He  says: 
"  The  proper  functions  of  judges  is  to  decide  lawsuits  between  in- 
dividuals, but  of  late  the  idea  seems  to  be  growing  in  the  -Judicial 
mind  that  they  are  called  upon  to  govern  communities.  For  in- 
stance, there  have  been  many  occasions  on  which  a  Federal  Judge, 
arriving  at  some  city  in  his  circuit,  finds  a  strike  in  progress,  thinks 
that  there  is  a  likelihood  of  a  disturbance  of  the  peace,  and  imme- 
diately proceeds  at  the  instance  of  the  employers  to  issue  a  blanket- 
injunction,  forbidding  all  the  members  of  various  trade  unions,  their 
abettors  and  friends,  and,  in  fact,  the  general  population,  to  per- 
form certain  acts  which  he  deems  prejudicial  to  the  public  weal. 
It  is  quite  clear  that  such  action  is  in  the  nature  of  municipal 
government,  and  in  no  sense  a  judicial  act  at  all.  Our  forefathers 
were  very  careful  in  separating  the  executive,  legislative,  and  ju- 
dicial branches  of  the  government;  and  many  are  the  warnings 
which  they  gave  us  as  to  the  danger  of  allowing  one  branch  to  en- 
croach upon  the  others,  but  an  injunction  of  the  kind  described,  if 
it  forbids  lawful  acts,  is  virtually  a  piece  of  legislation,  for  it  makes 
them  unlawful,  and  if  the  court  enforces  obedience  to  it,  it  assumes 
executive  functions.  Such  an  injunction  is,  therefore,  a  double  act 
of  usurpation.  In  a  State  like  West  Virginia,  for  example,  where 
there  have  been  many  flagrant  cases  of  usurpations  of  the  kind,  the 

317 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Governor  and  legislature  must  feel  very  small  when  a  Federal  Judge 
comes  in  sight,  for  he  seems  to  wield  a  far-reaching  and  irresponsi- 
ble power  which  they  cannot  pretend  to.  He  visits  them  not  as  a 
circuit  Judge  but  as  an  imperial  Satrap. 

"  It  is  sometimes  urged  in  defence  of  government  by  injunction  that 
it  ought  to  prevail  when  the  ordinary  government  has  shown  itself 
inefficient.  But  clearly,  if  our -courts  are  to  take  the  place  of  our 
governors  and  mayors  and  sheriffs,  that  power  should  be  given  to 
them  by  our  constitutions,  or,  at  least,  by  legislative  act,  and  not 
seised  upon  by  them  without  any  statutory  sanction.  There  exists 
already  the  remedy  of  mandamus  by  which  a  negligent  official  may 
be  forced  to  do  his  duty.  But  this  new  injunction  remedy  puts  the 
judge  into  the  civil  officer's  shoes  and  supersedes  him.  The  judge 
becomes  legislator  and  executor  of  the  law,  and  he  is  himself  the 
sole  judge  of  the  validity  of  his  actions.  He  makes  lawful  acts  un- 
lawful, tries  the  alleged  breaker  of  his  new-made  law  without  Jury 
and  upon  affidavit,  without  opportunity  for  cross-examining  or  even 
seeing  the  witnesses,  and  then  he  fixes  the  punishment,  although,  by 
the  very  fact  of  having  forbidden  the  acts  himself,  he  has  virtually 
become  an  interested  party  in  the  case.  It  is  disobedience  to  him, 
disregard  for  his  dignity,  which  is  really  at  stake,  and  yet  he  is  the 
sole  judge  and  executioner.  Tyranny  could  go  little  farther  in 
Eussia  or  Turkey/' 

That  this  is  not  an  extreme  statement  we  have  already  seen. 
United  States  Judge  Keller  granted  an  injunction  during  a  coal 
strike  involving  most  of  the  mines  of  West  Virginia,  against  "  as- 
sembling near"  the  mines,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  restrain  na- 
tional officers  of  the  mine-workers'  organisation  from  purchasing 
and  distributing  food  to  the  West  Virginia  strikers.  Similarly, 
during  a  strike  of  the  street-railroad  men  in  Waterbury,  Superior 
Court  Judge  Elmer,  of  Connecticut,  issued  an  omnibus  order  en- 
joining practically  all  the  trade  unionists  of  Waterbury  as  well  as 
every  sympathiser  against  "  any  act  or  language  "  tending  to  pre- 
vent persons  from  taking  the  strikers'  places ;  "  against  boycotting 
the  plaintiff  or  its  employes,  either  by  threats,  intimidation,  unlaw- 
ful persuasion  or  otherwise;  against  giving  any  information,  di- 
rections, instructions  or  orders  to  any  committee,  association,  con- 
federate or  other  person  or  persons  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  any 
of  the  acts  or  things  hereby  enjoined." 

To  the  infraction  of  this  pretty  bit  of  legislation  while  you  wait 
Judge  Elmer  attached  a  penalty  of  $10,000. 

In  the  course  of  "  The  Arena  "  article  above  mentioned,  Mr.  Crosby 
says :  "  It  is  obvious  that  an  injunction  must  enjoin  acts  which  are 
either  lawful  or  unlawful.  If  they  are  unlawful,  they  are  already 
forbidden  by  law,  and  the  penal  code  is  a  standing  injunction 
against  them.  Why,  then,  issue  another  injunction?  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  acts  are  lawful,  why  should  they  be  forbidden?  It 
is  a  dangerous  legislative  power  to  put  into  the  hands  of  a  single 
judge,  and  we  have  seen  numerous  examples  of  its  abuse.  Judges 
have  enjoined  the  holding  of  meetings  by  societies  in  their  own 
halls,  and  forbidden  the  use  of  ordinary  persuasion  on  the  part  of 

318 


THE    COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 

members  of  labour  unions,  thus  annulling,  without  any  colour  of 
right,  the  freedom  of  meeting  together  and  of  speech,  which  we 
had  supposed  to  be  among  our  most  unquestionable  privileges.  Our 
Federal  Judges  axe  the  worst  sinners,  and  the  way  in  which  they 
make  interstate  commerce  and  the  circulation  of  the  mails  a  pretext 
for  substituting  their  authority  for  -that  of  State  Judiciary  is  cal- 
culated to  bring  the  courts  into  disrespect,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
centralise  power  in  the  Federal  courts  in  a  way  which  would  have 
shocked  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  Thos.  Jefferson  early  ut- 
tered his  fears  in  the  premises,  and  history  is  proving  them  well 
founded.  '  It  has  long  been  my  opinion/  he  says,  (Works  VII., 
216),  'and  I  have  never  shrunk  from  its  expression,  that  the  germ 
of  dissolution  of  our  Federal  government  is  in  the  constitution  of 
the  Federal  Judiciary  —  an  irresponsible  body  (for  impeachment  is 
scarcely  a  scarecrow),  working  like  gravity  by  night  and  by  day, 
gaining  a  little  to-day  and  a  little  to-morrow,  and  advancing  its 
noiseless  step  like  a  thief  over  the  field  of  Jurisdiction/ 

"  Many  people  think  (and  among  them  not  a  few  Judges)  that  an 
injunction  interferes  in  some  subtle  way  before  the  act  anticipated 
is  performed.  This  is  nonsense.  An  injunction  does  nothing  be- 
fore the  act  but  to  forbid  it,  just  as  law  forbids  a  crime.  It  does 
not  and  cannot  touch  the  prospective  offender  until  he  has  of- 
fended. 

"  It  has  no  miraculous  .antecedent  power  of  prevention.  It  can  do 
only  two  things  —  make  unlawful  a  lawful  act,  and  provide  for 
summary  punishment  for  disobedience  by  proceedings  in  con- 
tempt." .  .  . 

"  In  view  of  the  fact  that  government  by  injunction  deprives  the 
prisoner  of  trial  by  Jury,  some  reformers  have  concluded  that  it 
was  only  necessary  to  provide  for  such  a  trial.  Such  a  remedy 
would  be  most  inadequate.  The'  Jury  could  only  consider  the  ques- 
tion of  fact,  whether  or  not  the  accused  has  disobeyed  the  injunc- 
tion, while  the  main  issue,  namely,  whether  the  Judge  had  any  right 
to  enjoin  the  act,  would  be  altogether  beyond  the  scope  of  their 
functions.  Such  a  law  could  only  throw  sand  into  the  trade  union- 
ists' eyes  and  prevent  them  from  seeking  real  relief.  The  wisest  course 
of  action  would  be  in  the  direction  of  securing  Judges  who  'sym- 
pathise with  people  rather  than  with  dollars.  Avoid  voting  for 
Judges,  who,  as  lawyers,  have  been  more  loyal  to  corporate  inter- 
ests than  to  Commonwealth,  and,  in  the  case  of  the  Federal,  district 
and  circuit  Judges,  let  us  begin  an  agitation  for  their  election  by 
the  people  for  a  term  of  years.  Unfortunately  this  would  require 
an  amendment  of  the  United  States  Constitution.  After  all,  a 
sound  public  opinion  may  be  the  best  corrective  of  this  unfortunate 
departure  from  conservative  precedents.  Let  us  all  say  what  we 
think  of  this  new  Judicial  tyranny,  and  if  any  Judge  forbids  us  to 
exercise  our  right  of  free  speech  or  of  assembling  peaceably  together, 
let  us  openly  disobey  his  order  and  associate  ourselves,  however 
humbly,  with  John  Hampden  and  Patrick  Henry,  for  ship-money 
and  tea-tax  were  no  less  dangerous  symptoms  of  tyranny  than  gov- 
ernment by  injunction." 

319 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Let  us  now  consider  the  remarkable  reign  of  anarchy  on  the  part 
of  the  self-styled  better  classes  which  occurred  in  Colorado  during 
1903  and  1904.  We  refer  to  the  conditions  existing  during  the 
great  strike  of  smelters  and  the  miners  of  gold,  silver  and  coal. 

We  can  offer  only  a  cursory  treatment  of  this  episode, —  an  episode 
in  many  respects  the  most  disconcerting  in  all  our  national  history. 
Those  who  desire  to  investigate  the  subject  in  detail  are  referred  to 
the  unsubsidised  daily  newspapers,  "  The  Public,"  a  Chicago  weekly, 
to  Book  V.,  Chapter  III.,  of  "The  Menace  of  Privilege,"  already 
frequently  quoted,  and  to  "  The  Reign  of  Lawlessness,  Anarchy  and 
Despotism  in  Colorado,"  by  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  published  in  Mc- 
Clure's  for  May,  1904.  We  extract  the  following  facts  chiefly  from 
the  last  two  sources. 

In  this  episode  we  find  the  Governor  of  Colorado  following,  in 
some  instances,  the  pernicious  precedent  established  by  Grover 
Cleveland  in  the  Chicago  strike. 

Under  the  heading,  "  The  Bayonet  in  Civil  Affairs,"  Mr.  George 
says  anent  this  affair: 

"  The  real  owners  of  Colorado  are  not  the  body  of  the  citizens, 
but  closely  associated  and  harmonious  mining,  smelting  and  railroad 
corporations.  What  these  corporations  own  they  manage,  subscrib- 
ing to  either  or  both  political  parties,  when  it  pleases  them  to  do 
so;  influencing  elections  when  and  in  what  manner  they  desire;  ef- 
fecting or  blocking  or  neutralising  such  legislation  as  they  choose; 
swaying  the  higher  courts,  and  to  great  extent  directing  adminis- 
trative government  and  the  military  arm  when  they  deem  that  neces- 
sary. These  owners  of  Colorado  make  and  unmake  the  makers  of 
laws  as  easily  and  quietly  as  they  make  and  unmake  the  laws  them- 
selves. 

"  The  coal  mines  are  in  the  south-central  part  of  Colorado.  The 
miners  had  serious  grievances.  Constitutional  and  statutory  pro- 
vision for  their  protection  against  robbery  and  persecution  by  the 
coal-mining  companies  were  dead  letters.  At  the  time  of  the  trouble 
the  mines  were  owned  mainly  by  two  corporations  —  the  Victor  Fuel 
Company  and  the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company  (now  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Coal  and  Iron  Company),  the  latter  controlled  by  Mr. 
John  D.  Rockefeller  and  Mr.  George  J.  Gould.  The  people  of 
Colorado  had  by  a  very  large  majority  ratified  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  requiring  the  Legislature  to  pass  an  eight-hour  law, 
but  the  Legislature,  influenced,  it  was  commonly  believed,  by  the 
monopoly  corporations,  suddenly  adjourned  without  taking  such  ac- 
tion. Thus  these  corporations  annulled  what  the  people  had  by 
constitutional  mandate  decreed.  The  coal  miners  saw  but  one  re- 
course—  the  strike.  Thereupon  the  mine-owners  immediately  ap- 
pealed to  the  Governor,  J.  H.  Peabody,  for  militia;  they  said,  to 
protect  life  and  property.  There  really  was  no  danger  to  life  or 
property.  There  were  but  a  few  cases  of  personal  violence,  and  these 
probably  had  been  provoked  by  assault  upon  the  miners  by  sym- 
pathisers with  the  company;  in  one  or  two  instances,  it  is  suspected, 
by  detectives  in  company  pay,  not  an  unheard-of  proceeding  in  other 

320 


THE   COURTS    FS.   JUSTICE 

coal  regions.  But  it  was  necessary  to  show  sufficient  cause  to  have 
the  troops,  and  the  troops  were  necessary  to  break  the  strike. 

"  Governor  Peabody  appeared  ready  to  send  soldiers.  Only  one 
thing  barred  him.  He  did  not  have  the  means  to  pay  them.  The 
Legislature  had  made  no  financial  provision  for  the  contingency 
of  calling  out  the  militia.  The  monopoly  corporations  quickly  met 
this  difficulty.  They  offered  to  furnish  the  State  with  all  the  money 
necessary  to  pay  such  soldiers  as  the  Governor  should  call  out,  agree- 
ing to  look  for  repayment  of  such  advances  by  the  passage  of  a 
special  appropriation  bill  at  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  Legislature. 
The  Governor  accepted  the  proffer  and  thus,  in  effect,  sold  the  militia 
to  the  service  of  corporate  privilege  in  Colorado,  just  as  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Hesse-Cassel  sold  Hessian  troops  to  George  III.  for  service 
in  the  British  army  against  the  patriots  of  this  Eepublic  during  the 
Revolution.  This  was  too  much  for  even  that  high  military  author- 
ity, the  Army  and  Navy  Journal,  which  might  have  been  expected 
to  pass  over  the  circumstances  as  justified  by  *  military  necessity/ 
That  periodical  said:  — 

'  But  that  he  (the  Governor)  should  virtually  borrow  money  from 
the  mine-owners  to  maintain  the  troops  whom  he  had  assigned  to 
guard  their  property  was  a  serious  reflection  upon  the  authorities  of 
the  State.  That  arrangement  virtually  placed  the  troops,  for  the 
time  being,  in  the  relation  of  hired  men  to  the  mine-operators,  and 
morally  suspended  their  function  of  State  military  guardians  of  the 
public  peace.  It  was  a  rank  perversion  of  the  whole  theory  and  pur- 
pose of  the  National  Guard,  and  more  likely  to  incite  disorder  than 
prevent  it/ 

"  Yet  under  these  circumstances  the  troops  were  sent  to  the  coal 
regions,  and  at  their  head  the  commanding  general  of  the  State 
militia,  Adjutant-General  Sherman  M.  Bell/7  .  .  . 

"  General  Bell  is  one  of  the  kind  of  men  who  forget  the  rights 
and  duties  of  the  citizen  when  they  don  soldier  clothes.  Their  first 
duty,  they  say,  is  to  obey.  General  Bell  received  his  orders  from 
Governor  Peabody,  who  had  appointed  him  to  his  high  command, 
and  Bell  obeyed  like  a  Eussian  military  official  at  Warsaw.  He 
arrested  men  and  clapped  them  into  jail  without  warrant  and  even 
without  formal  charge.  He  deported  them  out  of  the  State  for  no 
other  offence  than  that  they  were  members  of  the  miners'  union. 
In  these  actions  Governor  Peabody  upheld  him.  As  no  strike  could 
succeed  against  a  combination  of  mine-owners  and  soldiers,  this  one 
after  long,  weary  months  miserably  failed;  and  such  mine-workers 
as  were  permitted  to  go  back  to  the  coal  mines  were  glad  to  return 
to  employment  under  conditions  even  worse  than  those  against  which 
they  had  struck." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  year  preceding  the  strike  Sen- 
ator James  W.  Bucklin,  of  Colorado,  introduced  an  amendment  to 
the  Constitution,  known  as  the  Bucklin  amendment,  which  was  a 
veritable  red  rag  to  the  bull  of  privilege.  This  amendment  provided 
for  local  option  in  taxation,  which  is  to  say  that  it  gave  municipal- 
ities the  right  to  determine  how  they  should  raise  their  taxes.  It 
was  thought  that  if  this  amendment  became  a  law  it  would  result 
21  321 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

in  heavily  taxing  the  great  mineral  and  railroad  site-values  of  Colo- 
rado which  now  pay  only  inconsiderable  taxes.  The  various  monop- 
olies used  both  fair  means  and  foul  to  defeat  this  amendment.  The 
labour  unions  supported  it,  and  this  is  thought  to  have  led  to  the 
determination  on  the  part  of  the  monopolies  to  break  the  power  of 
the  unions  at  all  costs. 

During  the  progress  of  the  strike  a  railway  station  at  Independ- 
ence was  dynamited  and  fifteen  non-union  men  killed.  The  Mine- 
Owners'  Association  and  General  Bell  immediately  charged  this  act 
to  the  unions.  They  assured  the  public  that  they  had  the  most 
damning  evidence  against  the  union.  It  is  but  fair  to  assume  that 
this  was  said  simply  to  create  a  public  sentiment  adverse  to  the 
union  miners  and  to  get  the  people  into  a  state  wherein  they  would 
tolerate  the  crimes  against  liberty,  law  and  order  which  they  in- 
tended to  perpetrate.  .Moreover,  there  is  good  reason  to  suppose 
that  they  deliberately  misrepresented  the  facts  and  knowingly  and 
for  their  own  ulterior  ends  deceived  the  public.  This  charge  is 
made  because,  though  they  were  loud  in  their  assertions  that  they 
were  in  possession  of  such  damning  evidence  implicating  the  union, 
they  have  never  yet  presented  anything  sufficient  to  convict  a  single 
man  of  connexion  with  the  tragedy,  and  because,  further,  the  only 
clue  which  seemed  worthy  of  credence  tended  to  implicate  not  the 
miners'  union,  but  the  Mine-Owners'  Association  itself.  In  short, 
it  more  than  vaguely  hinted  that  the  explosion  had  been  planned 
for  the  express  purpose  of  putting  the  union  in  bad  repute.  If 
such  were  the  case  the  loss  of  life  was  doubtless  due  to  improperly 
timing  the  discharge. 

Commenting  upon  a  report  in  reference  to  the  Independence 
horror,  "  The  Public  "  of  June  25,  1904,  says  editorially :  "  If  it  be 
true  that  blood-hounds,  when  put  on  the  trail  of  the  miscreant  who 
caused  the  dynamite  explosion  in  Cripple  Creek,  Colo.,  by  which  a 
dozen  non-union  miners  lost  their  lives,  followed  the  trail  to  the 
houses  of  watchmen  for  the  mine-owners,  then  W.  J.  Ghent  ought 
to  change  the  title  of  his  Independent  article  from :  '  The  Next 
Step :  A  Benevolent  Feudalism,'  to :  '  The  Present  Step :  A  Benevo- 
lent Assimilation,  a  la  Filipino,'  and  alter  the  text  accordingly." 

As  in  the  case  of  the  blowing-up  of  the  Maine  the  truth  will 
probably  never  be  known.  It  seems  most  reasonable  that  in  both 
cases  the  act  was  committed  primarily  to  affect  public  opinion. 
However  this  may  be,  it  should  be  remembered  that  long  before  this 
tragedy  occurred  the  Citizens'  Alliance  and  the  Mine-Owners'  Asso- 
ciation had  procured  a  body  of  militia  under  command  of  the  afore- 
mentioned General  Bell,  and  that  he  had  frankly  stated  that  he 
proposed  to  "  break  up  "  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  and  its 
supporting  unions  and  to  "run  out"  the  most  active  members. 

"  With  an  abundance  of  zeal  and  courage,"  says  Mr.  George, 
"  General  Bell  thereupon  had  large  numbers  of  union  men  arrested 
and  locked  up  in  military  jails.  No  formal  charges  were  preferred. 
And  then  began  the  policy  of  deportation  which  had  been  tried  in 
the  coal  regions.  Without  trials,  without  other  explanation  than 
the  curt  one  of  '  military  necessity/  rnen  known  to  be  unips  m.en 

323 


THE   COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 

were  put  upon  trains  and  shipped  out  of  the  State.  To  cap  the 
climax,  Charles  H.  Moyer,  President  of  Western  Federation  of 
Miners,  was  arrested,  put  into  the  military  prison  and  kept  there 
for  months,  on  what  pretext  neither  Moyer,  his  attorneys,  his  union 
nor  the  public  could  learn. 

"  Of  all  this  Governor  Peabody  approved.  He  called  it  c  military 
rule.'  General  Bell  called  it  '  military  necessity/  The  general  pub- 
lic called  it  '  martial  law/ 

"  Ignoring  the  deportations,  Governor  Peabody  said :  e  I  have  only 
arrested  men,  and  I  hold  them  until  I  deem  it  proper  to  turn  them 
over  to  the  civil  authorities  for  trial/  But  he  showed  that  he  re- 
garded himself  as  judge  and  executioner,  for  he  added,  e  I  believe  in 
stamping  out  this  set  of  dynamiters,  and  intend  it  shall  be  done/ 

"  The  soldiers  did  not  bother  with  fine  distinctions.  When  accused 
of  violating  the  Constitution  of  the  State,  Judge  Advocate  McClel- 
land exclaimed,  'To  hell  with  the  Constitution;  we  are  not  follow- 
ing the  Constitution/  Colonel  Verdeckberg,  commanding  officer  in 
the  Cripple  Creek  district,  said,  'We  are  under  orders  only  from 
God  and  Governor  Peabody/  When  asked  how  long  martial  law 
was  to  be  enforced  at  Telluride,  General  Bell  answered :  t  The  sol- 
diers never  will  be  taken  out  of  there  until  we  have  rid  the  country 
of  the  cut-throats,  murderers,  socialists,  thieves,  loafers,  agitators, 
and  the  like  who  make  up  the  membership  of  the  Western  Federa- 
tion of  Miners.  We  don't  care  what  the  Supreme  Court,  the  news- 
papers or  anybody  or  anything  else  does.  The  soldiers  are  going  to 
stay  there,  regardless  of  court  decisions;  and  if  there  is  any  more 
monkey  business,  there  is  going  to  be  some  much-needed  shoot- 
ing/ 

"  This  remarkable  speech  had  reference  to  an  order  issued  on  a 
habeas  corpus  writ  by  District  Judge  .Stevens  to  General  Bell  to 
liberate  Moyer.  The  soldier  not  only  announced  that  he  would  not 
obey  the  court  order,  but  that  he  would  put  the  judge  into  the 
military  jail  if  he  came  near  headquarters,  continuing :  '  If  Sheriff 
Corbett  takes  me  to  Ouray,  it  will  have  to  be  over  the  dead  bodies 
of  all  the  soldiers  under  my  command  in  this  county.  He  has  not 
men  enough  to  do  that/ 

"  The  power  of  the  court  being  gone,  Judge  Stevens  adjourned  it 
and  announced  that  he  would  thereafter  adjourn  from  term  to  term 
until  the  court's  mandates  could  be  executed  without  military  in- 
terference. 

"  Appeal  was  then  made  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  for  a 
habeas  corpus  writ  for  Moyer.  That  tribunal  granted  a  hearing/' 

The  result  of  this  hearing  was  that  two  of  the  three  judges,  to 
wit,  Gabbert  and  Campbell,  sustained  the  Governor  in  his  extraor- 
dinary military  arrests  of  Moyer  and  others  and  in  his  despotic  de- 
portations. 

Judge  Gabbert  wrote  the  prevailing  opinion,  the  main  points  of 
which  Mr.  George  condenses  in  four  paragraphs: 

"  (1)  The  Governor  has  sole  power  to  determine  when  a  state 
of  insurrection  exists  in  any  county  in  the  State.  The  courts  have 
no  power  to  interfere  with  the  exercise  of  this  prerogative. 

323 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

(2)  The  Governor  has  the  right  to  use  the  military  forces  of  the 
State  to  suppress  domestic  insurrection.     He  also  has  the  power  to 
order  the  imprisonment  and  the  killing  of  insurrectionists,  if  in  his 
opinion  that  extremity  is  necessary. 

(3)  He  can  detain  military  prisoners  until  he  decides  that  the 
insurrection  is  quelled. 

(4)  The  courts  of  the  State  have  no  right  to  interfere  with  the 
military  authorities  and  their  handling  of  prisoners.     They  have  no 
power  to  attempt  to  discharge  military  prisoners." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Judge  Gabbert,  who  settled  at  Tel- 
luride  in  1882,  had  formerly  been  a  banker  and  had  mining  interests 
there,  while  Judge  Campbell  had  formerly  represented  Colorado 
railroads  and  mining  interests  as  corporation  lawyer.  The  other 
judge,  Mr.  Eobert  Wilbur  Steele,  had  been  an  attorney  also,  but 
with  a  general  practice. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  Judge  Steele's  opinion : 

"  It  follows,  of  course,  that  if  the  present  Executive  is  the  sole 
judge  of  the  condition  which  can  call  into  action  the  military  power 
of  the  Government,  and  can  exercise  all  means  necessary  to  effect- 
ually abate  the  conditions,  and  the  judicial  department  cannot  in- 
quire into  the  legality  of  his  acts,  the  next  Governor  may  by  his  , 
ukase  exercise  the  same  arbitrary  power.  If  the  military  authority 
may  deport  the  miners  this  year,  it  can  deport  the  farmers  next 
year. 

"  If  a  strike,  which  is  not  a  rebellion,  must  be  so  regarded  because 
the  Governor  says  it  is,  then  any  condition  must  be  regarded  as  a 
rebellion  which  the  Governor  declares  to  be  such;  and  if  any  con- 
dition must  be  regarded  as  a  rebellion  because  the  Governor  says  so, 
then  any  county  in  the  State  may  be  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of 
rebellion,  whether  a  rebellion  exists  or  not,  and  every  citizen  sub- 
jected to  arbitrary  arrest  and  detention  at  ffie  will  and  pleasure  of 
the  head  of  the  executive  department. 

"We  may,  then,  with  each  succeeding  change  in  the  executive 
branch  of  the  Government,  have  class  arrayed  against  class,  and 
interest  against  interest,  and  we  shall  depend  for  our  liberty,  not 
upon  the  Constitution,  but  upon  the  grace  and  favor  of  the  Gov- 
ernor and  his  military  subordinates.  .  .  . 

"  The  court  has  not  construed  the  Constitution ;  it  has  ignored  it. 
And  the  result  is  that  it  has  made  greater  inroads  on  the  Con- 
stitution than  it  intended,  and  that  not  one  of  the  guarantees  of 
personal  liberty  can  be  enforced.  .  ;  . 

"  If  one  may  be  restrained  of  his  liberty  without  charge  being  pre- 
ferred against  him,  every  other  guarantee  of  the  Constitution  may 
be  denied  him." 

It  is  wise  to  ponder  well  this  lucid  statement  of  fact.  We  see  in 
this  episode  the  fruit  of  the  seed  sown  at  Chicago  by  President 
Cleveland.  This  time  it  is  a  governor  who  arrogates  the  right, — 
and  the  .Supreme  Court  sustains  the  arrogance, —  to  decide  out  of 
his  own  inner  consciousness  whether  or  not  an  insurrection  exists; 
whether  or  not  soldiers  are  needed;  whether  or  not  the  civil 
authority  of  the  courts  shall  be  superseded  by  his  own  despotic  fiat 

324 


THE    COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 

enforced  by  bayonets;  in  short  whether  or  not  A.B.C.  or  D.  have 
any  rights  whatsoever  as  American  citizens  which  he  is  bound  to 
respect.  His  conduct  in  these  premises  is  well  worthy  a  Eomanof 
Czar. 

Nor  have  we  credited  this  unAmerican  autocrat  with  his  full 
measure  of  shame.  The  following  calm  indictment,  from  "  The 
Menace  of  Privilege/'  helps  the  total  very  materially. 

"  Eeduced  to  its  lowest  terms,  the  highest  court  of  Colorado, 
through  the  majority  of  its  judges,  abdicated  at  this  most  serious 
crisis.  And  when  appeal  was  made  to  a  Federal  court,  and  Gov- 
ernor Peabody  and  Attorney-General  Miller  were  cited  to  appear 
with  Moyer  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  before  United  States  Circuit 
Judge  Thayer,  sitting  at  St.  Louis,  Governor  Peabody  suddenly  re- 
voked martial  law  in  the  district  where  Moyer  had  been  imprisoned 
and  turned  him  over  to  the  civil  authority,  the  sheriff,  who  imme- 
diately turned  him  over  to  the  sheriff  of  Teller  County,  where  mar- 
tial law  still  prevailed.  Thus  Moyer  was  technically  out  of  the 
Governor's  hands.  He  was  technically  in  civil  hands.  But  he  was 
still  virtually  in  the  hands  of  the  soldiers,  as  the  sheriff  of  Teller 
County  had  been  put  in  that  office  with  the  help  of  the  soldiers. 

"  And  thus  while  the  Governor  avoided  collision  with  a  Federal 
court  which  did  not  appear  to  be  under  monopoly  influence,  he  had, 
as  Supreme  Court  Judge  Steele  implied,  been  restraining  men  of 
their  liberty  without  preferring  charges  against  them.  More  than 
this,  he  had  been  deporting  men  on  the  mere  ipse  dixit  that  he  in- 
tended to  get  rid  of  labour  unionists,  socialists,  agitators  and  the 
like. 

"  He  even  closed  up  the  Portland  mine  in  the  Cripple  Creek  district 
because  that  mine,  continuing  to  run,  employed  union  as  well  as 
non-union  men,  and  the  union  men  were  suspected  of  contributing 
part  of  their  earnings  to  the  strike  fund.  It  was  announced  that 
the  Portland  mine  would  be  allowed  to  reopen  only  with  men  'hold- 
ing cards  issued  by  the  Mine-Owners'  Association  —  a  new  kind  of  a 
labour  union,  but  not  one  organised  by  and  for  the  mass  of  labourers, 
but  by  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  Mine-Owners'  Association. 

"  In  accordance  with  this  proceeding,  General  Bell  issued  an  order 
(Special  Order  No.  19)  declaring  that  'no  organisation  will  be  al- 
lowed., while  this  county  (Teller)  is  under  military  control,  to  fur- 
nish aid  in  any  form  to  the  members  of  any  organisation  or  their 
families  in  this  county,  unless .  the  same  is  done  through  military 
channels.' 

"  The  Governor  and  General  Bell  went  even  further  than  this. 
They,  conspired  to  strike  at  the  ballot  itself.  While  Teller.  County 
was  under  military  rule  the  Governor  and  his  Adjutant-General 
permitted  a  mob  of  respectable  citizens  of  Cripple  Creek,  compos- 
ing the  active  members  of  the  Mine-Owners'  Association  and  the 
Citizens'  Alliance,  to  force  the  sheriff,  the  county  coroner,  the  county 
treasurer,  the  county  clerk,  a  prosecuting  attorney  and  a  number 
of  minor  local  officials  to  resign  from  their  offices,  to  which  they 
had  been  regularly  elected,  and  the  functions  of  which  they  had 
been  performing  so  far  as  the  presence  of  the  soldiers  would  per- 

325 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

mit.  The  mob  of  respectables  carried  firearms,  and,  in  one  or  two 
instances,  went  so  far  as  to  display  a  noosed  rope  and  threaten  its 
use  if  necessary  to  compel  compliance  with  their  demands.  To  all 
the  official  vacancies  men  were  appointed  who  were  known  to  be  in 
one  way  or  another  identified  with  the  monopoly  powers. 

"  One  of  General  Bell's  declarations  over  his  signature  was :  '  I  am 
going  to  banish  the  agitators,  and  then  I  will  establish  a  military 
quarantine  that  will  keep  them  banished/  This  was  no  idle  boast. 
He  meant  it,  and  he  acted  upon  it  so  long  as  his  soldiers  were  cm 
duty.  Indeed,  in  an  interview  with  me,  he  said  that  he  would  not, 
if  he  had  his  way,  restrict  the  use  of  soldiers  to  the  mining  regions. 
He  would  use  them  in  the  metropolis  and  capital  of  the  State,  Den- 
ver, and  '  run  out  the  bad  men  and  ballot-box  stuffers/ 

"  And  what  was  the  net  result  of  the  strike-military  term  in  Colo- 
rado? That  in  round  numbers  a  thousand  men  were  locked  up  in 
the  military  prisons  without  charges  being  preferred  against  them; 
that  six  hundred  and  fifty  coal  and  metal  miners  were  arbitrarily 
deported,  some  of  them  put  down  on  the  open  prairie  without  food 
or  shelter;  that  houses  were  searched  and  stores  looted  by  so-called 
citizens'  committees  acting  under  the  protection  of  soldiers;  that 
local  courts  were  prevented  from  exercising  their  functions;  that 
regularly  elected  local  officials  were  coerced  into  resigning  and 
monopoly  appointees  substituted;  that  the  Governor  and  militia, 
passively  supported  by  an  abdicating  Supreme  Court,  did  or  helped 
to  do  all  this ;  that  the  cost  for  the  militia  exceeded  $800,000,  which 
the  great  parties  at  interest  —  the  Colorado  monopolies  —  paid,  and 
for  which  they  purposed  some  day  to  be  reimbursed  by  a  special 
legislative  appropriation." 

In  his  "  The  Eeign  of  Lawlessness,"  already  alluded  to,  Mr.  Baker 
says :  "  And  martial  law  has  been  neither  gentle  nor  forbearing ; 
when  accused  of  violating  the  Constitution,  Judge  Advocate  Mc- 
Clelland remarked: 

'  To  hell  with  the  Constitution ;  we  are  not  following  the  Consti- 
tution/ 

"Colonel  Verdeckberg,  commanding  officer  in  the  Cripple  Creek 
district,  declared: 

'  We  are  under  orders  only  from  God  and  Governor  Peabody/ 

"But,  if  military  rule  has  been  despotic,  many  citizens  have  been 
lawless,  and  civil  government  ineffective.  The  miners'  union  has 
broken  the  law,  there  have  been  dynamiting  and  assassination;  the 
corporations  have  broken  the  law,  there  have  been  bribery  and  cor- 
ruption; the  citizens'  organisations,  representing  in  some  degree  the 
great  third  party  —  the  public  —  have  broken  the  law;  even  the 
Legislature  itself,  wherein  the  law  is  made,  has  been  lawless.  We 
have  to-day,  indeed,  in  certain  parts  of  Colorado,  a  breakdown  of 
democracy,  and,  through  anarchy,  a  reversion  to  military  des- 
potism." .  .  . 

"  The  Major,  well  backed  by  his  troopers,  seises  for  military  head- 
quarters a  building  owned  by  a  private  citizen.  He  marches 
to  the  seat  of  government  and  informs  the  mayor  and  the  chief  of 
police  that  unless  they  obey  military  orders  he,  the  Major  will  seise 

326 


THE    COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 

the  City  Hall.  He  visits  the  office  of  the  Victor  Eecord  and  estab- 
lishes a  military  censorship.  The  editor  is  forbidden  to  print  an 
editorial  concerning  these  military  doings,  and  the  next  morning, 
or  maybe  the  morning  after,  the  paper  appears  with  a  black-bordered 
column,  significantly  blank,  as  it  happens  in  Eussia. 

"  Having  violated  the  rights  of  private  property,  overturned  the 
people's  government,  suppressed  free  speech  and  a  free  press,  the 
Major  left  armed  men  to  patrol  the  city  streets,  and  clattered  away 
up  the  hill  with  his  troop. 

"  But  the  proclamation  of  the  Fourth  of  December  was  only  the 
formal  dramatic  declaration  on  the  part  of  the  Governor  of  a  con- 
dition long  existent.  For  some  two  months  prior  to  this  time  the 
military  forces  had  been  practically  in  control.  And  it  had  not  been 
pleasant  —  martial  rule.  Soldiers  are  not  that  way." 

In  treating  of  arrests  without  warrants,  Mr.  Baker  tells  how  men 
were  seised  without  warrants,  even  without  any  charges  being  made 
against  them,  locked  up  in  an  "unsavory  place  called  a  Bull-Pen 
and  often  kept  for  weeks,  being  denied  communication  with  friends 
and  relatives."  Continuing  he  says :  "  As  every  one  knows,  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  is  one  of  the  most  precious  rights  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  called  by  Blackstone  the  *  second  Magna  Charta.'  It  has 
for  its  object  the  protection  of  the  precious  personal  liberty  of  the 
free  citizen  —  it  provides  that  he  shall  not  be  held  a  prisoner  with- 
out due  process  of  law.  Judge  Seeds  ordered  that  the  Bull-Pen 
prisoners  be  brought  into  court,  that  an  orderly  inquiry  might  be 
made  as  to  whether  any  innocent  man  was  deprived  of  his  liberty. 
General  Chase  and  General  Bell,  then  in  command,  obeyed  the  writ 
in  their  own  significant  way.  They  surrounded  the  court  house 
with  armed  men;  they  planted  sharpshooters  on  the  roofs  of  the 
buildings  roundabout ;  they  set  a  gatling-gun  in  the  street  outside, 
and  then  they  marched  into  court  with  an  overawing  force  of  troop- 
ers which  they  planted  squarely  in  front  of  the  judge's  bench. 
When  the  judge  approached  his  own  court  he  was  halted  with  a 
bayonet  brought  to  his  breast,  and  kept  waiting  the  pleasure  of  an 
officer  from  Denver!  After  the  bailiff  rapped  for  order,  Eugene 
Engley,  former  attorney-general  of  the  .State  of  Colorado,  one  of 
the  attorneys  for  the  prisoners,  declaring  that  no  real  justice  could 
be  administered  in  a  court  intimidated  by  armed  men,  left  the  room. 
*  The  constitutional  guarantee  that  courts  shall  be  open  and  free 
has  been  invaded  and  overthrown,'  he  said.  But  the  judge  finally 
decided  that  the  prisoners,  whatever  their  offence,  must  not  be  de- 
prived of  their  liberty  without  charges,  and  ordered  that  they  be 
surrendered  to  the  civil  court. 

"WRIT  OF  HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENDED." 

"The  generals  deliberately  violated  the  court  order,  and  marched 
the  prisoners  back  to  the  Bull-Pen,  with  the  sharpshooters  and  the 
gatling-gun.  They  were  subsequently  released  by  special  order  of 
the  Governor,  but  others  were  arrested  repeatedly  and  held  for  con- 
siderable periods.  And  finally  the  Governor  himself  took  the  gravest 

327 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

step  which  any  executive  officer  in  this  country  can  take,  a  step  for- 
bidden, except  under  the  most  stringent  safeguards,  by  the  consti- 
tution of  practically  every  state  .in  the  Union,  including  that  of 
Colorado  —  he  suspended  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  the  case  of 
one  Victor  Poole,  keeping  him  locked  up  without  due  process  of 
law,  for  weeks."  .  .  . 

"  Small  boys,  and  even  women,  one  the  wife  of  a  merchant,  were 
actually  arrested  for  speaking  disparagingly  of  the  soldiers  and  sent 
to  the  Bull-Pen.  Private  homes,  the  castles  of  the  citizens,  were  en- 
tered and  searched  without  warrant.  A  squad  of  soldiers  visited 
the  home  of  Sherman  Parker  in  the  night,  while  Parker  himself  was 
away,  aroused  his  wife  from  bed,  forced  her,  in  her  night-clothes,  in 
the  presence  of  these  men,  to  hold  the  lamp  while  they  searched  the 
house  —  and  found  no  arms. 

"  In  Cripple  Creek,  on  December  28th,  John  M.  Glover,  former 
United  States  Congressman  from  Missouri,  who  stood  upon  his  con- 
stitutional right  to  own  and  keep  arms,  (with  undue  truculency,  it 
may  be,  though  this  does  not  alter  the  facts  of  the  case),  was  at- 
tacked in  his  law-office  by  a 'squad  of  soldiers.  He  barricaded  the 
door,  and,  when  the  troops  attempted  to  force  an  entrance,  he  opened 
fire  through  the  panels.  The  soldiers  replied  with  a  volley  through  the 
door  and  walls.  Glover,  shot  through  the  arm,  finally  surrendered. 
His  revolvers  were  seised  and  he  himself  detained  a  prisoner. 

"  Doings  not  dissimilar  to  these  also  took  place  at  Telluride.  Cit- 
izens, some  of  whom  owned  property  and  had  been  long  residents  of 
the  town,  were  arrested  for  vagrancy.  Most  of  them  were  strikers; 
strikers  by  right,  if  they  wished  to  strike,  neither  beggars  nor 
vagrants,  and  having  no  specific  charges  of  crime  against  them. 
Some  of  them  were  put  to  work  like  criminals  in  a  chain-gang  on  the 
streets. 

"LEADERS  EXPELLED  FROM  THEIR  HOMES." 

"  On  January  4th,  twenty-six  men,  including  Attorney-General 
Engley,  lawyer  for  the  union ;  Guy  E.  Miller,  president  of  the  union ; 
J.  C.  Williams,  vice-president  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners; 
Charles  D.  Sumner,  a  newspaper  man,  and  many  strikers,  all  of 
whom  had  money,  were  taken  by  force,  placed  on  board  of  a  train 
under  military  guard,  deported  to  the  boundary  line  of  the  county, 
and  ordered  not  to  return.  Some  of  these  men  had  long  been 
citizens  of  Telluride,  owned  property  there,  had  their  wives  and  fam- 
ilies there.  Soldier  guards  turned  back  the  banished  citizens  when 
they  attempted  to  return  to  their  homes. 

"  To  this,  then,  have  we  come  in  these  American  towns  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twentieth  century!  And  why  is  this  so?  Why  have 
the  people  borne  these  appalling  usurpations?" 

It  must  not  be  inferred  that  Mr.  Baker  places  all  the  blame  upon 
either  side.  He  shows  that  the  subversion  of  the  will  of  the  people 
unmistakably  expressed  at  the  polls  was  responsible  for  its  full  share 
of  ill  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  unions,  whereas  acts  of  violence  on 
the  part  of  union  miners  led  to  a  belief  that  the  unions  countenanced 

328 


THE   COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 

such  unlawful  acts,  and  this  angered  their  opponents.  It  is  im- 
possible to  do  full  justice  to  Mr.  Baker's  article  in  the  space  we  are 
able  to  allot  to  it.  The  interested  reader  should  peruse  it  in  ex- 
tenso. 

Commenting  on  the  Colorado  crime,  the  (Omaha)  "World-Her- 
ald" of  June  17,  1904,  prints  the  following:  "Under  the  Consti- 
tution and  in  accordance  with  American  principles,  the  Peabody 
government  of  Colorado,  operated  as  it  is  to  the  partisan  advantage 
of  the  mine  owners  and  trust  magnates  who  corrupted  the  Colorado 
legislature,  is  an  official  mob.  Those  who  are  so  ready  to  condemn 
every  lawless  act  charged  to  the  Colorado  working-man,  while  they 
have  nothing  but  praise  for  the  lawless  acts  attributed  to  the  Colo- 
rado authorities,  should  pause  and  consider  whether  the  greatest 
danger  to  society  lies  in  the  unofficial  mob  that  may  be  readily  put 
down  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law,  or  in  the  official  mob  composed 
of  strong  and  determined  men  representing,  for  the  moment,  the 
authority  of  the  Commonwealth,  but  acting  as  partisan  guards  for 
one  of  the  parties  to  a  great  controversy." 

In  regard  to  the  question  of  the  real  conditions  in  the  Colorado 
strike  area  preceding  and  during  the  trouble,  we  offer  the  following 
extracts  from  a  signed  article  by  James  H.  Teller,  printed  as  Edi- 
torial Correspondence  in  "  The  Public  "  of  Aug.  13,  1904 : 

"  While  the  newspapers  of  the  East  have  generally  been  quite  fair 
in  their  comments  upon  the  troubles  in  Colorado,  they  have  accepted 
and  given  currency  to  statements,  emanating  from  the  mine  owners, 
which  do  the  State  grave  injustice. 

"It  has  been  stated  repeatedly  that  the  calling  of  the  militia 
was  necessary  because  of  a  reign  of  terror  in  the  mining  camps  to 
which  troops  were  sent.  The  Western  Federation  of  Miners  is 
charged  with  planning  and  encouraging  murder,  train-wrecking  and 
all  forms  of  violence,  and  it  is  represented  that  in  several  counties 
its  orders  were  so  well  obeyed  that  life  and  property  were  no  longer 
safe.  To  these  charges  the  Governor  has  given  official  approval  in 
his  proclamations  declaring  three  counties  in  a  state  of  '  insurrec- 
tion/ as  well  as  in  his  several  interviews  and  published  defences.  To 
be  sure,  insurrection  is  something  more  than  the  lawless  and  crim- 
inal conduct  charged  against  the  communities  in  question  —  being 
equivalent  to  rebellion  —  but  alleged  lawlessness  and  not  revolution 
is  the  condition  asserted  as  an  excuse  for  the  Governor's  course. 

,  "  In  justice  to  the  State,  it  should  be  known  that  in  truth  no  such 
lawlessness  existed  in  any  of  the  counties  which  were  placed  under 
military  control.  The  '  insurrection '  was  in  every  case  a  fiction 
deemed  necessary  as  a  basis  for  the  order  for  troops. 

"But  two  definite  charges  of  violence  in  the  Cripple  Creek  dis- 
trict have  been  made;  one  of  an  attack  upon  Justice  Hawkins,  of 
Altman,  which  is  alleged  to  have  been  to  punish  him  for  a  decision 
unfavourable  to  a  union  miner.  The  other  case  is  that  of  one  Stew- 
art, who  is  alleged  to  have  been  beaten  by  union  miners.  Stewart's 
wife  admits  that  she  administered  the  beating  in  a  family  broil, 
and  Stewart  confessed  as  much  to  a  police  magistrate,  who  is  au- 
thority for  this  statement. 

329 


"After  the  arrival  of  the  troops,  an  explosion  in  the  Vindicator 
mine  resulted  in  the  death  of  the  superintendent  and  a  shift  boss. 
This  was  at  once  charged  to  the  unions.  But  no  evidence  was  pro- 
duced, and  the  coroners  jury  reported  that  it  was  unable  to  deter- 
mine the  cause  or  to  fix  the  blame.  As  the  mine  was  under  mili- 
tary guard,  positive  evidence  of  outside  interference  is  necessary  to 
show  that  the  explosion  was  more  than  an  accident. 

"It  is  declared,  too,  that  the  unions  attempted  to  wreck  a  train 
loaded  with  soldiers  and  non-union  men.  But  on  the  trial  of  the 
alleged  wreckers,  it  clearly  appeared  that  the  loosening  of  the  rail 
was  the  work  of  detectives  of  the  Mine-Owners'  Association,  who 
employed  a  worthless  character  to  testify  to  facts  incriminating  the 
president  of  one  of  the  unions.  Not  only  was  the  accused  acquitted, 
but  the  cases  against  his  alleged  accomplices  were  all  dismissed, 
while  the  principle  witness  for  the  prosecution,  this  tool  of  the  de- 
tectives, was  held  for  perjury  committed  at  the  trial."  .  .  . 

"  It  is  asserted,  and  apparently  not  without  reason,  that  the  strike 
was  encouraged,  if  not  actually  brought  about,  by  the  mine  owners, 
with  a  view  to  a  disruption  of  the  unions.  With  a  vain,  weak  man 
in  the  executive  chair,  whether  pledged  to  them  in  consideration 
of  liberal  campaign  contributions  or  not,  they  might  well  deem 
themselves  in  a  position  to  accomplish  the  long-cherished  purpose  of 
driving  out  organised  labour.  Events  have  proved  that  the  Governor 
is  willing  to  go  to  any  lengths  in  support  of  the  mine  owners'  crim- 
inal acts  and  purposes,  and  they  have  shown  themselves  utterly  lack- 
ing in  regard  for  law,  and  without  the  slightest  feelings  of  human- 
ity. It  is  they  and  not  the  miners  who  have  brought  disgrace  upon 
the  State." 

During  this  strike  almost  every  outrage  known  to  a  military  des- 
potism was  practised.  No  one  was  safe.  A  strict  press  censorship 
was  established,  as  if  Colorado  had  been  Eussia.  Telegraph  and 
telephone  lines  were  seised,  in  order  that  the  real  conditions  should 
not  reach  the  outside  world. 

Such  a  course  is  utterly  without  justification,  and  could  only 
have  been  followed  to  prevent  the  country  rising  en  masse  at  the 
outrages  being  perpetrated.  It  cannot  be  contended  that  this  was 
necessary  in  order  to  prevent  information  reaching  the  enemy,  ex- 
cept upon  the  assumption  that  the  great  mass  of  the  American  peo- 
ple were  at  enmity  with  the  entire  despotism  established  from  the 
Czar-Governor  and  his  autocratic  general,  to  the  humblest  soldier- 
machine.  Heaven  grant  that  this  be  so,  for,  if  not,  what  hope  can 
there  be  "that  this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of 
freedom,  and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and 
for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

We  cannot  do  better  than  to  close  this  episode  with  the  following 
quotation  from  an  editorial  in  the  "  Weekly  Republican  "  of  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  for  June  17,  1904. 

"Practically  speaking  the  mining  regions  of  Colorado,  where  mili- 
tary rule  prevails,  are  in  the  possession  and  '  government '  of  a  mob- 
The  mob  in  this  case  is  composed  of  the  'best  citizens,'  and  is  rep- 
resentative particularly  of  the  property  interests.  Hence  its  extra- 

330 


THE   COURTS    VS.   JUSTICE 

ordinary  proceedings  are  viewed  elsewhere  with  astonishment,  but 
not  alarm.  If  it  were  otherwise  composed  this  country  would  be  in 
a  panic.  If  it  were  a  mob  of  the  propertyless  classes  which  had  thus 
gained  the  upper  hand  in  the  State  of  Colorado,  and  were  closing 
the  courts,  compelling  judges  to  decamp,  locking  up  crimeless  cit- 
izens in  bull-pens,  driving  others  out  of  the  .State  by  hundreds, 
dumping  them  without  food  and  shelter  on  the  prairie  of  an  adjoin- 
ing State,  and  destroying  their  property,  and  means  of  livelihood, 
this  country  would  shake  from  end  to  end  with  consternation. 

"  But  we  shall  do  well  to  view  the  rise  and  progress  of  this  mob 
of  the  '  better  classes '  with  deeper  feeling  than  one  of  astonishment. 
It  is  to  be  regarded  with  alarm.  Eight  and  justice  and  law  are  no 
less  menaced  and  outraged  in  this  case  than  they  would  be  in  the 
other.  Think  of  these  acts  of  wholesale  deportation  of  men  ad- 
mittedly guilty  of  no  offence  save  that  of  belonging  to  a  labour  union, 
which  it  is  lawful  for  them  to  do!  Think  of  separating  them  from 
their  families  and  dumping  them  on  a  shelterless  plain,  where  in 
turn  they  are  taken  in  hand  by  the  authorities  there  and  started 
back  —  being  kicked  back  and  forth  as  if  they  had  no  more  right  to 
a  place  on  earth  than  an  ownerless  cur.  Think  of  compelling  a 
whole  city  council  to  resign  and  clear  out  because  of  suspected  sym- 
pathy with  labour  unionism  —  of  forcing  judges  to  make  themselves 
scarce  because  they  would  maintain  the  rule  of  civil  law  —  of  going 
from  man  to  man  and  public  official  to  public  official  with  the  ques- 
tion :  Are  you  in  sympathy  with  the  right  of  labour  to  organise  ?  — 
which,  if  answered  in  the  affirmative,  brings  an  enforced  command 
to  get  away  and  never  come  back!  Does  anybody  suppose  a  well- 
dressed  mob,  any  more  than  one  in  overalls,  can  thus  outrage  justice 
and  humanity  without  deplorable  consequences?  It  is  impossible." 


331 


BOOK   VII 

CHAPTER      I.  LYNCHING. 

CHAPTER    II.  BREAKING  FAITH  WITH  THE  SIXTIES 

CHAPTER  III.  PEONAGE 

CHAPTER  IV.  THE  DARK  .SIDE  OP  THE  LAW 


333 


The  great  King  of  Kings 
Hath  in  the  table  of  his  law  commanded 
That  thou  shalt  do  no  murder:  and  wilt  thou,  then, 
Spurn  at  his  edict  and  fulfill  a  man's? 

Richard  III. 

Cast  not  the  clouded  gem  away, 
Quench  not  the  dim  but  living  ray, — 

My  brother  man,  Beware! 
With  that  deep  voice  which  from  the  skies 
Forbade  the  Patriarch's  sacrifice, 

God's  angel  cries,  Forbear! 

Whittier  —  Human  Sacrifice. 

Murder  most  foul,  as  in  the  best  it  is; 
But  this  most  foul,  strange  and  unnatural. 

Hamlet. 


334 


CHAPTER  I 
LYNCHING 

sustaining  our  contention  that  the  United  States  is 
more  rapidly  receding  from  and  repudiating  its 
ideals  than  is  the  empire  of  the  Sultan  or  the  Czar, 
we  have  now  to  deal  with  a  condition  which,  in  all 
its  awful  details  has  not  a  parallel  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  The  negro  is  usually  American  born. 
He  speaks  the  same  language  we  speak.  He  worships  the  same  God 
and  adheres  to  the  same  creeds  as  his  white  brother.  The  Constitu- 
tion grants  him  all  the  rights  it  bestows  upon  the  white  citizen. 
Theoretically  the  law  is  colour-blind  and  the  black  and  the  white  skin 
are  all  one  to  it.  Practically  in  many  instances  the  negro  is  dis- 
franchised, mobbed,  his  property  destroyed,  and  his  person  seised 
without  due  process  of  law.  He  is  denied  the  inalienable  right  of 
trial  by  jury  and  shot  full  of  holes,  hanged  or  even  burned  without 
so  much  as  a  pretence  of  trial.  Nor  is  all  this,  as  might  be  sup- 
posed, the  work  of  the  lower  criminal  classes.  On  the  contrary,  it 
is  usually  the  work  of  the  upper  criminal  classes  who  delight  to  call 
themselves  the  party  of  "law  and  order/' 

There  are  few  sentiments  possible  to  the  human  mind  so  indicative 
of  petty  narrowness,  intellectual  cowardice,  and  general  moral  punki- 
ness,  as  the  sentiment  of  racial,  religious  or  colour  prejudice.  Its 
presence  invariably  argues  in  its  possessor  a  pitiful  coarseness  of 
fibre  and  lack  of  psychic  resonance. 

Lynching  is  not,  as  so  many  ignorantly  suppose,  a  mere  transient 
affair  confined  to  a  few  localities  and  directed  solely  against  the  un- 
fortunate members  of  a  so-called  inferior  race.  It  represents  a  so- 
cial disease  which  is  hourly  gaining  strength,  widening  its  infested 
areas  and  increasing  in  virulence  until  it  already  looms  large  on  the 
stormy  horizon  of  the  future.  From  being  confined  almost  ex- 
clusively to  the  negro  race  and  to  the  Southern  States  it  has  now 
spread  to  all  but  five  States  of  the  Union,  and  has  begun  to  number 
members  of  the  white  race  among  its  victims.  Those  who  seek  to 
palliate  this  great  crime  against  justice,  decency,  and  the  laws  of  the 
land  are  wont  to  say  that  some  such  practice  is  necessary  to  protect 
the  honour  of  women  who  live  in  the  vicinity  of  negro  settlements. 
They  will  argue  that  the  coloured  man  is  above  all  others  brutal  in 
this  regard,  yet,  if  we  are  correctly  informed,  the  per  capita  record 
of  such  crimes  against  women  committed  in  the  state  of  Illinois 
by  white  men  shows  a  higher  average  than  that  of  any  negro  com- 
munity in  the  country.  Writing  in  the  "  North  American  Review," 
for  October,  1905,  Cardinal  Gibbons  says:  "According  to  the 

335 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

report  of  a  responsible  writer  whose  statements  have  not  been  ques- 
tioned, there  have  been  2,875  lynchings  from  1885  to  1903,  in- 
clusive, and  there  are  but  5  States  in  the  Union  in  which  these  illegal 
acts  did  not  occur.  The  States  exempted  from  the  crime  are 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Rhode  Island  and  Utah." 

Cardinal  Gibbons  cites  the  story  of  the  bloody  feud  carried  on 
for  a  generation  between  two  families  on  the  border  between  Ken- 
tucky and  West  Virginia.  The  vendetta  started  by  the  murder  of 
a  member  of  one  of  the  families  to  avenge  some  grievance.  The 
victim's  family  retaliated  by  making  reprisals,  and  so  they  kept  on 
massacring  each  other  almost  to  the  present  day,  with  the  result  that 
now  both  factions  are  well  nigh  terminated.  Continuing,  Cardinal 
Gibbons  says :  "  In  May,  1902,  the  wife  of  the  station  master  was 
found  murdered  in  a  small  town  in  South  Carolina.  Three 
negroes  were  suspected.  They  were  hanged  to  trees  and  their  bodies 
riddled  with  bullets.  .Some  time  afterward,  the  husband  of  the 
murdered  woman,  overcome  by  remorse,  confessed  on  his  death-bed 
before  several  witnesses  that  he  was  the  murderer."  .  .  . 

"Lynch  Law  increases  crime.  Far  from  terrorising  it  inflames 
them  with  indignation,  and  incites  them  to  perpetrate  deeds  of  vio- 
lence on  the  weaker  sex  as  much  from  a  spirit  of  revenge  as  any- 
thing else. 

"  From  data  before  me  I  find  that  about  70  per  cent  of  these  who 
were  punished  by  lynching  in  the  Southern  States  between  1885  and 
1903  were  coloured.  If  the  deeply  rooted  antipathy  between  the 
black  and  white  races  were  removed  or  assuaged,  these  violent  execu- 
tions would  be  considerably  diminished."  .  .  . 

"  In  the  two  lower  counties  of  Maryland  the  white  and  black  popu- 
lation are  about  evenly  divided  and  the  great  majority  are  Catholics. 
Before  service  I  have  observed  the  white  and  black  assemble  in 
church  and  grounds  and  engage  in  friendly  intercourse.  I  have 
never  witnessed  elsewhere  such  friendly  treatment  of  the  blacks  by 
the  whites.  As  far  as  my  memory  serves  me  there  is  not  recorded 
one  single  instance  of  an  outrage  or  a  lynching  in  those  two  coun- 
ties." 

From  investigation  made  by  Dr.  Cutler  it  appears  that  in  twenty- 
two  years,  from  1882  to  1903,  there  were  3,337  lynchings,  or  an 
average  of  more  than  150  per  year. 

Apropos  of  the  causes  assigned  for  these  crimes  against  civilisa- 
tion, Bishop  Chandler  of  Georgia  declared  that  "lynching  is  due  to 
race  hatred  and  not  to  any  horror  over  any  particular  crime."  To 
this  he  added  the  wise  warning  that,  unless  the  practice  be  checked, 
it  might  produce  anarchy,  since  men  will  go  from  lynching  persons 
on  account  of  their  crimes  to  lynching  them  because  of  their  re- 
ligion, politics,  or  business  relations.  The  wisdom  of  this  warning 
is  shown  in  the  fact  that  the  record  already  begins  to  show  cases  of 
the  kinds  mentioned. 

Not  very  long  ago  the  "New  York  Evening  Post"  made  the 
statement  that,  out  of  the  1,032  whites  then  in  Sing  Sing  Prison,  65 
were  there  for  rape,  while,  of  the  143  blacks  confined  there,  only  two 
were  there  for  that  crime.  The  above  figures  show  a  ratio  of  some- 

336 


LYNCHING 

thing  more  than  six  to  the  hundred  for  the  whites,  while  for  the 
blacks  the  ratio  is  less  than  one  and  a  half  to  the  hundred.  So  far, 
therefore,  as  the  records  of  this  institution  is  concerned,  it  appears 
that  the  white  race  is  guilty  of  this  crime  to  an  extent  more  than 
four-fold  that  of  their  coloured  brothers. 

In  an  article  published  in  "  The  Independent "  of  Sept.  29,  1904, 
Mr.  Geo.  P.  Upton  states,  that  a  record  of  lynchings  has  been 
kept  in  regular  itemised  form,  the  accuracy  of  which  has  not  been 
questioned  even  in  the  South.  He  says  that  since  1885  there  have 
been  2,875  lynchings  of  which  2,499  have  occurred  in  the  South. 
These  lynchings  were  not  for  the  cause  so  commonly  assigned,  but 
were  for  no  less  than  73  different  reasons.  Apropos  of  this  Mr. 
Upton  says :  "  For  criminal  assault  is  not  the  '  usual  cause,'  as  the 
Southern  newspapers  so  often  assert.  Persons  lynched  for  this 
crime  since  1885  numbered  564,  while  1,099  were  for  murder.  Add- 
ing to  the  former  those  lynched  for  the  double  crime,  or  having  been 
connected  with  it,  the  total  is  702  as  compared  with  1,277  cases 
in  which  murder  was  directly  or  indirectly  charged  against  the 
victims. 

"  About  one-third  of  the  blacks  and  one-sixth  of  the  whites  were 
lynched  for  criminal  assault.  Of  course  white  men  are  more  liable 
to  be  hanged  or  sent  to  jail  for  their  crime."  He  gives  some  of  the 
other  causes  as  follows : 

"  For  theft,  burglary,  robbery,  on  account  of  race  prejudice  un- 
known persons  for  unknown  cause,  some  for  being  unpopular  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Ten  were  found  to  be  innocent  when  it  was  too 
late.  Slander,  etc.  One  young  fellow  was  lynched  for  jilting  a  girl, 
who  consoled  herself  by  promptly  marrying  another.  A  reformer 
was  lynched  for  advocating  colonisation,  a  coloured  man  for  enticing 
a  servant  away  from  her  mistress,  and  a  mountaineer  for  *  moon- 
shining/  " 

Eeferring  to  lynchings  and  other  murders  which  occurred  in 
Statesboro,  Georgia,  "  The  Independent "  of  August  25th,  1904,  re- 
marks editorially,  in  part :  "  Life  is  cheap,  public  vengeance  pun- 
ishes wrong  with  no  regard  to  law.  There  are  more  murders,  says 
the  responsible  rector  of  a  church  in  Birmingham,  Ala.,  in  that 
county  than  in  all  Great  Britain,  and  none  punished.  Only  occa- 
sionally do  the  people  rise  and  lynch  a  man  who  has  committed  a 
crime  unusually  offensive.  In  a  Colorado  district  law  is  forgot- 
ten, overturned,  and  100  men  are  driven  forcibly  out  of  the  State, 
and  the  people  justify  themselves  on  the  ground  that  they  are 
simply  recurring  to  the  original  rights  of  the  folk-mote  —  the  town 
meeting. 

"  We  would  not  have  this  barbarism  known  in  China,  Eussia  or 
Turkey.  How  can  President  Eoosevelt  protest  against  the  massacres 
of  Kisrjenef  or  Sasiin?  Tell  it  not  in  St.  Petersburg,  publish  it  not 
in  the  courts  of  Stambul,  lest  Sultan  and  Czar  shall  send  messages 
and  deputations  to  Washington  to  protest  against  the  barbarities  of 
the  Eepublic  of  the  West." 

In  a  complimentary  letter  which  President  Eoosevelt  sent  to  Gov. 
Durbin  of  Indiana,  in  August  of  1903,  condemning  the  negro  lynch- 
«»  337 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

ings  that  have  become  so  ominously  prevalent,  occurs  the  following: 
"  It  certainly  ought  to  be  possible  by  the  proper  administration  of 
the  laws  to  secure  swift  vengeance  upon  the  criminal ;  and.  the  best 
and  immediate  efforts  of  all  legislators,  judges  and  citizens  should 
be  addressed  to  securing  such  reforms  in  our  legal  procedure  as  to 
leave  no  vestige  of  excuse  for  those  misguided  men  who  undertake 
to  reap  vengeance  through  violent  methods."  Unless  the  President 
was  singularly  unfortunate  in  his  choice  of  language  —  unless,  in 
short,  the  inevitable  implication'  of  his  phraseology  belies  his  real 
sentiments,  it  would  appear  that  he  regards  punishment  by  due 
process  of  law  as  merely  a  more  regular  form  of  reeking  that  ven- 
geance which  is  so  often  irregularly  obtained  through  lynching.  If 
our  chief  executive  has  not  yet  passed  the  brutal  conception  of  pun- 
ishment for  the  sake  of  vengeance,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  so 
many  of  our  humblest  citizens  should  revert  to  that  savagery  of  the 
jungle  which  sees  only  reprisal  in  punitive  acts.  Discussing  edi- 
torially the  subject  of  lynching,  "The  Public"  of  Aug.  15,  1903, 
says,  in  part :  "  He  who  refrains  from  murdering  merely  because 
human  law  forbids  it,  and  who  promotes  slavery  because  human  law 
supports  it,  exalts  human  law  above  moral  law.  He  is  a  mere  legal- 
ist, not  a  moralist.  Whether  a  thing  is  right  or  wrong,  he  cannot 
tell  you  until  he  has  read  the  session  laws.  Such  a  man  would 
commit  murder  without  compunction,  if  human  restraints  were  re- 
moved. Nor  does  he  always  require  those  restraints  to  be  removed 
formally.  Although  the  session  laws  are  held  in  higher  esteem  by 
your  legalist  than  is  the  moral  law,  he  never  hesitates  to  regard  them 
as  repealed  the  moment' he  knows  they  cannot  be  enforced.  Therein 
may  be  found  an  explanation  of  Negro  lynching.  Lynching  is 
murder.  It  is  morally  wrong.  Not  only  is  it  morally  wrong,  it  is 
legally  wrong.  But  in  respect  of  Negroes  its  illegality  has  been 
informally  set  aside  under  certain  circumstances.  In  the  mind  of 
the  legalist,  therefore,  there  is  nothing  wrong  in  murdering  Negroes 
under  those  circumstances." 

In  the  summer  of  1903,  Prof.  William  James,  the  distinguished 
psychologist  of  Harvard,  published  an  article  in  the  "  Springfield 
Republican,"  in  regard  to  negro  lynchings,  in  which  he  said :  "  I 
find  it  hard  to  comprehend  the  ignorance  of  history  and  of  human 
nature  which  allows  people  still  to  think  of  Negro  lynching  as  of 
a  transient  contagion  destined  soon  to  exhaust  its  virulence.  It  is, 
on  the  contrary,  a  profound  social  disease,  spreading  now  like  forest 
fire,  and  certain  to  become  permanently  endemic  in  every  corner  of 
our  country,  North  and'  South,  unless  heroic  remedies  are  swiftly 
adopted  to  check  it.  ...  The  North  is  already  almost  as  fully 
inoculated  as  the  South,  and  the  young  white  American  of  the  lower 
classes  is  being  educated  everywhere  with  appalling  rapidity  to  un- 
derstand that  any  Negro  accused  of  crime  is  public  spoil,  to  be 
played  with  as  long  as  the  fun  will  last.  Attempts  at  general 
massacres  of  Negroes  are  certain  to  be  the  next  thing  in  order,  and 
collective  reprisals  by '  Negroes  are  equally  certain. .  The  average 
church-going  civilizee  realises,  one  may  say,  absolutely  nothing  of 
the  deeper  currents  of  human  nature,  or  of  the  aboriginal  capacity 

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LYNCHING 

for  murderous  excitement  which  lies  sleeping  even  in  his  own  bosom. 
Eeligion,  custom,  law  and  education  have  been  piling  their  pressure 
upon  him  for  centuries  mainly  with  the  one  intent  that  his  homicidal 
potentialities  should  be  kept  under.  .  .  .  But  the  water-tight 
compartment  in  which  the  carnivora  within  us  is  confined  is  artificial 
and  not  organic.  It  never  will  be  organic.  The  slightest  diminution 
of  external  pressure,  the  slightest  loophole  of  licensed  exception,  will 
make  the  whole  system  leaky,  and  murder  will  again  grow  rampant. 
.  .  .  Negro  lynching  is  already  a  permitted  exception  in  the  midst 
of  our  civilisation.  .  .  .  One  or  two  real  fanatics  there  may  be 
in  every  lynching,  actuated  by  a  maniacal  sense  of  punitive  justice. 
They  are  a  kind  of  *  reversion/  which  civilisation  particularly  requires 
to  extirpate.  The  other  accomplices  are  only  average  men,  victims  of 
the  moment  when  the  greatest  atrocities  are  committed,  of  nothing 
but  irresponsible  mob  contagion,  but  invited  to  become  part  of  the 
mob  and  predisposed  to  the  peculiar  sort  of  contagion,  by  the  dia- 
bolical education  which  the  incessant  examples  of  the  custom  and  of  its 
continued  impunity  are  spreading  with  fearful  rapidity  throughout 
our  population.  Was  ever  such  a  privilege  offered  ?  Dog-fights,  prize- 
fights, bull-fights,  what  are  they  to  a  man-hunt  and  a  Negro-burning  ?  " 

Discussing  Prof.  James's  article,  "  The  Nation  "  says :  "  The  whole 
phenomenon,  with  the  steady  march  of  lawlessness  and  ferocity  to 
the  North,  is  enough  to  stagger  the  stoutest  patriot.  We  are  in  the 
presence  of  a  new  national  peril.  Senator  Tillman  is  quite  right  in 
maintaining  that  lynching  can  no  longer  be  said  to  be  sectional.  As 
a  nation,  we  are  disgraced  by  it.  As  a  nation  we  are  also  put  in 
imminent  danger  by  it.  For  let  no  man  attempt  to  deceive  the  peo- 
ple with  smooth  words.  Prof.  James  is  irrefragable.  A  plague 
worse  than  the  cholera  is  upon  us.  Epidemic  lawlessness,  stamped  all 
over  with  fiendish  brutality,  is  a  thousand-fold  more  to  be  dreaded 
than  epidemic  disease.  There  is  no  need  to  waste  breath  in  either 
describing  or  denouncing  the  frightful  evil.  Every  man  not  steeped 
in  ignorance  or  lapped  in  delusion  knows  what  it  is  —  knows  that  it 
is  not  merely  making  us  a  hissing  and  scorn  in  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
but  is  undermining  our  own  safety,  and  causing  American  society  to 
revert  to  the  time  when  no  man  knew  at  what  moment  a  savage  foe 
might  not  spring  upon  him  from  ambush.  The  time  has  passed  to 
apoligise  for  lynching,  or  even  to  explain  it;  and  we  must  all  unite 
to  put  it  down,  if  we  would  not  see  it  topple  all  our  laws  and  courts 
into  the  abyss." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  we  traced  the  cause  of  the  awful  Rus- 
sian atrocities  to  the  belief  on  the  part  of  the  classes  in  power,  that 
they  were  of  quite  different  clay  from  those  over  whom  they  ruled. 

This  same  intellectual  obliquity  and  its  accompanying  moral  per- 
versity are  precisely  the  basic  causes  of  the  present  lynching  mania, 
and  it  may  be  worth  a  moment's  attention  to  see  how  this  convenient 
position  is  arrived  at.  Like  most  of  our  intellectual  infamies,  the 
thought  enters  us  through  the  back  door  of  the  mind,  that  dark  and 
narrow  portal  through  which  we  smuggle  in  our  illicit  desires.  It  is 
all  a  case  of  the  wish  being  father  to  the  thought.  Class-conscious- 
ness, whether  it  makes  toward  lynching  or  the  more  pardonable  phar- 

339 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

isaical  sin  of  social  aloofness  with  its  "  I  am  better  than  thou  "  for  a 
major  premise,  has  ever  at  its  root,  latent  if  not  active,  a  thievish 
desire  to  advance  self  at  the  expense  of  justice  to  others.  It  is  the 
reverse  of  altruism.  It  is  egoism  unrestrained  by  any  moral  sense. 
It  illustrates  a  total  lack  of  the  social  sense,  that  sense,  alas,  which 
is  so  rare  in  this  20th  century  and  seems  daily  to  be  growing  rarer. 
Whoever  claims  for  himself  any  social  right  which  he  does  not 
frankly  extend  to  his  fellowmen  may  be  fit  for  the  jungle,  but  cer- 
tainly is  unfit  for  anything  worthy  the  name  of  civilised  society. 
The  rich  man  who  thinks  himself  above  the  law  which  punishes  the 
labourer  is  a  savage  who  has  yet  to  learn  the  very  basic  principle  which 
makes  society  possible. 

The  cleavage  of  humanity  into  class  planes  is  the  agreeable  scheme 
by  which  those  savages  of  the  self-styled  better  class,  who  wish  to  rob 
the  so-called  lower  classes  of  their  rights,  throw  the  sop  of  Cerberus 
to  that  rudimentary  thing  which  they  are  pleased  to  call  their  con- 
science, nor  is  the  condition  thus  brought  about  confined  to  the  phys- 
ical and  material  plane.  Your  autocrat  reasons  thus,  "  I  belong  to 
a  higher  class.  My  sentiments  are  finer,  my  sensations  keener,  my 
ideals  nobler  than  theirs.  I  am  of  finer  clay.  If  they  be  men,  then 
am  I  a  God.  If  I  am  only  human,  they  are  but  animals.  It  is  use- 
less, ridiculous,  to  pretend  that  they  feel  as  I  feel  or  suffer  as  I  suffer." 
This  sophistical  process  brings  them  to  the  desired  point  where  they 
are  able  to  establish  two  courses  of  treatment,  a  generous  and  hu- 
mane one  for  themselves,  a  hoggish  and  brutal  one  for  their  fellow- 
man,  while  at  the  same  time  they  make  a  pretence  of  saving  the  face 
of  their  conscience. 

The  desire  to  save  one's  self-respect  is  inherent  in  each  human 
being,  and  so  tenacious  is  this  wish  that  wicked  men  will  deal  to 
themselves  the  false  shuffle  of  hypocrisy  in  the  attempt  to  lend  such 
an  appearance  of  fairness  to  their  nefarious  game  as  shall  even  de- 
ceive themselves. 

It  is  only  the  hardened  criminal  who  does  wrong  that  he  knows 
to  be  wrong,  without  any  attempt  to  help  his  self-esteem  by  seeking 
to  palliate  or  justify 'his  offence.  All  this  is  particularly  applicable 
to  the  subject  of  lynching.  The  mob-organised  protectors  of  society 
lash  themselves  into  a  fury,  where  the  offence  for  which  they  seek 
vengeance  is  heinous,  by  cries  of  "  beast,  animal,  brute  "  and  the  like 
and  by  thoughts  which  would  express  themselves  in  language  still 
more  emphatic,  could  they  command  it,  until  they  reach  the  condi- 
tion in  which  they  deny  that  their  intended  victim  is  a  human  being 
possessing  the  same  rights  which  they  claim  for  themselves.  Writing 
editorially  upon  this  subject,  "  The  Public  "  says,  in  part,  in  its  issue 
of  Aug.  15th,  1903 :  "  That  which,  primarily,  makes  these  horrors 
possible  at  this  stage  of  our  civilisation,  is  a  general  deadening  of  the 
moral  sense  which  has  taken  place  within  the  past  generation  or  two. 

"  None  but  the  very  thoughtless  can  have  failed  to  observe  the  loss 
of  that  moral  sense  in  the  body  politic  to  which  it  was  once  possible 
to  appeal.  It  has  been  so  completely  deadened  in  the  individual  that 
in  almost  any  group,  churches  not  excepted,  a  majority  are  not  only 

340 


LYNCHING 

deaf  to  such  appeals,  but  will  bluntly  subordinate  moral  considerations 
to  selfish  ones,  or  deny  their  existence  altogether. 

"  This  tendency  was  most  notable  in  the  United  States  during  the 
American  war  of  conquest  in  the  Philippines,  and  in  England  during 
the  British  war  of  conquest  in  South  Africa.  But  it  has  been  ob- 
servable for  a  long  time  in  other  connexions. 

"  The  moral  element  in  the  suffrage  question,  for  instance,  has  been 
so  far  ignored  in  the  South  that  even  ballot-box  stuffing,  in  order  to 
deprive  one  class  of  the  ballot,  is  approved  by  public  opinion.  Both 
North  and  South  the  same  moral  element  has  been  denied  in  order  to 
withhold  the  suffrage  from  women.  Even  women  suffragists  have 
denied  it,  so  as  to  enable  them  consistently  to  advocate  the  suffrage 
for  some  women  while  insisting  upon  denying  it  to  others.  In  the 
North  especially  it  is  denied  for  the  purpose  of  propagating  the  idea 
of  disfranchisement  of  the  { lower  class '  of  white  men. 

"  These  examples  arise  out  of  the  '  better  than  thou '  feeling  —  one 
expression  of  which  is  the  comfortable  idea  that  '  I  am  fit  to  vote,  but 
you  are  not/  It  is  expressed  by  the  millionaire  with  reference  to  the 
'  Alameda  citizen ; '  by  millionaires  and  *  Alameda  citizens  '  together, 
with  reference  to  the  mechanic;  by  all  three  with  reference  to  the 
common  labourer;  by  the  whole  four  with  reference  to  the  Negro; 
and  by  some  Negroes  with  reference  to  others.  This  pharisaical  feel- 
ing is  a  product  of  the  conviction  not  alone  that  some  men  are  in- 
ferior, but  that  the  '  inferior '  ones  have  no  rights  which  the  '  su- 
perior '  is  under  any  moral  obligation  to  respect  —  whether  they  be 
rights  of  suffrage,  rights  to  work  and  own  and  trade  the  products  of 
work,  or  even  the  right  to  live  and  when  dying  to  die  without  being 
brutally  tortured."  .  .  . 

"  Given  a  condition  in  which  one  class  denies  equal  rights  to  an- 
other, and  you  have  only  to  remove  the  restraints  of  statutory  regu- 
lation to  see  the  *  inferior '  class  disfranchised,  robbed,  mobbed,  mur- 
dered and  tortured,  and  the  infamy  applauded  or  excused  by  the 
public  opinion  of  the  '  superior '  class.  The  mania  for  lynching 
Negroes,  this  exhilarating  man-hunt,  in  which  white  men  are  hunt- 
ers and  Negroes  the  hunted,  is  not  a  Negro  problem  peculiarly. 
It  is  a  man  problem  with  a  moral  setting.  Negro  lynchings  are  only 
one  expression  of  a  general  repudiation  of  the  idea  of  a  moral  sense 
and  moral  obligations."  .  .  . 

"  And  this  running  to  cover  from  the  demands  of  the  moral  law  is 
what  our  people  in  all  sections  have  been  doing.  Our  colleges  have 
taught  the  right  of  might  as  "  scientific ' ;  our  lower  schools  have 
chorused  the  refrain ;  our  honoured  statesmen  have  translated  the  dia- 
bolical doctrine  into  '  destiny  determines  duty ' ;  even  our  churches 
have  garbed  it  in  ecclesiastical  phrase  and  taught  it  as  the  religion 
of  the  righteous  Nazarene.  As  with  every  new  disorder  our  surgeons 
rush  with  ready  knives  to  rip  out  an  organ,  so  with  every  new  demand 
for  justice  have  our  social  leaders  rushed  upon  the  body  politic  to 
rip  out  a  moral  principle.  At  last  none  are  recognised ;  and  the  great 
cumbersome  body  politic,  bereft  of  moral  impulses,  has  begun  to  run 
amuck.  Superficial  differences  of  race  have  made  the  Negro  its  first 
victim.  The  labour  question  offers  an  inviting  field  for  its  insane 

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GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

orgies,  when  .Negroes  shall  have  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  small 
game  'for  a  man-hunt.  Just  where  the  dictator  may  step  in  no  one 
knows.  But  his  advent  is  certain  if  the  moral  insanity  that  cannot 
distinguish  right  from  might  continues/'  .  .  . 

"  So  long  as  public  opinion  is  swayed  by  the  doctrine  that  might 
makes  right,  so  long  will  that  doctrine  express  itself  terribly  on  the 
lower  and  more  brutal  planes  of  injustice.  So  long,  also,  will  the 
teachers  and  exemplars  of  this  indefencible  doctrine  be  primarily 
responsible  for  those  barbarous  expressions  of  its  true  character.  Its 
brutal  manifestations  will  disappear  when  the  doctrine  is  discarded. 
So,  also,  will  those  more  subtle  manifestations,  whereby  the  privileged 
are  enriched  and  the  industrious  impoverished,  which  make  this  phi- 
losophy acceptable  among  men  of  *  light,  leading  and  lucre,'  .  .  . 

"  Men  without  moral  sense  are  murderers  at  heart,  as  Prof.  James 
says,  and  are  restrained  from  committing  murder  only  by  the  pressure 
of  customs  and  laws.  When  this  external  pressure  is  removed,  such 
men  will  lynch,  and  hang,  and  burn,  and  shoot,  and  administer 
water-cures  to  Filipinos,  and  loot  palaces  in  China,  and  do  all  manner 
of  wickedness.  They  deny  human  equality,  and  to  them  there  is  no 
moral  law. 

"  But  men  with  the  moral  sense  are  different.  They  are  not  mur- 
derers at  heart.  Realising  that  every  man  is  their  equal,  knowing  that 
no  one's  elementary  rights  are  inferior  to  their  own,  perceiving  that 
physical  might  is  essentially  a  different  thing  from  moral  right,  and 
having  adopted  moral  right  as  their  ideal,  these  men  need  no  external 
restraints  to  hold  their  murderous  instincts  in  check,  nor  any  iron 
hand  to  prevent  them  from  murdering  their  fellowmen.  Abolish 
all  municipal  law,  and  they  would  nevertheless  harm  no  one. 

"  The  fundamental  cause  of  lawlessness,  therefore,  is  false  notions 
of  human  inferiority,  and  consequent  indifference  to  the  primary 
elements  of  the  moral  law;  its  remedy  lies  in  the  inculcation  of  re- 
spect for  human  rights  and  love  for  the  moral  law.  In  the  degree 
in  which  the  philosophy  of  moral  right  is  propagated  by  pulpit,  news- 
paper and  high  official,  and  takes  possession ,  of  the  multitude,  dis- 
placing the  prevalent  philosophy  of  physical  might  —  in  that  degree, 
and  only  in  that  degree,  can  the  peace  and  order  of  a  true  civilisation 
reign  undisturbed  and  unquestioned." 

The  extent  to  which  this  crime  of  lynching  is  already  practised  is 
indeed  appalling  and  constitutes  a  menace  which  every  well-informed, 
public-spirited  citizen  must  clearly  recognise.  Cases  almost  without 
number  could  be  cited,  but  a  few  typical  ones  will  serve  as  well  as 
more. 

On  the  21st  of  March,  1903,  a  remarkable  address  directed  to  the 
Emperors  and  Kings  of  the  old  world  was  made  public  at  Cleveland. 
The  address  was  from  the  American  Negroes  to  the  Powers  of  the 
Old  World  and  had  been  adopted  at  a  secret  session  of  the  Equal 
Rights  Association,  held  at  Cleveland  on  February  9th. 

It  prayed  for  intervention  in  behalf  of  Afro- Americans  in  the 
United  .States,  who  are  described  in  it  as  being  "brutally  and  bar- 
barously maltreated  and  basely  compelled,  for  no  crime  or  mis- 
demeanor, to  suffer  every  indignity,  cruelty  and  murder  that  inhuman, 

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LYNCHING 

fiendish  nature  can  invent,  by  some  of  those  who  once  held  the  Afro- 
Americans  in  bondage  and  slavery,  or  the  descendants  of  those  who 
once  held  the  Afro-Americans  in  slavery  and  bondage  in  the  United 
States,  and  who  still  without  cause  harbour  in  their  hearts  a  deadly 
hatred  against  the  Afro-American  race." 

The  address  specifically  asserts  of  Afro-Americans  that  from  "one 
to  five  or  more  are  either  tortured,  hung,  shot  or  butchered  and 
driven  from  their  homes  daily,  while  others  are  burnt  to  death  at  the 
stake.  .  .  .  And  while  the  victims  are  writhing  in  pain  in  the 
fire,  their  ears,  eyes  and  fingers  are  cut  out  and  off  for  souvenirs, 
and  pieces  of  their  sizzling,  frying  and  burning  flesh  are  slashed  from 
their  burning  bodies  and  are  auctioned  off  to  the  highest  bidder  after 
this  fashion,  holding  it  up:  'Who  wants  a  piece  of  nigger  meat? 
Who  wants  a  piece  of  nigger  meat?'  'It  is  sold  at  10  cents.'  The 
heart  is  divided  into  quarters  and  is  sold  at  25  cents  each." 

Continuing  the  address  asserts  that  there  is  no  redress  to  be  had 
in  the  United  States  for  these  atrocities.  "  We  have,"  it  goes  on  to 
say,  "time  and  again  pleaded  and  appealed  to  Presidents,  to  Con- 
gresses of  the  United  States,  to  enforce  the  laws  and  to  stop  that 
inhuman  wholesale  murder,  that  discrimination  [against]  and  slaugh- 
ter of  an  innocent  people,  but  every  plea  and  appeal  has  been 
ignored." 

Then  follows  the  coloured  man's  prayer  to  Europe  for  intervention, 
—  prayer  the  necessity  for  which  should  bring  the  hot  blush  of  shame 
to  the  cheek  of  every  liberty-loving  American.  To  what  a  pass  has 
come  this  great  republic  of  the  free,  when  a  portion  of  its  citizens, 
defenceless  and  persecuted  with  a  barbarity  and  injustice  worthy 
Apache  savages,  is  obliged  to  make  this  appeal  to  Europe :  "  We, 
therefore,  now,  in  the  name  of  God  Almighty,  do  hereby  appeal  to 
the  Powers  of  Europe  and  to  every  civilised  nation  of  the  old  world, 
through  their  representatives  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  to  interfere  in 
some  way  in  behalf  of  the  poor,  downtrodden,  outraged  Afro-Ameri- 
can of  the  United  States.  The  Americans  intervened,  so  they 
claimed,  for  humanity,  because  of  Spain's  barbarous  treatment  of  the 
Cubans.  They  drove  the  Spanish  army  from  that  island  at  the  cost 
of  many  lives,  censured  the  Spanish  throne  for  wholesale  murder, 
butchery  and  torture  of  innocent  Cubans.  .  .  .  The  foreign  pow- 
ers have  the  same  and  a  better  right  to  interfere  in  defence  of  10,- 
000,000  people  that  are  liable  to  be  murdered  at  will  by  prejudiced 
classes.  ...  In  God's  name,  will  the  king  of  England,  will  the 
emperor  of  Germany,  will  the  czar  of  Russia,  will  the  sultan  of  Tur- 
key, will  the  shah  of  Persia,  will  fie  emperor  of  Austria,  will  the 
king  of  Italy,  will  the  king  of  Greece,  will  the  president  of  Switzer- 
land, will  the  king  of  Portugal,  will  the  president  of  France,  will  the 
king  of  Sweden,  will  the  king  of  Siam,  will  the  emperor  of  China, 
will  the  emperor  or  the  mikado  of  Japan,  will  the  rulers  of  Belgium, 
Eoumania,  Luxemburg,  Montenegro  and  all  other  foreign  powers  in- 
terfere in  some  way  in  behalf  of  the  suffering,  outraged  and  mur- 
dered Afro-American  people  of  the  United  .States,  and  thus  save  the 
name  of  Christianity  from  reproach,  mockery  and  derision  and  the 
name  of  humanity  from  shame,  ridicule  and  contempt,  and  civilisa- 

343 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

tion,  with  all  of  its  dear  amenities,  from  disgrace,  scorn  and  igno- 
miny ?  " 

Think  of  a  portion  of  our  fellow-countrymen  driven  to  desperation 
by  American  brutalities  appealing  to  the  Czar  of  Russia,  the  Sultan 
of  Turkey  and  the  King  of  Belgium  for  intervention  and  relief ! 

The  lynching  mania  has  spread  till  no  class  seems  proof  against  it. 
The  New  York  "  Nation  "  of  July  16th,  1903,  expresses  surprise  that 
even  the  United  States  soldiers  at  Fort  Leavenworth  should  attempt 
to  lynch  a  negro.  To  us  this  seems  a  far  more  natural  outcome  than 
most  of  the  other  lynching  atrocities.  Soldiering  is  all  but  inevi- 
tably morally  disorganising,  and  the  step  from  summarily  killing 
the  technical  enemy  to  one's  country,  whom  one  perhaps  has  never 
seen  and  of  whom  one  personally  knows  nothing,  to  butchering  one 
against  whom  one  entertains  an  active,  personal  animosity,  for  a  real, 
or  imagined  offence  recently  committed,  is  easy  enough  to  take.  The 
essential  thing  to  remember  is  that  killing,  howsoever  it  may  be  done, 
whether  illegally  as  a  murderous  act,  or  as  the  result  of  the  legal 
verdict  of  twelve  men,  tends  ever  to  decrease  respect  for  human  life. 
Commenting  on  the  Fort  Leavenworth  episode,,  the  "  New  Nation  " 
says :  "  Even  United  States  soldiers  at  Fort  Leavenworth  [have] 
attempted  to  lynch  a  negro  who  had  been  in  a  fracas  with  one  of 
their  number.  Where  is  this  thing  to  stop?  The  fact  that  their 
regiments  had  seen  service  in  the  Philippines,  and  had  there  acquired 
the  notion  that  '  niggers '  have  no  more  right  than  wild  animals, 
should  furnish  food  for  thought  to  startled  Imperialists  who  are  won- 
dering where  the  new  ferocity  against  an  '  inferior '  race  got  its  fresh 
impulse." 

Under  date  of  July  llth,  1903,  the  San  Francisco  "  Star  "  prints 
the  following :  "  Eace  hatred  is  as  real  and  as  frightful  in  its  results 
in  America  as  in  Bussia.  Only  by  justice  is  it  to  be  escaped  by  any 
nation  unfortunate  enough  to  have  within  its  borders  two  numerous 
and  unassimilating  races.  .  .  .  Alabama  has  disfranchised  the 
negro.  The  next  step  in  degradation  after  disfranchisement  is  phys- 
ical servitude,  and  the  one  result  is  certain  to  follow  the  other  soon 
or  late  in  every  case  where  the  departure  from  democratic  principles 
once  begins.  This  is  the  point  which  is  always  overlooked  by  those 
who  would  disfranchise  the  inferior  in  order  that  government  may  be 
improved.  The  result  is  always  that  government  is  made  worse,  be- 
cause the  strong,  finding  the  weak  at  their  mercy,  mould  the  laws 
into  instruments  of  oppression. 

"  The  way  out  is  easy  if  we  are  good  enough  to  take  it.  We  must 
trust  democracy,  respect  the  law,  and  protect  the  rights  of  even  col- 
oured criminals.  If  we  cannot  find  the  virtue  in  ourselves  to  do  this, 
then  we  are  certain  to  suffer  all  the  horrors  of  mob-law  and  anarchy  on 
every  occasion  of  public  excitement.  Unless  the  law  protects  the 
rights  of  black  men,  it  will  quickly  cease  to  protect  the  rights  of 
white  men.  Those  who  burn  negroes  are  destroying  the  safe-guards 
of  their  own  liberty." 

On  the  4th  of  July;  1903,  a  mob  at  Evansville,  Indiana,  attacked 
the  jail  to  secure  possession  of  a  negro  named  Lee  Brown  who  was 
charged  with  shooting  a  policeman.  While  thus  engaged  the  mob 

344 


LYNCHING 

was  set  upon  in  the  rear  by  negroes  and,  failing  to  secure  its  vic- 
tim, it  vented  its  wrath  upon  the  negro  quarters  of  the  town.  Later 
the  militia  tried  to  restore  order.  A  pitched  battle  took  place  be- 
tween the  mob  and  the  troops.  Nine  persons  were  killed  outright  and 
at  least  thirty-five  wounded,  some  of  them  fatally.  Almost  at  the 
same  time  (on  the  7th)  a  negro,  who  had  fatally  stabbed  a  white 
man,  was  taken  from,  the  sheriff  and  lynched  near  Vicksburg,  Missis- 
sippi. 

On  July  28th,  1904,  two  Georgia  negroes  committed  a  brutal  crime. 
They  were  arrested,  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged  on 
Sept.  9th.  A  mob  composed  of  "  best  citizens  "  secured  possession  of 
the  negroes  under  circumstances  which  indicated  collusion  on  the 
part  of  the  military  who  were  ostensibly  guarding  them,  and  burned 
their  victims  at  the  stake  with  an  indifference  to  human  suffering 
and  an  insane  and  malignant  brutality  which  cannot  be  called  savage 
without  slandering  the  instincts  of  the  barbarian.  This  horror  oc- 
curred at  Statesboro,  Georgia.  Commenting  upon  it,  the  "  New 
York  Age  "  says :  "  And  do  the  white  savages  of  Georgia  imagine 
that  the  black  savages  may  never  turn  upon  them  and  make  a  hell  for 
the  whole  population  while  the  frenzy  lasts  ?  " 

Says  'the  "  Milwaukee  Daily  News  "  of  Aug.  17,  1904,  « If  there 
was  ever  an  exhibition  of  the  unfitness  of  a  people  to  govern  them- 
selves it  was  given  at  Statesboro,  Ga.,  when  the  two  Negroes,  Paul 
Reed  and  Will  Cato,  were  taken  from  the  court-room  in  which  they 
had  been  condemned  to  death  through  the  orderly  procedure  of  the 
law  and  executed  by  mob  violence.  Georgia  may  well  hang  its  head 
in  shame." 

Apropos  of  the  same  episode,  the  Dubuque  "  Telegraph  Herald  " 
says,  in  its  issue  of  Aug.  21st,  "  This  slaughter  of  human  beings  will 
carry  retributive  justice.  The  slaughterers  cannot  hope  to  escape 
just  punishment  for  their  wanton  disregard  not  alone  of  statute  law 
but  of  moral  law  as  well.  Human  agency  may  suspend  the  operation 
of  the  former,  but  it  is  powerless  to  suspend  the  operation  of  the  lat- 
ter. Above  these  white  Southern  fiends  is  the  God  who  made  them 
and  their  victims  and  regards  both  as  His  children,  equal  in  His 
eyes.  The  South  will  one  day  pay  a  penalty  so  terrible  as  to  bring 
it  to  its  knees  in  humblest  supplication  for  relief  and  forgiveness. 
'  As  ye  sin  so  shall  ye  suffer ; '  so  is  it  written.  And  while  the  suffer- 
ing may  not  come  to-day  nor  to-morrow,  it  will  come  one  day  in 
avenging  fury." 

Says  the  Cleveland  "Plain  Dealer"  of  Aug.  17,  "The  butchery  at 
Statesboro,  Ga.,  of  two  Negroes  under  the  most  horrible  circum- 
stances can  be  attributed  simply  and  solely  to  a  mob's  relish  for 
murder.  .  .  .  The  simple  truth  about  this  and  other  affairs  of 
the  kind  is  that  they  deprive  us  of  all  claim  to  rank  among  civilised 
nations,  for  in  no  other  enlightened  country  on  earth  would  they  be 
tolerated  or,  for  that  matter,  thought  of.  Americans  who  prate  of 
their  government  under  law  and  especially  boast  of  their  capacity  for 
the  same,  are  guilty,  several  times  a  week,  on  an  average,  of  precisely 
the  same  savageries  which,  when  committed  by  a  debased  Eussian 
mob  at  Kishenef,  or  by  fanatical  Chinese  Boxers,  evoke  such  un- 

345 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

stinted  condemnation  in  this  land  of  the  free.  Nor  are  these  hor- 
rible manifestations  of  mob  murder  and  evidence  of  the  law's  im- 
potence peculiar  to  any  section  of  the  country.  Ohio  is  in  no  position 
to  throw  stones  at  Georgia,  nor  can  New  Jersey  see  to  remove  the  mote 
from  Colorado's  eye  for  the  beam  in  her  own/' 


346 


CHAPTEE  II 
BREAKING    FAITH   WITH   THE    SIXTIES 


347 


A  mob's  a  monster  with  many  hands  and  no  brains. 


Against  the  wild-fire  of  the  mob  there  is  no  defence. 

Murder's  as  near  to  lust  as  flame  to  smoke, 
Passion  and  treason  are  the  hands  of  sin. 


Woe  to  the  hand  that  shed  this  costly  blood! 
Over  thy  wounds  now  do  I  prophesy. 


Franklin. 


Shakespeare. 


Julius  Ccesar. 


348 


CHAPTER  II 
BREAKING    FAITH    WITH   THE    SIXTIES 

E  Americans  have  a  complacent  way  of  expressing  our 
horror  for  the  ways  of  the  unspeakable  Turk,  the  un- 
utterable Russian  and  the  inexpressible  King  of  the 
Belgians.  One  would  never  gather  from  the  typical 
American  tone  that  we,  as  a  nation,  had  any  bar- 

barities   or   uncivilised    tendencies    of   which   to   be 

ashamed.  The  national  escutcheon,  however,  is  not  exactly  immacu- 
late. On  the  contrary,  it  is  rapidly  becoming  as  spotted  as  the 
measles.  One  or  two  of  the  more  recent  lynching  atrocities  should 
be  all  to  which  we  need  to  refer  in  order  to  show  that  outrages  equal 
to  anything  Russia  can  produce,  are  taking  place  practically  every 
day  right  here  in  "free  America." 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  name  Springfield  were  singularly  fatal  to 
the  observance  of  law  and  order  with  regard  to  the  coloured  citizen. 
In  March,  1904,  an  outbreak  of  whites  against  negroes  took  place  in 
Springfield,  Ohio.  It  began  with  the  lynching  of  Richard  Dixon,  a 
Kentucky  negro  who  had  shot  Charles  Collis,  a  policeman.  Later, 
on  the  8th,  a  mob  of  3,000  persons  attacked  the  negro  quarter  of  the 
town.  The  excuse  given  was  that  some  negroes  had  been  heard  to 
threaten  to  avenge  Dixon's  lynching.  The  mob  avowed  its  intention 
of  destroying  the  buildings  of  all  negroes,  and  killing  every  black  who 
refused  to  leave  the  city.  The  Mayor  appealed  for  State  troops,  who 
succeeded  in  preventing  a  clash  between  the  blacks  and  whites,  which 
would  have  meant  great  loss  of  life.  As  it  was'  the  whites  set  fire 
to  so-  many  buildings  that  the  blaze  in  the  negro  quarter  got  beyond 
control  and  the  fire  department  devoted  its  efforts  to  preventing  its 
spreading.  On  the  9th  there  was  not,  according  to  local  dispatches, 
a  coloured  man  within  the  corporate  limits  of  Springfield,  a  city  having 
a  coloured  population  of  15,000. 

And  now  in  the  Spring  of  1906  comes  another  frightful  outbreak 
against  the  negroes  in  the  same  city.  A  mob  of  1,500  white  men  and 
boys  made  an  assault  upon  the  negro  residential  district  on  Feb.  27th, 
and  held  control  of  the  city  streets  for  hours.  The  mob  was  bent  on 
lynching  two  negroes  who  had  shot  a  freight  brakeman.  It  tore  out 
the  furniture  of  a  saloon,  ruined  the  stock,  and  then  set  fire  to  the 
building  and  to  several  negro  dwellings  in  the  vicinity.  After  dark 
more  negro  property  was  burned,  and  the  blacks  were  in  a  general 
state  of  panic  and  many  began  leaving  the  city. 

Treading  close  upon  the  heels  of  this  last  atrocity  in  Springfield, 
Ohio,  comes  the  report  of  a  lynching  horror  in  Springfield,  Missouri. 
Press  reports  under  dates  of  April  15th  and  16th,  1906,  describe  how 

349 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

three  negroes  were  lynched  under  a  statue  representing  Justice  which 
surmounted  the  electric-light  tower.  The  victims  were  a  negro  by  the 
name  of  Will  Allen,  charged  with  the  murder  of  Rouark,  committed 
last  January,  and  Horace  Duncan  and  James  Copeland,  who  were 
suspected  of  assaulting  a  white  domestic.  All  three  negroes  died  pro- 
testing their  innocence.  Describing  Allen's  death  a  Boston  daily 
says :  "  '  I  swear  that  I  am  not  guilty  of  killing  Rouark/  were  the  last 
words  of  Will  Allen,  a  negro  .  .  .  who,  protesting  innocence,  was 
taken  from  jail  early  this  morning  by  the  mob  that  lynched  Duncan 
and  Copeland  before  midnight,  and  was  hanged  in  the  Public  square 
to  the  same  tower  that  had  served  as  a  scaffold  for  the  two  other 
negroes.  The  lynching  took  place  under  a  statue  representing  'Jus- 
tice' that  surmounted  the  electric-light  tower.  Allen  was  calm  and 
collected  as  he  jumped  from  the  tower  upon  which  he  had  been  com- 
pelled to  ascend.  The  rope  about  his  neck  broke  as  his  weight  fell 
on  it  and  he  dropped  into  the  pyre  containing  the  charred  bodies  of 
his  former  companions  in  prison,  Duncan  and  Copeland.  He  was 
immediately  taken  up  the  tower  again,  and  again  compelled  to  jump. 
This  time  his  captors  were  more  successful  in  their  work." 

On  April  16th  the  State  Militia  were  in  control,  and  on  that  date 
a  Boston  paper  had  the  following  headlines :  "  Springfield  grovels 
in  penitence.  Negroes  were  innocent."  It  seems  that,  after  the 
atrocious  crime  had  been  committed,  the  murderers  comprising  the 
mob  slowly  awoke  from  their  insane  carnival  of  vengeance  to  the 
realisation  that  the  young  woman  assaulted  had  positively  declared 
that  Duncan  and  Copeland,  two  of  the  negroes  lynched,  were  not  her 
assailants.  With  this  came  the  penitential  revulsion  of  feeling.  Gov. 
Folk  said  in  reference  to  this  incident :  "  When  a  mob  takes  the  law 
into  its  own  hands  any  member  of  it  is  guilty  of  murder." 

A  clearer  picture  of  this  atrocity  will  be  obtained  from  a  perusal 
of  the  following  paragraph  from  "  The  Public  "  of  April  21st,  1906. 
"  The  latest  outbreak  of  the  brutal  spirit  of  the  white  mob  occurred  in 
Springfield,  Missouri.  A  white  woman  and  her  escort  had  been  at- 
tacked by  two  Negroes,  the  young  man  being  pounded  to  insensibility 
and  the  young  woman  outraged.  On  suspicion  two  Negro  boys,  about 
21  years  of  age,  were  arrested  and  placed  in  jail.  The  young  woman 
being  called  upon  to  identify  them,  declared  positively  that  they  were 
not  her  assailants.  Nevertheless,  the  authorities  retained  them  in 
custody;  and  just  before  midnight  of  the  14th,  the  day  on  which 
the  assault  occurred  and  the  arrests  were  made,  a  mob  surrounded 
the  jail,  captured  these  two  Negro  prisoners,  •  hanged  them  both  in 
the  public  square  of  the  city,  and  saturating  their  clothing  burned 
them  while  they  hanged  and  were  still  alive.  Maddened  with  the 
lust  of  killing  and  their  murderous  hatred  of  the  Negro,  the  mob 
then  turned  back  to  the  jail  and  capturing  another  Negro  prisoner, 
held  under  vague  suspicion  of  having  some  time  before  aided  in  the 
murder  of  a  white  man,  they  hanged  and  burned  him  with  the  others. 
The  brutal  scene  is  reported  to  have  been  witnessed  by  5,000  persons." 

Apropos  of  the  popular  misconception  that  lynching  is  practised 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  safe-guarding  women,  we  quote  the  follow- 
ing from,  the  "Women's  Journal"  of  March  19th.  1904:  "Now 

350 


BREAKING    FAITH    WITH    THE    SIXTIES 

that  Mississippi  has  burned  a  woman  at  the  stake,  perhaps  the  public 
will  realise  that  lynching  is  not  practised  merely  for  the  protection  of 
women." 

In  the  "Toronto  Weekly  Sun"  of  Aug.  24,  1904,  Dr.  Goldwin 
Smith  says :  "  There  is  no  use  in  saying  that  this  is  indignation 
against  crime,  or  even  that  it  is  hatred  of  race;  it  is  devilish  lust  of 
cruelty,  such  as  burned  in  the  fiendish  breast  of  the  Iroquois. 

"  Why  are  such  things  allowed  to  happen  in  a  Eepublic  which  deems 
itself  the  -flower  of  enlightenment  and  civilisation? 

"  The  answer  is,  because  there  is  no  government  in  the  United 
States.  Government  has  been  practically  supplanted  by  the  perpetual 
conflict  and  alternate  domination  of  two  factions,  each  of  which  is  too 
dependent  on  mob  favours  to  enforce  the  law.  No  such  spectacle  is 
presented  in  any  other  community  pretending  to  civilisation." 

Those  who  believe  that  the  lynching  sentiment  is  visited  solely 
upon  the  more  serious  offenders  against  social  order  will  do  well  to 
peruse  the  article  "  Lawlessness  against  Lawlessness  "  by  W.  S.  Scar- 
borough of  Wilberf orce  University  —  Ohio.  This  article  appeared  in 
the  "Arena"  for  Nov.  1900.  From  it  we  extract  the  following: 

"  Edward  McCarthy,  a  young  white  man  who  came  to  this  city 
from  New  York  several  days  ago,  appeared  before  a  police  magistrate 
here  in  New  Orleans.  He  was  arrested  yesterday  morning  to  protect 
him  from  a  mob,  which  was  endeavouring  to  lynch  him  because  of  some 
remarks  he  made  in  connexion  with  the  negro  riot.  McCarthy  had 
said  that  negroes  had  white  hearts  —  were  as  good  as  white  men  — 
and  not  all  of  them  should  be  lynched  because  of  the  action  of  two 
of  them. 

*  Do  you  consider  a  negro  as  good  as  a  white  man? '  asked  the  judge. 

'  In  body  and  soul,  yes,'  replied  the  prisoner.  He  was  fined  $25  or 
thirty  days  in.  the  parish  prison. 

"  This  is  only  one  of  many  incidents  where  blind,  unreasoning  preju- 
dice gets  the  better  of  judgment  and  defeats  Justice.  ...  To 
fine  a  man  for  the  expression  of  an  honest  opinion  when  he  is  asked 
for  it  is  barbarism  pure  and  simple.  Such  a  judge  has  no  business 
to  sit  upon  a  bench  that  represents  justice." 

On  June  23,  1903,  an  attempt  was  made  to  lynch  a  negro  at 
Peoria,  111.  The  man  was  charged  with  committing  a  robbery.  At 
a  meeting  of  Chicago  negroes,  held  at  about  this  time,  Ida  Wells  Bar- 
nett  said,  apropos  of  the  treatment  visited  upon  Negroes :  "  You 
cannot  expect  the  white  men  to  fight  your  battles  when  you  will  not 
fight  them  for  yourselves.  If  the  white  men  are  our  friends  let  them 
show  us  that  they  are  by  their  actions  and  by  giving  us  their  pro- 
tection; but  it  is  for  us  to  arouse  ourselves.  Burning  and  lynching 
of  Negroes  is  becoming  so  common  in  this  country  that  the  consciences 
of  the  people  are  becoming  seared,  and  they  no  longer  arouse  popular 
indignation.  I  remember  when  the  first  Negro  was  lynched  in  this 
country,  there  was  a  cry  sent  up  from  every  corner,  but  now  it  has 
got  so  that  even  ministers  of  the  gospel,  white  men,  mind  you,  tell 
the  people  from  their  pulpits  that  it  is  right  to  burn  Negroes." 

Referring  to  the  lynching  of  Johnson  at  Chattanooga,  "  Harpers 
Weekly"  for  April  7,  1906,  prints  the  following:  "The  Supreme 

351 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Court  holds  that  the  lynchers  at  Chattanooga  were  guilty  of  contempt 
of  court;  the  Department  of  Justice  insists  that  they  were  guilty  of 
a  violation  of  the  Revised  Statutes;  while  the  President  seems  to  feel 
that  they  were  guilty  of  lese-majesty.  Any,  or  all,  or  none  of  these 
views  may  be  right,  but  the  layman  will  have  difficulty  in  seeing  how 
the  final  solution  of  the  controversy  is  going  to  help  the  victim, 
JOHNSON,  any." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  cite  more  instances  tending  to  prove  the  shock- 
ing prevalence  of  the  lynching  mania.  This  disease  has  seised  upon 
us  in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  which  will  force  us  to  treat  it  in  a  radi- 
cal manner.  Its  cause  is  to  be  found  in  a  race  hatred  which,  in  its 
turn,  is  caused  by,  and  is  but  one  of,  the  manifestations  of  that  "  I 
am  better  than  thou  "  feeling  which  is  the  root  of  all  social  cruelty 
and  injustice.  Those  who  endorse  or  seek  to  palliate  lynching  are 
wont  to  refer  to  the  negro  either  as  something  less  than  human  or 
as  a  hopeless  savage  incapable  of  the  refinements  of  their  civilisation, 
postulates  which  they  straightway  seek  to  prove  by  pursuance  of  a 
course  so  brutal  that  999  negroes  out  of  1,000  would  repudiate  it  with 
every  drop  of  their  Afro-American  blood.  For  the  sake  of  those  who 
believe  that  the  accident  of  colour  has  rendered  impossible  the  negro's 
evolution,  we  shall  take  up  the  remainder  of  this  chapter  in  an  at- 
tempt to  show  the  ridiculousness  of  such  a  position. 

At  the  very  start  let  us  clearly  examine  the  logic  of  the  subject. 
Were  it  contended  that  black  blood  tended  to  the  highest  possible  at- 
tainments of  civilisation,  it  would  be  necessary,  in  substantiation  of 
such  a  claim,  to  cite  innumerable  cases  both  of  black  and  white  men, 
whose  only  distinction  was  that  of  colour,  their  histories,  environments, 
etc.,  being  the  same,  and  to  show  that  the  black  men,  just  because  of 
this  single  factor  of  blackness,  tended  ever  to  outrun  their  white 
brothers  in  moral  and  social  development.  Were  we  taking  such  a 
brief  to  prove,  ours  would  be  the  position  of  largest  inclusiveness, 
and  the  burden  of  proof  would  justly  rest  upon  us.  But  we  are  not 
taking  the  plaintiff's  position,  but  are  occupying,  instead,  that  of  the 
defendant.  The  plaintiff  asserts  that  black  blood  is  an  insuperable 
bar  to  moral  and  social  development.  Those  plaintiffs  whom  we  are 
now  answering  contend  that  it  is  impossible,  because  of  his  race,  for 
a  negro  to  evolve  into  a  high-minded  cultured  citizen,  endowed  with 
his  full  meed  of  the  social  sense.  To  disprove  such  a  thesis  we  should 
not  be  obliged,  as  in  the  other  case,  to  show  any  general  tendency.  We 
shall  have  only  to  find  one  single  exception  to  this  ridiculous  bit  of 
dogmatism  in  order  to  overthrow  the  whole  absurd  thesis,  for,  clearly, 
if  a  single  black  man  can  be  found  who  is  morally,  socially,  and  in- 
tellectually great,  no  one  can  ever  afterwards  reasonably  assert  that 
black  blood  inevitably  prevents  such  attainments.  We  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  the  consideration  of  but  a  few  great  coloured  men.  The 
list,  however,  might  easily  be  extended,  for,  all  things  considered, 
and  speaking  with  all  due  regard  to  their  almost  insurmountable 
handicap,,  the  coloured  race  has  shown  an  evolutionary  tendency  toward 
better  things  which  is  little  short  of  marvellous.  The  first  negro  to 
whom  we  invite  attention  was  not  only  great  in  his  own  race,  but 
carved  for  himself  a  place  in  history  which,  all  things  considered, 

352 


could  not  be  filled  by  any  white  man  who  has  thus  far  drawn  the 
Ireath-  of  life.  We  refer  to  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  the  great  St. 
Domingo  chief,  a  full-blooded  negro,  without  one  drop  of  white  blood 
in  his  veins.  Regarding  this  man,  Wendell  Phillips,  one  of  our 
greatest  Americans,  said:  "My  sketch  is  at  once  a  biography  and 
an  argument  —  a  biography,  of  course  very  brief, —  of  a  negro  soldier 
and  statesman,  which  I  offer  you  as  an  argument,  in  behalf  of  the 
race  from  which  he  sprung.  I  am  about  to  compare  and  weigh  races ; 
indeed,  I  am  engaged  to-night  in  what  you  will  think  the  absurd  effort 
to  convince  you  that  the  negro  race,  instead  of  being  that  object  of 
pity  or  contempt  which  we  usually  consider  it,  is  entitled,  judged  by 
the  facts  of  history,  to  a  place  close  by  the  side  of  the  Saxon.  Now 
races  love  to  be  judged  in  two  ways  —  by  the  great  men  they  produce, 
and  by  the  average  merit  of  the  mass  of  the  race.  We  Saxons  are 
proud  of  Bacon,  Shakespeare,  Hampden,  Washington,  Franklin, 
the  stars  we  have  lent  to  the  galaxy  of  history ;  and  then  we  turn  with 
equal  pride  to  the  average  merit  of  Saxon  blood,  since  it  streamed 
from  its  German  home."  .  .  . 

"  In  the  hour  you  lend  me  to-night,  I  attempt  the  Quixotic  effort 
to  convince  you  that  the  negro  blood,  instead  of  standing  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  list,  ^is  entitled,  if  judged  either  by  its  great  men  or  its 
masses,  either  by  its  courage,  its  purpose,  or  its  endurance,  to  a  place 
as  near  ours  as  any  other  blood  known  in  history." 

Speaking  specifically  of  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  the  great  American 
said :  "  He  had  been  born  a  slave  on  a  plantation  in  the  north  of  the 
island  —  an  unmixed  negro  —  his  father  stolen  from  Africa.  If  any- 
thing, therefore,  that  I  say  of  him  to-night  moves  your  admiration, 
remember,  the  black  race  claims  it  all  —  we  have  no  part  nor  lot 
in  it.  He  was  fifty  years  old  at  this  time.  An  old  negro  had  taught 
him  to  read.  His  favorite  books  were  Epictetus,  Eaynal,  Military 
Memoirs,  Plutarch.  In  the  woods,  he  learned  some  of  the  qualities 
of  herbs,  and  was  village  doctor.  On  the  estate,  the  highest  place  he 
ever  reached  was  that  of  coachman.  At  fifty,  he  joined  the  army  as 
physician.  Before  he  went,  he  placed  his  master  and  mistress  on 
shipboard,  freighted  the  vessel  with  a  cargo  of  sugar  and  coffee,  and 
sent  them  to  Baltimore,  and  never  afterward  did  he  forget  to  send 
them,  year  by  year,  ample  means  of  support.  And  I  might  add,  that, 
of  all  the  leading  negro  generals,  each  one  saved  the  man  under 
whose  roof  he  was  born,  and  protected  the  family. 

"Let  me  add  another  thing.  If  I  stood  here  to-night  to  tell  the 
story  of  Napoleon,  I  should  take  it  from  the  lips  of  Frenchmen,  who 
find  no  language  rich  enough  to  paint  the  great  captain  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Were  I  here  to  tell  you  the  story  of  Washington,  I 
should  take  it  from  your  hearts  —  you,  who  think  no  marble  white 
enough  on  which  to  carve  the  name  of  the  Father  of  his  Country.  I 
am  about  to  tell  you  the  story  of  a  negro  who  has  left  hardly  one 
written  line.  I  am  to  glean  it  from  the  reluctant  testimony  of 
Britons,  Frenchmen,  Spaniards  —  men  who  despised  him  as  a  negro 
and  a  slave,  and  hated  him  because  he  had  beaten  them  in  many  a 
battle.  All  the  materials  for  his  biography  are  from  the  lips  of  his 
enemies. 

23  353 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"  The  second  story  told  of  him  is  this.  About  the  time  he  reached 
the  camp,  the  army  had  been  subjected  to  two  insults.  First,  their 
commissioners,  summoned  to  meet  the  French  Committee,  were  igno- 
miniously  and  insultingly  dismissed;  and  when,  afterward,  Frangois, 
their  general,  was  summoned  to  a  second  conference,  and  went  to  it 
on  horseback,  accompanied  by  two  officers,  a  young  lieutenant,  who 
had  known  him  as  a  slave,  angered  at  seeing  him  in  the  uniform  of 
an  officer,  raised  his  riding  whip  and  struck  him  over  the  shoulders. 
If  he  had  been  the  savage  which  the  negro  is  painted  to  us,  he  had 
only  to  breathe  the  insult  to  his  twenty-five  thousand  soldiers,  and 
they  would  have  trodden  out  the  Frenchmen  in  blood.  But  the  in- 
dignant chief  rode  back  in  silence  to  his  tent,  and  it  was  twenty-four 
hours  before  his  troops  heard  of  this  insult  to  their  general.  Then 
the  word  went  forth,  "  Death  to  every  white  man !  "  They  had  fifteen 
hundred  prisoners.  Ranged  in  front  of  the  camp,  they  were  about 
to  be  shot.  Toussaint,  who  had  a  vein  of  religious  fanaticism,  like 
most  great  leaders  —  like  Mohammed,  like  Napoleon,  like  Cromwell, 
like  John  Brown  —  he  could  preach  as  well  as  fight  —  mounting  a 
hillock,  and  getting  the  ear  of  the  crowd,  exclaimed :  '  Brothers,  this 
blood  will  not  wipe  out  the  insult  to  our  chief;  only  the  blood  in 
yonder  French  camp  can  wipe  it  out.  To  shed  that  is  courage;  to 
shed  this  is  cowardice,  and  cruelty  besides ; '  and  he  saved  fifteen 
hundred  lives."  .  .  . 

"  You  remember  Macaulay  says,  comparing  Cromwell  with  Napo- 
leon, that  ^Cromwell  showed  the  greater  military  genius,  if  we  con- 
sider that  he  never  saw  an  army  till  he  was  forty;  while  Napoleon 
was  educated  from  a  boy  in  the  best  military  schools  in  Europe. 
Cromwell  manufactured  his  own  army ;  Napoleon  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  best  troops  Europe  ever  saw. 
They  were  both  successful;  but,  says  Macaulay,  with  such  disadvan- 
tages, the  Englishman  showed  the  greater  genius.  Whether  you  will 
allow  the  inference  or  not,  you  will  at  least  grant  that  it  is  a  fair  mode 
of  measurement.  Apply  it  to  Toussaint.  Cromwell  never  saw  an 
army  till  he  was  forty ;  this  man  never  saw  a  soldier  till  he  was  fifty. 
Cromwell  manufactured  his  own  army  —  out  of  what?  Englishmen 

—  the  best  blood  in  Europe.     Out  of  the  middle  class  of  Englishmen 

—  the  best  blood  of  the  island.     And  with  it  he  conquered  what? 
Englishmen  —  their  equals.     This  man  manufactured  his  army  out 
of  what?     Out  of  what  you  call  the  despicable  race  of  negroes,  de- 
based, demoralised  by  two  hundred  years  of  slavery,  one  hundred  thou- 
sand of  them  imported  into  the  island  within  four  years,  unable  to 
speak  a  dialect  intelligible  even  to  each  other.     Yet  out  of  this  mixed, 
and,  as  you  say,  despicable  mass,  he  forged  a  thunderbolt  and  hurled 
it  at  what?     At  the  proudest  blood  in  Europe,  the  Spaniard,  and 
sent  him  home  conquered;  at  the  most  warlike  blood  in  Europe,  the 
French,  and  put  them  under  his  feet;  at  the  pluckiest  blood  in  Eu- 
rope,  the   English,   and   they   skulked  home  to   Jamaica.     Now   if 
Cromwell  was  a  general,  at  least  this  man  was  a  soldier.     I  know  it 
was  a  small  territory;  it  was  not  as  large  as  the  Continent;  but  it 
was  as  large  as  that  Attica,  which,  with  Athens  lor  a  capital,  has 


BREAKING    FAITH    WITH    THE    SIXTIES 

filled  the  earth  with  its  fame  for  two  thousand  years.  We  measure 
genius  by  quality,  not  by  quantity. 

"  Further,  Cromwell  was  only  a  soldier;  his  fame  stops  there.  Not 
one  line  in  the  statute  book  of  Britain  can  be  traced  to  Cromwell; 
not  one  step  in  the  social  life  of  England  finds  its  motive  power  in 
his  brain.  The  state  he  founded  went  down  with  him  to  his  grave. 
But  this  man  no  sooner  put  his  hand  on  the  helm  of  state,  than  the 
ship  steadied  with  an  upright  keel,  and  he  began  to  evince  a  states- 
manship as  marvellous  as  his  military  genius.  History  says  that  the 
most  statesmanlike  act  of  Napoleon  was  his  proclamation  of  1802, 
at  the  peace  of  Amiens,  when,  believing  that  the  indelible  loyalty  of 
a  native-born  heart  is  always  a  sufficient  basis  on  which  to  found  an 
empire,  he  said :  '  Frenchmen,  come  home.  I  pardon  the  crimes 
of  the  last  twelve  years;  I  blot  out  its  parties;  I  found  my  throne 
on  the  hearts  of  all  Frenchmen/  and  twelve  years  of  unclouded  suc- 
cess showed  how  wisely  he  judged.  That  was  in  1802.  In  1800 
this  negro  made  a  proclamation ;  it  runs  thus :  *  Sons  of  St.  Domingo, 
come  home.  We  never  meant  to  take  your  houses  or  your  lands. 
The  negro  only  asks  that  liberty  which  God  gave  him.  Your  houses 
wait  for  you ;  your  lands  are  ready ;  come  and  cultivate  them ' ;  and 
from  Madrid  and  Paris,  from  Baltimore  and  New  Orleans,  the  immi- 
grant planters  crowded  home  to  enjoy  their  estates,  under  the  pledged 
word,  that  was  never  broken,  of  a  victorious  slave. 

"  Again,  Carlyle  has  said,  '  The  natural  king  is  one  who  melts  all 
wills  into  his  own.'  At  this  moment  he  turned  to  his  armies,  poor, 
ill-clad,  and  half-starved,  and  said  to  them :  '  Go  back  and  work  on 
these  estates  you  have  conquered ;  for  an  empire  can  be  founded  only 
on  order  and  industry,  and  you  can  learn  these  virtues  only  there/ 
And  they  went.  The  French  admiral,  who  witnessed  the  scene,  said 
that  in  a  week  his  army  melted  back  into  peasants." 

Nor  was  the  greatness  of  this  man  confined  to  attainments  which 
might  naturally  be  expected  in  his  own  day  and  generation.  He  was 
endowed  with  that  rarest  of  all  intellectual  attainments,  the  general- 
ising mind.  Furthermore,  he  had  that  gift  of  prophecy  which  has 
been  defined  as  the  knowledge  of  what  ought  to  happen  and  the  faith 
that  it  will  come  to  pass.  His  foresight  reminds  one  again  and  again 
of  our  own  patriot  seers,  Jefferson  and  Franklin.  Upon  this  subject 
Wendell  Phillips  says :  "  It  was  1800.  The  world  waited  fifty  years 
before,  in  1846,  Robert  Peel  dared  to  venture,  as  a  matter  of  practi- 
cal statesmanship,  the  theory  of  free  trade.  Adam  Smith  theorised, 
the  French  statesmen  dreamed,  but  no  man  at  the  head  of  affairs  had 
ever  dared  to  risk  it  as  a  practical  measure.  Europe  waited  till  1846 
before  the  most  practical  intellect  in  the  world,  the  English,  adopted 
the  great  economic  formula  of  unfettered  trade.  But  in  1800  this 
black,  with  the  instinct  of  statesmanship,  said  to  the  committee  who 
were  drafting  for  him  a  constitution :  '  Put  at  the  head  of  the  chap- 
ter of  commerce  that  the  ports  of  St.  Domingo  are  open  to  the 
trade  of  the  world.'  With  lofty  indifference  to  race,  superior  to  all 
envy  or  prejudice,  Toussaint  had  formed  this  committee  of  eight 
white  proprietors  and  one  mulatto  —  not  a  soldier  nor  a  negro  on 
the  list,  although  Haytian  history  proves  that,  with  the  exception  of 

355 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Rigaud,  the  rarest  genius  has  always  been  shown  by  pure  negroes. 

"  Again,  it  was  1800,  at  a  time  when  England  was  poisoned  on  every 
page  of  her  statute  book  with  religious  intolerance,  when  a  man 
could  not  enter  the  House  of  Commons  without  taking  Episcopal 
communion,  when  every  State  in  the  Union,  except  Rhode  Island, 
was  full  of  the  intensest  religious  bigotry.  This  man  was  a  negro. 
You  say  that  is  a  superstitious  blood.  He  was  uneducated.  You  say 
that  makes  a  man  narrow-minded.  He  was  a  Catholic.  Many  say 
that  is  but  another  name  for  intolerance.  And  yet  —  negro,  Catholic, 
slave  —  he  took  his  place  by  the  side  of  Roger  Williams,  and  said 
to  his  committee:  'Make  it  the  first  line  of  my  constitution  that  I 
know  no  difference  between  religious  beliefs/ 

"  Now,  blue-eyed  Saxon,  proud  of  your  race,  go  back  with  me  to  the 
commencement  of  the  century,  and  select  what  statesman  you  please. 
Let  him  be  either  American  or  European;  let  him  have  a  brain  the 
result  of  six  generations  of  culture;  let  him  have  the  ripest  training 
of  university  routine;  let  him  add  to  it  the  better  education  of  prac- 
tical life;  crown  his  temples  with  the  silver  of  seventy  years;  and 
show  me  the  man  of  Saxon  lineage  for  whom  his  most  sanguine  ad- 
mirer will  wreathe  a  laurel  rich  as  embittered  foes  have  placed  on 
the  brow  of  this  negro  —  rare  military  skill,  profound  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  content  to  blot  out  all  party  distinctions,  and  trust  a 
state  to  the  blood  of  its  sons  —  anticipating  Sir  Robert  Peel  fifty 
years,  and  taking  his  station  by  the  side  of  Roger  Williams  before 
any  Englishman  or  American  had  won  the  right;  and  yet  this  is  the 
record  which  the  history  of  rival  States  makes  up  for  this  inspired 
black  of  St.  Domingo. 

"  It  was  1801.  The  Frenchmen  who  lingered  on  the  island  de- 
scribed its  prosperity  and  order  as  almost  incredible.  You  might  trust 
a  child  with  a  bag  of  gold  to  go  from  Samana  to  Port-au-Prince  with- 
out risk.  Peace  was  in  every  household;  the  valleys  laughed  with 
fertility;  culture  climed  the  mountains;  the  commerce  of  the  world 
was  represented  in  its  harbours/7  .  .  . 

"  Of  Toussaint,  Hermona,  the  Spanish  general,  who  knew  him  well, 
said :  '  He  is  the  purest  soul  God  ever  put  into  a  body/  Of  him  his- 
tory bears  witness,  '  He  never  broke  his  word/  Maitland  was  travel- 
ling in  the  depths  of  the  woods  to  meet  Toussaint,  when  he  was  met 
by  a  messenger,  and  told  that  he  was  betrayed.  He  went  on,  and 
met  Toussaint,  who  showed  him  two  letters  —  one  from  the  French 
general,  offering  him  any  rank  if  he  would  put  Maitland  in  his  power, 
and  the  other  his  reply.  It  was,  '  Sir,  I  have  promised  the  English- 
man that  he  shall  go  back/  Let  it  stand,  therefore,  that  the  negro, 
truthful  as  a  knight  of  old,  was  cheated  by  his  lying  foe.  Which 
race  has  reason  to  be  proud  of  such  a  record  ?  "  .  .  . 

"  I  would  call  him  Napoleon,  but  Napoleon  made  his  way  to  empire 
over  broken  oaths  and  through  a  sea  of  blood.  This  man  never  broke 
his  word.  'NO  RETALIATION'  was  his  great  motto  and  the  rule 
of  his  life;  and  the  last  words  uttered  to  his  son  in  France  were 
these:  'My  boy,  you  will  one  day  go  back  to  St.  Domingo;  forget 
that  France  murdered  your  father/  I  would  call  him  Cromwell,  but 
Cromwell  was  only  a  soldier,  and  the  State  he  founded  went  down 

356 


BREAKING    FAITH   WITH   THE    SIXTIES 

with  him  into  his  grave.  I  would  call  him  Washington,  but  the  great 
Virginian  held  slaves.  This  man  risked  his  empire  rather  than  per- 
mit the  slave  trade  in  the  humblest  village  of  his  dominions. 

"  You  think  me  a  fanatic  to-night,  for  you  read  history,  not  with 
your  eyes,  but  with  your  prejudices.  But  fifty  years  hence,  when 
truth  gets  a  hearing,  the  muse  of  history  will  put  'Phocion  for  the 
Greek,  and  Brutus  for  the  Roman,  Hampden  for  England,  Fayette 
for  France,  choose  Washington  as  the  bright,  consummate  flower  of 
our  earlier  civilisation,  and  John  Brown  the  ripe  fruit  of  our  noon- 
day, then,  dipping  her  pen  in  the  sunlight,  will  write  in  the  clear 
blue,  above  them  all,  the  name  of  the  soldier,  the  statesman,  the 
martyr,  TOUSSAINT  L'OUVERTURE." 

The  record  of  this  one  negro  should  be  enough  to  reduce  to  the 
silence  of  shame  every  voice  which  would  contend  that  African  blood 
is  sufficient  to  prevent  the  negro  attaining  to  the  highest  flights 
of  genius  or  civilisation  which  history  has  yet  chronicled. 

Compare  for  a  moment  the  author  of  "  Up  From  Slavery  "  with  the 
author  of  "  The  Leopard's  Spots/'  the  one  a  black  man,  formerly  a 
slave,  and  the  other  a  so-called  Christian  minister  and  shining  light 
in  a  southern  Baptist  church.  Booker  T.  Washington  is  a  negro 
whose  conspicuous  genius,  goodness  and  sheer  force  of  character 
have  challenged  the  admiration  of  the  world.  The  Eev.  Thomas 
Dixon  is  a  minister,  a  Baptist  and  a  hater  of  black  skins.  In  an 
article  published  in  "Whim,"  entitled  "The  Tigers'  Stripes,"  that 
brilliant  publicist,  Ernest  Crosby,  says,  regarding  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Dixon's  "  The  Leopard's  Spots,"  .  .  .  "It  tempts  me  to  retort, 
'  Thou  tiger,  first  wash  the  stripes  out  of  thine  own  hide,  and  then 
shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  wash  out  the  spots  out  of  thy  brother's  hide ; ' 
for  it  is  in  the  spirit  of  the  tiger  rather  than  in  that  of  the  Christian 
minister  that  Mr.  Dixon  treats  the  delicate  issues  of  the  race  question 
which  is  the  subject  of  his  novel." 

In  the  same  article  Mr.  Crosby  refers  to  the  books  which  he  found 
in  the  room  assigned  to  him  while  staying  at  a  tiny  hotel  in  a  remote 
southern  village.  The  title  of  one  of  them  was  "  The  Negro  a  Beast, 
or  In  the  Image  of  God."  On  the  title  page  was  the  following: 
"  The  Negro  a  Beast,  but  Created  with  Articulate  Speech  and  Hands 
that  he  may  be  of  service  to  his  Master,  the  White  Man."  Comment- 
ing upon  this  Mr.  Crosby  says : 

"  Here  was  indeed  a  rich  relic  of  the  ancient  South  of  slavery,  a 
South  that  has  passed  away  forever !  I  looked  down  at  the  date  and 
rubbed  my  eyes  in  astonishment.  There  must  be  some  mistake.  The 
book  was  printed  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1900 !  And  in  one  of  the 
greatest  cities  of  the  South,  too!  And  what  do  you  suppose  is  the 
name  of  the  publishing  company  which  issues  this  precious  work? 
It  is  called  the  *  American  Book  and  Bible  House ! '  I  turned  over 
the  pages  of  the  book.  It  was  an  illiterate  medley  of  folly  and  su- 
perstitition  —  an  attempt  to  prove  by  Scripture  that  the  negro  was 
not  the  descendant  of  Ham,  and  to  show  that  the  serpent  in  the  garden 
of  Eden  was  a  black  man !  It  was  just  such  a  book  as,  if  it  had  been 
produced  by  a  negro,  would  almost  have  justified  despair  for  his  race. 
It  is  not  remarkable,  perhaps,  that  a  single  lunatic  should  have  writ- 

357 


ten  such  a  book  —  but  that  a  publisher  should  have  been  found  for 
it,  that  commercial  success  should  have  been  expected  from  it,  that 
people  should  buy  it  and  lay  it  on  their  bibles  and  leave  it  on  their 
tables  to  insult  the  black  men  who  saw  it  and  astound  the  white  — 
all  that  was  incredible. 

"  It  so  happens  that  I  was  reading  a  book  written  by  a  negro  at  the 
same  time  and  I  took  it  from  my  portmanteau  and  laid  it  beside  the 
other  volume.  My  book  was  Booker  Washington's  '  Up  From  Slav-* 
ery ' —  a  book  which  I  had  some  difficulty  in  getting  in  a  great  south- 
ern city,  and  which  proved  conclusively  that  its  author  was  one  of  the 
best  and  ablest  men  in  this  country,  black  or  white,  and  it  made  me 
blush  for  my  white  race  as  I  thought  of  these  two  authors  together." 

In  closing  the  above  mentioned  article  Mr.  Crosby  says :  "  lit  is  to 
be  hoped  that  there  is  some  truth  in  the  theory  of  reincarnation,  for  it 
affords  such  grand  opportunities  for  poetic  justice.  If  there  is  any- 
thing in  it,  the  author  of  '  The  Negro  a  Beast '  should  make  his  next 
appearance  as  a  full-blooded  Congo  black;  the  author  of  'Leopard's 
Spots'  would  figure  among  the  mulattoes  from  whom  he  wishes  to 
save  us;  and  the  author  of  'Up  From  Slavery,' — well,  if  any  man 
has  earned  a  right  to  the  whitest  of  skins  (if  he  would  like  to  have 
one)  it  is  Booker  Washington.  And  if  these  three  gentlemen  came 
on  the  stage  again  together,  I  am  confident  that  we  should  find  the 
last  of  the  three  exerting  his  powers  for  the  benefit  of  the  other 
two  in  a  spirit  of  love  to  which  they  are  total  strangers." 

We  have  spoken  of  that  great  negro,  Booker  T.  Washington,  a  man 
who  has  few  living  equals.  As  an  educator  he  is  doing  a  work  of 
which  any  man  might  justly  be  proud.  Though  dealing  with  negroes 
whom  we  so  flippantly  set  down  as  being  of  coarser  and  more  sensuous 
clay  than  ourselves,  he  has  made  the  Tuskegee  Normal  and  Industrial 
Institute  a  conspicuous  exception  to  the  record  of  all  other  American 
colleges  with  which  we  are  acquainted.  So  far  as  we  know,  it  is  the 
only  American  University  which  prohibits  the  use  of  tobacco  among 
its  students.  What  think  you  would  happen  to  Harvard  were  tobacco 
prohibited  ?  Yet  the  Harvard  student  has  a  white  skin  and  is  usually 
supposed  to  be  fully  endowed  with  an  Anglo-Saxon's  ability  to  resist 
all  manner  of  vice.  The  students  at  Tuskegee  are  negroes.  Their 
ideals  are  practically  all  in  front  of  them,  yet  we  see  that  they  are 
able  to  comport  themselves  in  a  manner  which  shows  a  regard  for 
each  other  and  for  their  own  self-respect  which  many  a  white  man 
may  well  envy.  The  smoker  who  gives  up  his  tobacco  makes  a  sacri- 
fice which  is  of  great  significance. 

In  the  anarchist  colony  in  Home,  Washington,  a  similar  disuse  of 
tobacco  is  come  to  pass.  We  understand  that  only  two  members  of 
the  community  now  smoke.  The  other  burners  of  the  weed  have  de- 
veloped such  a  keen  social  sense  that  they  consider  it  wrong  to  pollute 
the  air  of  those  who  prefer  to  breathe  the  unadulterated  preparation 
supplied  by  nature,  and  have  voluntarily  discontinued  smoking.  Ee- 
garding  the  use  of  the  weetj  in  our  colleges,  Mr.  Elbert  Hubbard  says, 
in  "  The  Philistine  "  of  June,  1906 :  "  At  Harvard,  Yale,  Dartmouth, 
Columbia  and  Princeton,  cigarettes  are  optional,  but  when  one  sees 
the  devotion  to  them,  a  stranger  would  surely  suppose  the  practice 

358 


BREAKING    FAITH   WITH    THE    SIXTIES 

of  cigarette  smoking  was  compulsory.  The  boy  who  does  not  acquire 
the  tobacco  habit  at  college  is  a  wonder.  Many  of  the  professors 
teach  it." 

We  quote  the  following  from  an  open  letter  by  Kelly  Miller,  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics  and  Instructor  of  Sociology  in  Howard  Uni- 
versity, Washington,  as  published  in  "  The  Public  "  of  June  16,  1906, 
under  the  heading  "  A  Negro's  Reply  to  a  White  Man " :  "  Your 
fundamental  thesis  is  that  *  no  amount  of  education  of  any  kind,  in- 
dustrial, classical  or  religious,  can  make  a  Negro  a  white  man,  or 
bridge  the  chasm  of  the  centuries  which  separates  him  from  the  white 
man  in  the  evolution  of  human  history/  This  doctrine  is  as  old  as 
human  oppression.  Calhoun  made  it  the  arch  stone  in  the  defence 
of  Negro  slavery  —  and  lost."  .  .  . 

"  Within  forty  years  of  only  partial  opportunity,  while  playing  as 
it  were  in  the  backyard  of  civilisation,  the  American  Negro  has  cut 
down  his  illiteracy  by  over  50  per  cent.;  has  produced  a  professional 
class  some  fifty  thousand  strong,  including  ministers,  teachers,  doc- 
tors, lawyers,  editors,  authors,  architects,  engineers,  and  all  higher 
lines  of  listed  pursuits  in  which  white  men  are  engaged. 

"  That  Negroes  in  the  average  are  not  equal  in  developed  capacity 
to  the  white  race,  is  a  proposition  which  it  would  be  as  simple  to 
affirm  as  it  is  silly  to  deny.  The  Negro  represents  a  backward  race 
which  has  not  yet  taken  a  commanding  part  in  the  progressive  move- 
ment of  the  world.  In  the  great  cosmic  scheme  of  things,  some  races 
reach  the  limelight  of  civilisation  ahead  of  others.  But  that  tem- 
porary forwardness  does  not  argue  inherent  superiority  is  as  evident 
as  any  fact  of  history.  An  unfriendly  environment  may  hinder  and 
impede  the  one,  while  fortunate  circumstances  may  quicken  and  spur 
the  other.  Relative  superiority  is  only  a  transient  phase  of  human 
development." 

We  invite  the  reader's  attention  to  the  fact  that  one  of  the  greatest 
French  novelists  was  the  son  of  Louise  Dumas,  a  black  woman  of  St. 
Domingo. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connexion  that  "  The  first  needle 
ever  made  in  England  was  made  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
made  by  a  negro;  and  when  he  died,  the  art  died  with  him.  Some 
of  the  first  travellers  in  Africa  stated  that  they  found  a  tribe  in  the 
interior  who  gave  them  better  razors  than  they  had;  the  irrepressible 
negro  coming  up  in  science  as  in  politics.  The  best  steel  is  the  great- 
est triumph  of  metallurgy,  and  metallurgy  is  the  glory  of  chemistry." 

The  late  Paul  Lawrence  Dunbar,  author  and  poet,  was  a  negro. 
So  also  is  William  Edward  Burghardt  DuBois,  Professor  of  Economics 
and  History  at  Atlanta  University,  sometime  fellow  of  Harvard  in 
Sociology  and  late  assistant  in  Sociology  at  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  author  of  several  important  works.  We  cannot  do  bet- 
ter in  closing  this  chapter  than  to  quote  from  a  Chicago  weekly  an 
article  by  Mr.  DuBois  entitled  "  A  Negro's  Creed."  We  ask  the  Reader 
to  figure  out  in  his  own  mind  the  number  of  reincarnations  which 
would  be  necessary,  before  such  men  as  the  author  of  "  The  Leop- 
ard's Spots  "  would  be  able  to  evolve  to  the  level  of  this  black  man's 
creed.  We  hazard  the  opinion  that  if  the  statistical  truth  could  be 

359 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

known  as  to  how  many  negroes  are  already  trying  to  reach  these  ideals, 
and  how  many  white  men,  even  ministers  and  Pharisees  in  high 
places,  either  repudiate  them  or  are  indifferent  to  them,  both  totals 
would  come  as  a  great  surprise  to  the  average  reader.  Certain  it  is 
that  the  man  who  can  pen  such  a  creed,  has  no  natural  bar  to  the 
enunciation  of  the  grandest  social  and  moral  truths :  "  I  believe  in 
God  who  made  of  one  blood  all  races  that  dwell  on  earth. 

"  I  believe  that  all  men,  black  and  brown  and  white,  are  brothers, 
varying,  through  Time  and  Opportunity,  in  form  and  gift  and  fea- 
ture, but  differing  in  no  essential  particular,  and  alike  in  soul  and  in 
the  possibility  of  infinite  development. 

"  Especially  do  I  believe  in  the  Negro  race ;  in  the  beauty  of  its 
genius,  the  sweetness  of  its  soul,  and  its  strength  in  that  meekness 
which  shall  yet  inherit  this  turbulent  earth. 

"  I  believe  in  pride  of  race  and  lineage  and  self ;  in  pride  of  self  so 
deep  as  to  scorn  injustice  to  other  selves;  in  pride  of  lineage  so  great 
as  to  despise  no  man's  father;  in  pride  of  race  so  chivalrous  as 
neither  to  offer  bastardy  to  the  weak  nor  beg  wedlock  of  the  strong, 
knowing  that  men  may  be  brothers  in  Christ,  even  though  they  be  not 
brothers  in  law. 

"  I  believe  in  Service  —  humble,  reverent  service,  from  the  blacken- 
ing of  boots  to  the  whitening  of  souls;  for  Work  is  Heaven,  Idleness 
Hell,  and  Wage  is  the  '  Well  Done ! '  of  the  Master  who  summoned  all 
them  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  making  no  distinction  between 
the  black,  sweating  cotton-hands  of  Georgia  and  the  First  Families  of 
Virginia,  since  all  distinction  not  based  on  deed  is  devilish  and  not 
divine. 

"  I  believe  in  the  devil  and  his  angels,  who  wantonly  work  to  narrow 
the  opportunity  of  struggling  human  beings,  especially  if  they  be 
black;  who  spit  in  the  faces  of  the  fallen,  strike  them  that  cannot 
strike  again,  believe  the  worst  and  work  to  prove  it,  hating  the  image 
which  their  Maker  stamped  on  a  brother's  soul. 

"  I  believe  in  the  Prince  of  Peace.  I  believe  that  War  is  Murder. 
I  believe  that  armies  and  navies  are  at  bottom  the  tinsel  and  brag- 
gadocio of  oppression  and  wrong;  and  I  believe  that  the  wicked 
conquest  of  weaker  and  darker  nations  by  nations  whiter  and  stronger 
but  foreshadows  the  death  of  that  strength. 

"  I  believe  in  liberty  for  all  men ;  the  space  to  stretch  their  arms 
and  their  souls;  the  right  to  breathe  and  the  right  to  vote;  the  free- 
dom to  choose  their  friends,  enjoy  the  sunshine  and  ride  on  the 
railroads,  uncursed  by  colour;  thinking,  dreaming,  working  as  they 
will,  in  a  kingdom  of  God  and  love. 

"  I  believe  in  the  training  of  children,  black  even  as  white ;  the 
leading  out  of  little  souls  into  the  green  pastures  and  beside  the  still 
waters,  not  for  pelf  or  peace,  but  for  Life  lit  by  some  large  vision  of 
beauty  and  goodness  and  truth;  lest  we  forget,  and  the  sons  of  the 
fathers,  like  Esau,  for  mere  meat  barter  their  birthright  in  a  mighty 
nation. 

"  Finally,  I  believe  in  Patience  —  patience  with  the  weakness  of  the 
Weak  and  the  strength  of  the  Strong,  the  prejudice  of  the  Ignorant 
and  the  ignorance  of  the  Blind;  patience  with  the  tardy  triumph  of 
Joy  and  the  mad  chastening  of  Sorrow  —  patience  with  God  — ." 

360 


CHAPTER  III 

PEONAGE 


361 


Resolved,  That  the  compact  which  exists  between  the  North  and  the 
South  is  a  covenant  with  death  and  an  agreement  with  hell,  involving 
both  parties  in  atrocious  criminality,  and  should  be  immediately  annulled. 

Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison. 

Corrupted  freemen  are  the  worst  of  slaves. 

David  Oarrick. 


362 


CHAPTER  III 

PEONAGE 

T  has  been  contended  by  a  great  many  that  if  the 
Civil  War  had  never  been  fought,  slavery  as  we 
knew  it  in  ante-bellum  days  would  have  ceased. 
The  argument,  and  it  is  a  strong  one,  if  indeed 
not  unanswerable,  presented  by  those  who  hold  this 
view,  is  simply  this, —  the  economic  slave  of  to-day 
would  have  driven  out  the  chattel  slave  by  the  sheer  force  of  com- 
petition. In  the  old  days  the  slave-holder  owned  slaves  of  the 
African  race.  They  cost  him  considerable  sums  of  money  and  rep- 
resented, as  it  were,  a  large  portion  of  his  capital.  If  they  were 
sick  he  was  obliged  to  care  for  them  in  order  to  protect  his  invest- 
ment. If  they  died  they  netted  him  a  loss.  They  were  to  him  as 
are  cattle  to  the  stock-raiser.  If  they  were  to  be  sold,  it  was  good 
business  policy  to  house  and  feed  them  in  a  manner  which  should 
keep  them  in  a  sufficiently  vigourous  condition  to  render  them  attrac- 
tive to  the  prospective  purchaser.  If  they  were  to  be  worked  instead  of 
sold,  it  was  necessary  likewise  to  care  for  them  in  a.  way  to  prolong 
as  much  as  possible  their  period  of  useful  service.  It  was  not  good 
business,  then,  for  the  sake  of  a  single  year's  increased  output  for 
an  owner  to  over-work  his  slaves  to  the  extent  of  breaking  down  their 
health  and  curtailing  their  future  efficiency.  Leaving  out  of  the 
question  entirely  all  sentiments  on  the  part  of  the  owner,  except 
those  of  sordid,  selfish,  business  gain,  and  it  must  still  be  admitted 
that  the  intelligent  self-interest  of  the  slave-owner  dictated  a  policy 
toward  his  slaves  which  in  some  essential  particulars  ran  parallel  with 
the  desires  and  well-being  of  said  slaves. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  there  were  not  other  conditions  which  ren- 
dered slavery  an  insufferable  outrage  upon  the  finer  sentiments  of 
humanity.  What  is  here  to  be  shown  is  the  relation  of  one  kind  of 
slavery  to  another  kind.  Look  now  at  chattel  slavery.  It  has  been 
pointed  out  that  in  the  hands  of  our  great  railroad  managers  the 
life  of  a  locomotive  is  exceedingly  short.  The  railroad  expert  ex- 
plains this  by  saying  that  the  greatest  efficiency  has  been  reached 
by  working  each  machine  to  its  uttermost.  This  he  says  means 
that  in  a  very  short  time  it  will  break  down.  When  this  occurs,  he 
says,  the  locomotive  is  not  sent  to  the  machine-shop  hospital  for  a 
long  course  of  repair  treatment,  but  is  promptly  relegated  to  the 
scrap-heap,  and  a  new  leviathan  put  in  its  place.  A  moment's 
thought  will  show  the  Reader  that,  under  present  conditions,  this  is 
precisely  what  is  occurring  with  the  human  engines  of  society.  The 
efficiency  theory  of  modern  commercialism  formulates  itself  thus, — 

363 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

start  with  new,  young  human  engines,  work  them  to  the  breaking 
point;  when  they  break,  throw  them  into  the  commercial  scrap-heap. 
The  establishment  by  our  great  monopolies  of  an  age  dead-line  is  an 
eloquent  tribute  to  the  truth  of  this  assertion.  Old  men  cannot  hold 
the  pace.  They  are  not  wanted.  Out  of  them  from  day  to  day  in- 
satiate commercial  greed  can  get  only  what  is  put  into  them.  Their 
physical  bank-account  is  a  mere  hand-to-mouth  affair.  It  is  young 
men  who  are  wanted,  young  men  who  can  be  drained  of  the  reserve 
force  stored  up  by  childhood,  young  men  full  of  ambition,  domi- 
nated by  a  desire  to  do  and  become,  capable  of  doing  two  days' 
work  in  one, —  a  process  of  discounting  the  future,  meaning  prodi- 
gality now  and  physical  bankruptcy  later  on.  When  these  young 
leviathans  break  down,  when  the  fires  of  enthusiasm  .burn  low  in 
their  grates  and  their  running  record  begins  to  fall  below  that 
of  the  newer  social  machines,  to  the  scrap-heap  with  them,  and  there 
an  end!  Modern  commercialism  is  as  hard  as  adamant,  as  cold 
as  the  polar  frost,  as  keen-edged  as  the  mathematical  line.  It  has 
ceased  to  be  moral,  it  has  passed  the  point  where  it  is  immoral  and  has 
reached  that  lowest  ethical  sink  known  as  the  immoral.  All  distinc- 
tions of  right  and  wrong  seem  to  have  broken  down,  until  to-day 
your  monopolist  looks  at  any  one  who  would  mix  business  and 
morality  much  in  the  way  that  the  creed-bound  theologian  of  yore 
regarded  any  one  who  mixed  ethics  and  theology.  Our  present 
economic  slavery,  as  will  be  seen  with  the  most  cursory  examination, 
has  forged  the  monopolist  many  advantages  which  he  would  lose 
were  his  economic  slaves  to  become  chattel  slaves.  For  instance, 
he  pays  the  present  slave  barely  enough  to  sustain  him,  in  many 
cases  too  little  to  do  this  properly.  He  does  not  have  to  feed  him 
with  a  view  to  the  future,  because  the  scrap-heap  is  always  in  sight. 
For  this  reason  and  for  the  further  reasons  that  he  does  not  propose 
to  sell  him  and  that  he  is  interested  not  in  the  man  himself  but  in 
his  present  product,  he  is  not  so  particular  of  his  slave's  well-being. 
All  he  is  after  is  the  maximum  of  product  for  the  minimum  of  out- 
lay. If  his  slave  sickens  he  is  threatened  with  no  loss.  He  merely 
throws  him  upon  the  scrap-heap  and  fills  his  place  with  another 
victim.  If  he  dies,  it  does  not  net  him  a  loss.  He  simply  fills  his 
place  again  and  goes  merrily  onward.  Against  such  a  system  as  this 
how  could  the  chattel  slave  hope  to  compete?  It  will  be  noted  that 
those  who  still  seek  the  nearest  possible  approach  to  the  chattel 
slavery  of  ante-bellum  days  are  quite  willing  to  omit  one  of  the 
chief  essentials  of  that  system.  They  do  not  object  to  "  owning " 
their  slaves,  provided  they  do  not  have  to  pay  for  them.  This  gives 
them  all  the  advantages  of  chattel  slavery  without  those  disadvan- 
tages which  make  economic  slavery  so  dangerous  a  competitor  with  it. 
For  if  the  chattel  slave  can  be  had  for  nothing,  there  is  nothing 
to  hinder  the  introduction  of  the  scrap-heap  into  that  system,  and  if 
this  could  be  done  the  great  hasheesh-dream  of  modern  greed  would 
be  realised  in  the  attainment  of  something  for  nothing.  If  the 
slaves  cost  nothing,  their  death  does  not  represent  a  loss  of  capital, 
and  their  master  need  not  lie  awake  nights  devising  engines  to  keep 
them  in  good  condition.  This  something-for-nothing  competitor  of 

364 


PEONAGE 

modern  economic  slavery  is  found  in  peonage  and  similar  kinds  of 
human  enslavement.  Those  who  flatter  themselves  that  the  tre- 
mendous outlay  of  blood  and  treasure  made  during  the  Civil  War 
stamped  slavery  forever  from  the  soil  of  the  United  States  will  do 
well  to  consider  the  facts  presented  in  this  chapter,  for  they  are 
typical  of  a  great  deal  more  which  could  be  said  upon  the  same 
subject,  if  space  would  permit.  For  the  sake  of  those  readers  who 
may  not  be  familiar  with  peonage  we  will  quote  somewhat  at  length 
from  "  The  New  Slavery  in  the  South,"  an  article  by  a  Georgia 
negro  peon,  which  appeared  in  "  The  Independent,"  of  Feb.  25th,  1904. 
It  is  a  brief  autobiography,  and  the  editor  of  "  The  Independent "  says, 
by  way  of  an  explanatory  word,  "  The  following  article  was  secured  by 
a  representative  of  THE  INDEPENDENT  specially  commissioned  for 
this  work.  It  is  a  reliable  story,  and,  we  believe,  a  typical  one. 
It  was  dictated  to  our  representative,  who  took  the  liberty  to  correct 
the  narrator's  errors  of  grammar  and  put  it  in  form  suitable  for  pub- 
lication." 

The  narrator  begins  his  story  thus :  "  I  am  a  negro  and  was 
born  some  time  during  the  war,  in  Elbert  County,  Ga.,  and  I  reckon 
by  this  time  I  must  be  a  little  over  forty  years  old.  My  mother  was 
not  married  when  I  was  born,  and  I  never  knew  who  my  father 
was  or  anything  about  him.  Shortly  after  the  war  my  mother 
died,  and  I  was  left  to  the  care  of  my  uncle.  All  this  happened 
before  I  was  eight  years  old,  and  so  I  can't  remember  very  much 
about  it.  When  I  was  about  ten  years  old,  my  uncle  hired  me  out 

to  Captain  .  I  had  already  learned  how  to  plow,  and  was 

also  a  good  hand  at  picking  cotton.  I  was  told  that  the  Captain 
wanted  me  for  his  house-boy,  and  that  later  on  he  was  going  to 
train  me  to  be  his  coachman.  To  be  a  coachman  in  those  days 
was  considered  a  post  of  honour,  and,  young  as  I  was,  I  was  glad  of 
the  chance." 

The  story  then  relates  how  he  was  put  to  work  on  a  farm  where  the 
men  got  $3.00  a  week  and  the  women  $2.00.  He  states  that  his 
uncle  collected  his  wages,  fed,  clothed  and  gave  him  a  place  to 
sleep,  allowing  him  fifteen  cents  a  week  for  spending  change.  When 
he  got  tired  of  this  arrangement  he  hired  out  to  a  new  landlord  for 
forty  cents  a  day  and  one  meal.  To  continue  the  story  in  his  own 
words :  "  Bright  and  early  one  Monday  morning  I  started  for  work, 
still  not  letting  the  others  know  anything  about  it.  But  they  found 
it  out  before  sundown.  The  Captain  came  over  to  the  new  place 
and  brought  some  kind  of  officer  of  the  law.  The  officer  pulled  out 
a  long  piece  of  paper  from  his  pocket  and  read  it  to  my  new  em- 
ployer. When  this  was  done  I  heard  my  new  boss  say: 

'  I  beg  your  pardon,  Captain.  1  didn't  know  this  nigger  was 
bound  out  to  you,  or  I  wouldn't  have  hired  him.' 

'He  certainly  is  bound  out  to  me,'  said  the  Captain.  'He  be- 
longs to  me  until  he  is  twenty-one,  and  I'm  going  to  make  him 
know  his  place.' 

"  So  I  was  carried  back  to  the  Captain's.  That  night  he  made  me 
strip  off  my  clothing  down  to  my  waist,  had  me  tied  to  a  tree  in 
his  back-yard,  ordered  his  foreman  to  give  me  thirty  lashes  with  a 

365 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

buggy  whip  across  my  bare  back,  and  stood  by  until  it  was  done. 
After  that  experience  the  Captain  made  me  stay  on  his  place  night 
and  day, —  but  my  uncle  still  continued  to  *  draw '  my  money. 

"  I  was  a  man  nearly  grown  before  I  knew  how  to  count  from  one 
to  one  hundred.  I  was  a  man  nearly  grown  before  I  ever  saw  a 
coloured  school-teacher.  I  never  went  to  school  a  day  in  my  life. 
To-day  I  can't  write  my  own  name,  tho'  I  can  read  a  little.  I 
was  a  man  nearly  grown  before  I  ever  rode  on  a  railroad  train, 
and  then  I  went  on  an  excursion  from  Elberton  to  Athens.  What 
was  true  of  me  was  true  of  hundreds  of  other  negroes  around  me  — 
'way  off  there  in  the  country,  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  from  the  nearest 
town. 

"  When  I  reached  twenty-one,  the  Captain  told  me  I  was  a  free  man, 
but  he  urged  me  to  stay  with  him.  He  said  he  would  treat  me  right, 
and  pay  me  as  much  as  anybody  else  would." 

He  relates  how  he  made  his  mark  upon  a  contract  by  which  he 
agreed  to  stay  with  the  Captain  for  a  year,  during  which  time  he 
married  Mandy,  one  of  the  servants  in  the  "  Big  House."  At  the 
end  of  each  year,  he  renewed  his  contract  for  the  succeeding  year 
until,  in  all,  he  had  signed  for  five  years.  During  the  fifth  year  the 
Captain  died,  and  his  son  took  charge  of  affairs.  The  narrator 
thinks  the  son  was  a  member  of  the  legislature,  as  all  the  people 
called  him  Senator.  The  Senator  asked  him  for  a  ten-year  contract, 
which  he  signed.  The  story  then  continues: 

"  Not  long  afterward  the  Senator  had  a  long,  low  shanty  built 
on  his  place.  A  great  big  chimney,  with  a  wide,  open  fireplace,  was 
built  at  one  end  of  it,  and  on  each  side  of  the  house,  running  length- 
wise, there  was  a  row  of  frames  or  stalls  just  large  enough  to  hold  a 
single  mattress.  The  places  for  these  mattresses  were  fixed  one 
above  the  other,  so  that  there  was  a  double  row  of  these  stalls  or 
pens  on  each  side.  They  looked  for  all  the  world  like  stalls  for 
horses.  Since  then  I  have  seen  cabooses  similarly  arranged  as  sleep- 
ing-quarters for  railroad  labourers.  Nobody  seemed  to  know  what 
the  Senator  was  fixing  for.  All  doubts  were  put  aside  one  bright 
day  in  April  when  about  forty  able-bodied  negroes,  bound  in  iron 
chains,  and  some  of  them  handcuffed,  were  brought  out  to  the  Sen- 
ator's farm  in  three  big  wagons.  They  were  quartered  in  the  long, 
low  shanty,  and  it  was  afterward  called  the  stockade.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  the  .Senator's  convict-camp.  These  men  were  prisoners 
who  had  been  leased  by  the  Senator  from  the  State  of  Georgia  at 
about  $200  each  per  year,  the  State  agreeing  to  pay  for  guards  and 
physicians,  for  necessary  inspection,  for  inquests,  all  rewards  for  es- 
caped convicts,  the  costs  of  litigation  and  all  other  incidental  camp 
expenses.  When  I  saw  these  men  in  shackles,  and  the  guards  with 
their  guns,  I  was  scared  nearly  to  death.  I  felt  like  running  away, 
but  I  didn't  know  where  to  go.  And  if  there  had  been  any  place 
to  go  to,  I  would  have  had  to  leave  my  wife  and  child  behind.  We 
free  labourers  held  a  meeting.  We  all  wanted  to  quit.  We  sent  a 
man  to  tell  the  Senator  about  it.  Word  came  back  that  we  were 
all  under  contract  for  ten  years  and  that  the  Senator  would  hold  us 
to  the  letter  of  the  contract,  or  put  us  in  chains  and  lock  us  up  — 

36Q 


PEONAGE 

the  same  as  the  other  prisoners.  It  was  made  plain  to  us  by  some 
white  people  we  talked  to  that  in  the  contracts  we  had  signed  we 
had  all  agreed  to  be  locked  up  in  a  stockade  at  night  or  at  any 
other  time  that  our  employer  saw  fit;  further,  we  learned  that  we 
could  not  lawfully  break  our  contract  for  any  reason  and  go  and 
hire  ourselves  to  somebody  else  without  the  consent  of  our  em- 
ployer; and,  more  than  that,  if  we  got  mad  and  ran  away,  we 
could  be  run  down  by  bloodhounds,  arrested  without  process  of  law, 
and  be  returned  to  our  employer,  who,  according  to  the  contract, 
might  beat  us  brutally  or  administer  any  other  kind  of  punishment 
that  he  thought  proper.  In  other  words,  we  had  sold  ourselves  into 
slavery  —  and  what  could  we  do  about  it?  The  white  folks  had 
all  the  courts,  all  the  guns,  all  the  hounds,  all  the  railroads,  all  the 
telegraph  wires,  all  the  newspapers,  all  the  money,  and  nearly  all 
the  land  —  and  we  had  only  our  ignorance,  our  poverty  and  our 
empty  hands.  We  decided  that  the  best  thing  to  do  was  to  shut  our 
mouths,  say  nothing,  and  go  back  to  work.  And  most  of  us  worked 
side  by  side  with  those  convicts  during  the  remainder  of  the  ten 
years. 

"  But  this  first  batch  of  convicts  was  only  the  beginning.  Within 
six  months  another  stockade  was  built,  and  twenty  or  thirty  other 
convicts  were  brought  to  the  plantation,  among  them  six  or  eight 
women!  The  Senator  had  bought  an  additional  thousand  acres  of 
land,  and  to  his  already  large  cotton  plantation  he  added  two  great 
big  saw-mills  and  went  into  the  lumber  business.  Within  two  years 
the  Senator  had  in  all  nearly  200  negroes  working  on  his  plantation  — 
about  half  of  them  free  labourers,  so-called,  and  about  half  of  them 
convicts.  The  only  difference  between  the  free  labourers  and  the 
others  was  that  the  free  labourers  could  come  and  go  as  they  pleased 
at  night  —  that  is,  they  were  not  locked  up  at  night,  and  were  not,  as 
a  general  thing,  whipped  for  slight  offences.  The  troubles  of  the 
free  labourers  began  at  the  close  of  the  ten-year  period.  To  a  man, 
they  all  wanted  to  quit  when  the  time  was  up.  To  a  man,  they  all 
refused  to  sign  new  contracts  —  even  for  one  year,  not  to  say  any- 
thing of  ten  years.  And  just  when  we  thought  that  our  bondage 
was  at  an  end  we  found  that  it  had  really  just  begun.  Two  or  three 
years  before,  or  about  a  year  and  a  half  after  the  Senator  had 
started  his  camp,  he  had  established  a  large  store,  which  was  called 
the  commissary.  All  of  us  free  labourers  were  compelled  to  buy  our 
supplies  —  food,  clothing,  etc. —  from  that  store.  We  never  used  any 
money  in  our  dealings  with  the  commissary,  only  tickets  or  orders, 
and  we  had  a  general  settlement  once  each  year,  in  October.  In 
this  store  we  were  charged  all  sorts  of  high  prices  for  goods,  be- 
cause every  year  we  would  come  out  in  debt  to  our  employer.  If 
not  that,  we  seldom  had  more  than  $5  or  $10  coming  to  us  —  and 
that  for  a  whole  year's  work.  Well,  at  the  close  of  the  tenth  year, 
when  we  kicked  and  meant  to  leave,  the  Senator,  he  said  to  some 
of  us  with  a  smile  (and  I  never  will  forget  that  smile  —  I  can  see 
it  now)  : 

'  Boys,  I'm  sorry  you're  going  to  leave  me.     I  hope  you  will  do 

367 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

well  in  your  new  places  —  so  well  that  you  will  be  able  to  pay  me 
the  little  balances  which  most  of  you  owe  me/ 

"  Word  was  sent  out  for  all  of  us  to  meet  him  at  the  commissary 
at  2  o'clock.  There  he  told  us  that,  after  we  had  signed  what  he 
called  a  written  acknowledgment  of  our  debts,  we  might  go  and  look 
for  new  places.  The  storekeeper  took  us  one  by  one  and  read  to  us 
statements  of  our  accounts.  According  to  the  books  there  was  no 
man  of  us  who  owed  the  Senator  less  than  $100;  some  of  us  were 
put  down  for  as  much  as  $200.  I  owed  $165,  according  to  the  book- 
keeper. These  debts  were  not  accumulated  during  one  year,  but 
ran  back  for  three  and  four  years,  so  we  were  told  —  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  we  understood  that  we  had  had  a  full  settlement  at  the 
end  of  each  year.  But  no  one  of  us  would  have  dared  to  dispute  a 
white  man's  word  —  oh,  no;  not  in  those  days.  Besides,  we  fel- 
lows didn't  care  anything  about  the  amounts  —  we  were  after  getting 
away;  and  we  had  been  told  that  we  might  go,  if  we  signed  the 
acknowledgments.  We  would  have  signed  anything,  just  to  get 
away.  .So  we  stepped  up,  we  did,  and  made  our  marks.  That  same 
night  we  were  rounded  up  by  a  constable  and  ten  or  twelve  white 
men,  who  aided  him,  and  we  were  locked  up,  every  one  of  us,  in  one 
of  the  Senator's  stockades.  The  next  morning  it  was  explained  to 
us  by  the  two  guards  appointed  to  watch  us  that,  in  the  papers  we 
had  signed  the  day  before,  we  had  not  only  made  acknowledgment 
of  our  indebtedness,  but  that  we  had  also  agreed  to  work  for  the 
.Senator  until  the  debts  were  paid  by  hard  labour.  And  from  that 
day  forward  we  were  treated  just  like  convicts.  Eeally  we  had  made 
ourselves  life-time  slaves,  or  peons,  as  the  laws  called  us.  But,  call 
it  slavery,  peonage,  or  what  not,  the  truth  is  we  lived  in  a  hell  on 
earth  what  time  we  spent  in  the  Senator's  peon  camp. 

"  I  lived  in  that  camp,  as  a  peon,  for  nearly  three  years.  My  wife 
fared  better  than  I  did,  as  did  the  wives  of  some  of  the  other 
negroes,  because  the  white  men  about  the  camp  used  these  unfortunate 
creatures  as  their  mistresses.  When  I  was  first  put  in  the  stockade  my 
wife  was  still  kept  for  a  while  in  the  "  Big  House,"  but  my  little 
boy,  who  was  only  nine  years  old,  was  given  away  to  a  negro  family 
across  the  river  in  South  Carolina,  and  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  him 
after  that.  When  I  left  the  camp  my  wife  had  had  two  children  for 
some  one  of  the  white  bosses,  and  she  was  .living  in  fairly  good 
shape  in  a  little  house  off  to  herself.  But  the  poor  negro  women 
who  were  not  in  the  class  with  my  wife  fared  about  as  bad  as  the 
helpless  negro  men.  Most  of  the  time  the  women  who  were  peons 
or  convicts  were  compelled  to  wear  men's  clothes.  Sometimes,  when 
I  have  seen  them  dressed  like  men,  and  plowing  or  hoeing  or  hauling 
logs  or  working  at  the  blacksmith's  trade,  just  the  same  as  men,  my 
heart  would  bleed  and  my  blood  would  boil,  but  I  was  powerless  to 
raise  a  hand.  It  would  have  meant  death  on  the  spot  to  have  said 
a  word.  Of  the  first  six  women  brought  to  the  camp,  two  of  them 
gave  birth  to  children  after  they  had  been  there  more  than  twelve 
months  —  and  the  babies  had  white  men  for  their  fathers ! 

"  The  stockades  in  which  we  slept  were,  I  believe,  the  filthiest 
places  in  the  world.  They  were  cesspools  of  nastiness.  During  the 

368 


PEONAGE 

thirteen  years  that  I  was  there  I  am  willing  to  swear  that  a  mattress 
was  never  moved  after  it  had  been  brought  there,  except  to  turn  it 
over  once  or  twice  a  month.  No  sheets  were  used,  only  dark-coloured 
blankets.  Most  of  the  men  slept  every  night  in  the  clothing  that 
they  had  worked  in  all  day.  Some  of  the  worst  characters  were 
made  to  sleep  in  chains.  The  doors  were  locked  and  barred  each 
night,  and  tallow  candles  were  the  only  lights  allowed.  Eeally  the 
stockades  were  but  little  more  than  cow-lots,  horse-stables  or  hog- 
pens. Strange  to  say,  not  a  great  number  of  these  people  died  while 
I  was  there,  tho'  a  great  many  came  away  maimed  and  bruised  and, 
in  some  cases,  disabled  for  life.  As  far  as  I  remember  only  about 
ten  died  during  the  last  ten  years  that  I  was  there,  two  of  these 
being  killed  outright  by  the  guards  for  trivial  offences/'  .  .  . 

"Barring  two  or  three  severe  and  brutal  whippings  which  I  re- 
ceived, I  got  along  very  well,  all  things  considered ;  but  the  system  is 
damnable.  A  favourite  way  of  whipping  a  man  was  to  strap  him 
clown  to  a  log,  flat  on  his  back,  and  spank  him  fifty  or  sixty  times 
on  his  bare  feet  with  a  shingle  or  a  huge  piece  of  plank.  When  the 
man  would  get  up  with  sore  and  blistered  feet  and  an  aching  body,  if 
he  could  not  then  keep  up  with  the  other  men  at  work,  he  would  be 
strapped  to  the  log  again,  this  time  face  downward,  and  would  be 
lashed  with  a  buggy-trace  on  his  bare  back.  When  a  woman  had 
to  be  whipped  it  was  usually  done  in  private." 

"  The  working  day  on  a  peon  farm  begins  with  sunrise  and  ends 
when  the  sun  goes  down;  or,  in  other  words,  the  average  peon  works 
from  ten  to  twelve  hours  each  day,  with  one  hour  (from  12  o'clock  to  1 
o'clock)  for  dinner.  Hot  or  cold,  sun  or  rain,  this  is  the  rule." 

"  To-day,  I  am  told,  there  are  six  or  seven  of  these  private  camps 
in  Georgia  —  that  is  to  say,  camps  where  most  of  the  convicts  are 
leased  from  the  State  of  Georgia.  But  there  are  hundreds  and  hun- 
dreds of  farms  all  over  the  State  where  negroes,  and  in  some  cases 
poor  white  folks,  are  held  in  bondage  on  the  ground  that  they  are 
working  out  debts,  or  where  the  contracts  which  they  have  made  hold 
them  in  a  kind  of  perpetual  bondage,  because,  under  those  contracts, 
they  may  not  quit  one  employer  and  hire  out  to  another,  except  by 
,  and  with  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  former  employer.  One  of 
the  usual  ways  to  secure  labourers  for  a  large  peonage  camp  is  for 
the  proprietor  to  send  out  an  agent  to  the  little  courts  in  the  towns 
and  villages,  and  where  a  man,  charged  with  some  petty  offence, 
has  no  friends  or  money,  the  agent  will  urge  him  to  plead  guilty, 
with  the  understanding  that  the  agent  will  pay  his  fine,  and  in  that 
way  save  him  from  the  disgrace  of  being  sent  to  jail  or  the  chain- 
gang!  For  this  high  favour  the  man  must  sign  beforehand  a  paper 
signifying  his  willingness  to  go  to  the  farm  and  work  out  the  amount 
of  the  fine  imposed.  When  he  reaches  the  farm  he  has  to  be  fed 
and  clothed,  to  be  sure,  and  these  things  are  charged  up  to  his  ac- 
count. By  the  time  he  has  worked  out  his  first  debt  another  .is 
hanging  over  his  head,  and  so  on  and  so  on,  by  a  sort  of  endless  chain, 
for  an  indefinite  period,  as  in  every  case  the  indebtedness  is  arbi- 
trarily .  arranged  by  the  employer,  in  manj  cases  it  is  very  evident 
24  369 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

'that  the  court  officials  are  in  collusion  with  the  proprietors  or  agents, 
and  that  they  divide  the  '  graft '  among  themselves.  As  an  example 
of  this  dickering  among  the  whites,  every  year  many  convicts  were 
brought  to  the  .Senator's  camp  from  a  certain  county  in  South 
Georgia,  'way  down  in  the  turpentine  district.  The  majority  of  these 
men  were  charged  with  adultery,  which  is  an  offence  against  the  laws 
of  the  great  and  sovereign  State  of  Georgia !  Upon  inquiry  I  learned 
that  down  in  that  county  a  number  of  negro  lewd  women  were  em- 
ployed by  certain  white  men  to  entice  negro  men  into  their  houses; 
and  then,  on  certain  nights,  at  a  given  signal,  when  all  was  in  readi- 
ness, raids  would  be  made  by  the  officers  upon  these  houses,  and  the 
men  would  be  arrested  and  charged  with  living  in  adultery.  Nine 
out  of  ten  of  these  men,  so  arrested  and  so  charged,  would  find  their 
way  ultimately  to  some  convict  camp,  and,  as  I  said,  many  of  them 
found  their  way  every  year  to  the  Senator's  camp  while  I  was  there. 
The  low-down  women  were  never  punished  in  any  way.  On  the 
contrary,  I  was  told  that  they  always  seemed  to  stand  in  high  favor 
with  the  sheriffs,  constables  and  other  officers.  There  can  be  no 
room  to  doubt  that  they  assisted  very  materially  in  furnishing  labour- 
ers for  the  prison-pens  of  Georgia,  and  the  belief  was  general  among 
the  men  that  they  were  regularly  paid  for  their  work.  I  could  tell 
more,  but  I've  said  enough  to  make  anybody's  heart  sick.  I  am  glad 
that  the  Federal  authorities  are  taking  a  hand  in  breaking  up  this 
great  and  terrible  iniquity.  It  is,  I  know,  widespread  throughout 
Georgia  and  many  other  Southern  States.  Since  Judge  Speer  fired 
into  the  gang  last  November  at  Savannah,  I  notice  that  arrests  have 
been  made  of  seven  men  in  three  different  sections  of  the  State  —  all 
charged  with  holding  men  in  peonage.  Somewhere,  somehow,  a  be- 
ginning of  the  end  should  be  made. 

"  But  I  didn't  tell  you  how  I  got  out.  I  didn't  get  out  —  they  put 
me  out.  When  I  had  served  as  a  peon  for  nearly  three  years  —  and 
you  remember  that  they  claimed  that  I  owed  them  only  $165  —  when 
I  had  served  for  nearly  three  years,  one  of  the  bosses  came  to  me 
and  said  that  my  time  was  up.  He  happened  to  be  the  one  who  was 
said  to  be  living  with  my  wife.  He  gave  me  a  new  suit  of  overalls, 
which  cost  about  seventy-five  cents,  took  me  in  a  buggy  and  carried 
me  across  the  Broad  Eiver  into  South  Carolina,  set  me  down  and 
told  me  to  'git.'  I  didn't  have  a  cent  of  money,  and  I  wasn't 
feeling  well,  but  somehow  I  managed  to  get  a  move  on  me.  I  begged 
my  way  to  Columbia.  In  two  or  three  days  I  ran  across  a  man 
looking  for  labourers  to  carry  to  Birmingham,  and  I  joined  his  gang. 
I  have  been  here  in  the  Birmingham  district  since  they  released  me, 
and  I  reckon  I'll  die  either  in  a  coal  mine  or  an  iron  furnace.  It 
don't  make  much  difference  which.  Either  is  better  than  a  Georgia 
peon  camp.  And  a  Georgia  peon  camp  is  hell  itself ! " 

In  its  issue  of  June  27th,  1903,  after  commenting  upon  a  Wilming- 
ton, Delaware,  lynching  and  burning  at  the  stake  which  occurred 
on  the  22nd  of ,  June,  "  The  Public "  prints  the  following:  "  To  lend 
a  new  aspect  to  this  race  war,  news  is  beginning  to  come  up  out  of 
the  rural  districts  of  Alabama  and  Georgia  of  a  system  of  negro 
peonage,  not  far  removed  from  slavery,  which  it  appears  has  long  pre- 
370 


PEONAGE 

vailed  in  those  remote  regions.  Two  prosecutions  for  this  form  of 
crime  have  come  before  the  Federal  courts,  one  in  Alabama  and  the 
other  in  Georgia.  In  the  Alabama  case,  J.  W.  Pace,  a  leading  planter 
of  Talapoosa  county,  pleaded  guilty  in  the  United  States  court  at 
Montgomery,  on  the  24th,  to  eleven  indictments  returned  against 
him  by  the  Federal  grand  jury.  His  attorneys  filed  demurrers  in 
each  case,  which  the  court  overruled.  He  then  entered  pleas  of 
guilty  and  appealed  to  the  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  at  New  Orleans. 
On  his  plea  of  guilty  the  court  sentenced  him  to  five  years'  imprison- 
ment in  each  case,  to  be  served  concurrently.  'Pending  appeal  he  is 
under  $5,000  bail.  In  the  Georgia  case,  three  young  farmers  —  Slay, 
Clarkson  and  Turner  —  were  convicted  in  the  Federal  court  at  Macon, 
also  on  the  24th,  of  having  seised'  a  negro  debtor  of  theirs,  and,  by 
whipping,  forced  him  to  work  for  them.  They  were  sentenced  to  fines 
of  $1,000,  and  required  to  pay  $100,  the  remainder  of  the  sentence  be- 
ing suspended,  pending  their  good  behaviour." 

On  the  17th  of  July,  1903,  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  the  Federal 
grand  jury  returned  99  indictments  against  18  persons  for  enslaving 
negroes  under  the  peonage  system.  Commenting  upon  this  subject, 
a  Chicago  weekly  prints  the  following  news  note :  "  The  first  sen- 
tence for  negro  peonage  to  be  actually  executed  was  begun  at  At- 
lanta, on  the  2d.  The  convicts  are  George  D.  Cosby  and  Barancas 
Cosby,  two  white  men  who  had  pleaded  guilty  before  the  Federal 
court  at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  of  holding  negroes  in  involuntary  servi- 
tude. The  case  against  these  men,  as  stated  by  the  United  States  at- 
torney, bears  out  the  rumours  and  newspaper  reports  of  peonage  that 
have  for  some  weeks  been  coming  to  public  attention.  According,  to 
the  United  States  attorney,  the  prosecution  was  prepared  to  prove,  in 
the  case  of  George  D.  Cosby,  that  he  held  Lum  Johnson,  a  negro, 
in  a  condition  of  peonage ;  that  there  was  a  conspiracy  between  J.  W. 
Pace  and  the  Cosbys  and  the  justice  of  the  peace;  that  several  other 
negroes  —  Eina  Scott,  Ella  Johnson  and  Ann  Scott  —  were  also  ar- 
rested on  frivolous  charges  and  carried  before  Justice  Kennedy,  who 
did  not  fine  them,  but  made  them  think  he  had  fined  them,  and  that 
the  Cosbys  and  Pace  had  paid  their  fines.  They  were  thus  induced 
to  sign  contracts  to  work,  and  they  were  worked  under  guard,  locked 
up  at  night,  and  beaten  unmercifully  at  times." 

In  a  later  issue  of  the  same  paper  we  find  the  following :  "  Al- 
though a  white  man  has  been  imprisoned  for  negro  peonage  in  Ala- 
bama, this  was  upon  his  plea  of  guilty.  The  first  trial  in  these 
peonage  cases  has  resulted  in  a  disagreement  of  the  jury.  The  de- 
fendant in  the  case  was  Fletcher  Turner.  He  was  tried  in  the  Fed- 
eral court  at  Montgomery,  Ala.  The  case  for  the  prosecution  was 
closed  on  the  8th.  Its  character  may  be  inferred  from  some  of  the 
testimony  as  reported  by  the  Associated  Press.  A  former  police 
officer  named  Dunbar  testified  that  he  had  sold  three  negroes  to 
Turner  for  $40,  they  having  been  fined  $33  for  some  petty  offence, 
and  that  he  had  thus  made  $7  by  the  transaction.  In  the  conclud- 
ing testimony  for  the  State,  the  maltreatment  of  one  of  these  negroes 
was  brought  out,  and  it  was  further  shown  that  this  negro's  father 
had  finally  sent  a  man  to  Turner  with  about  $48  to  buy  his  son's 

371 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

liberty,  which  he  did.  When  he  arrived  at  Turner's  farm,  he  found 
the  peon  in  a  sawmill,  stark  naked,  and  it  was  explained  that  he 
was  worked  this  way  to  prevent  his  escape.  The  case  went  to  the 
jury  on  the  10th,  when  the  judge,  Thomas  G.  Jones,  delivered  an 
extraordinary  charge.  He  is  reported  to  have  denounced  the  at- 
torneys for  the  defence  for  trying  to  play  upon  the  feelings  of  the 
jury  and  to  have  said  that  if  the  negroes  were  arrested  for  nothing 
and  sold  as  alleged,  then  it  was  '  a  damnable  thing.'  The  jury  soon 
reported  a  disagreement,  and  Judge  Jones  ordered  them  back  to  their 
consultation  room  with  this  admonition: 

'  Under  an  earnest  and  solemn  sense  of  duty  as  to  the  verdict  you 
ought  to  render  in  this  case,  to  appeal  to  your  manhood,  your  sense 
of  justice,  and  your  oaths  not  to  declare  that  a  jury  in  the  capital 
of  Alabama  would  not  enforce  the  law  of  the  United  States  because 
it  happened  that  a  negro  was  the  victim  of  the  violated  law  and  the 
defendant  is  a  white  man,  or  because  it  may  be  a  disagreeable  or  pain- 
ful duty  to  you.  If  you  do  such  a  thing  you  are  perjured  before  God 
and  man.' 

"  But  the  jury  were  still  unable  to  agree,  and  on  the  13th  they  were 
discharged.  They  are  reported  to  have  stood  6  to  6." 

Writing  upon  the  negro  question  Mr.  Louis  F.  Post,  the  Chicago 
publicist,  says,  in  part :  "  We  shall  never  be  rid  of  the  negro  ques- 
tion in  our  politics  so  long  as  a  'white  man's  government'  class  in- 
sists upon  restoring  negro  slavery.  We  do  not  mean,  of  course,  that 
any  class  insists  upon  restoring  slavery  in  its  old  form.  That  form 
is  dead.  But  the  thing  survives.  Our  allusion  is  to  such  devices  as 
the  'black  codes'  which  followed  emancipation,  to  the  systems  of 
negro  peonage  which  have  come  in  vogue  through  distortions  of  the 
criminal  law,  to  the  barbarous  chain-gang  practices  of  Georgia  just 
revealed  by  the  democratic  decision  of  a  Federal  judge,  to  the  evasive 
disfranchisement  laws  which  make  this  peonage  and  barbarism  pos- 
sible, to  the  rabid  race  hatred  and  contempt  which  deny  equality  of 
legal  rights  to  negroes  and  regard  them  as  out  of  their  'proper 
place '  when  they  are  out  of  menial  servitude.  The  negro  question 
is  in  the  last  analysis  nothing  but  a  phase  of  the  labour  question  set 
in  ebony." 

We  extract  the  following  from  an  article  on  peonage  in  the  "  Out- 
look "  of  July  18,  1903.  Referring  to  the  case  of  a  negro  woman,  the 
article  says :  "  She  was  charged  with  living  in  adultery  and  with 
bigamy,  arrested,  and  put  in  jail. 

"  After  three  weeks'  incarceration  it  was  discovered  that  she  had 
been  legally  married  and  she  was  released.  In  the  meantime  she  had 
employed  a  lawyer  to  defend  her,  and  to  pay  the  lawyer's  fee,  the  Mc- 
Rees  carried  her  to  their  camps  to  work  put  the  amount,  which  they 
considered  to  be  worth  fourteen  months'  servitude.  She  was  there 
nine  months  and  during  that  time  was  locked  up  nights  until  the  last 
two  weeks,  and  whipped  twice  with  a  leather  strap  as  wide  as  your 
four  fingers." 

Lest  it  should  be  thought  that  peonage  is  an  abuse  practised  only 
against  negroes,  we  hasten  to  inform  the  Reader  that  such  is  far  from 
the  case.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  recent  press  reports  will  not 

372 


PEONAGE 

need  to  be  told  that  white  slavery  flourishes  in  many  of  our  large 
cities. 

As  we  write,  the  subject  is  undergoing  earnest  public  discussion 
in  New  York  City.  Concerning  this  enslavement  of  whites,  "  The 
Public"  printed  the  following  editorial  in  its  issue  of  Sept.  12th, 
1903: 

"  A  case  of  white  peonage  has  now  come  to  light  in  Alabama  to 
supplement  the  practice  of  black  peonage  which  has  prevailed  in 
that  and  neighbouring  .States.  From  black  to  white  is  an  easy  transi- 
tion. Poor  whites,  North  as  well  as  South,  who  join  in  the  hue  and 
cry  against  the  negro  race,  little  suspect  the  tendency  of  what  they 
do.  Let  the  negro  be  deprived  of  natural  rights  on  account  of  his 
black  skin,  and  poor  whites  will  soon  be  driven  into  the  same  pro- 
cession on  account  of  their  empty  pockets.  In  illustration  of  this 
tendency  we  are  confronted  not  only  with  the  white  peonage  case  in 
Alabama,  but  with  several  similar  cases  in  Michigan.  These  have 
been  discovered  at  Kalamazoo,  where  the  proprietor  of  a  shoe-blacking 
stand  has  been  detected  in  buying  a  Greek  boy.  It  appears  that  this 
is  only  one  instance.  Boys  are  said  to  be  picked  up  every  year  in 
Greek  cities  and  sold  into  slavery  in  the  United  States." 

Apropos  of  this  subject,  we  extract  the  following  from  "  The 
Menace  of  Privilege " :  "  Eev.  Dr.  Behrends,  describing  the  block 
bounded  by  Canal,  Hester,  Eldridge,  and  Forsyth  streets  (lower  East 
Side),  says:  '  In  a  room  12  by  8  and  5y2  feet  high,  it  was  found 
that  nine  persons  slept  and  prepared  their  food;  ...  in  an- 
other room,  located  in  a  dark  cellar,  without  screens  or  partitions, 
were  together  two  men  with  their  wives  and  a  girl  of  fourteen,  two  sin- 
gle men  and  a  boy  of  seventeen,  two  women  and  four  boys  —  nine,  ten, 
eleven  and  fifteen  years  old  —  fourteen  persons  in  all/ 

"  Can  virtue  withstand  the  temptations  and  weaknesses  of  such  con- 
ditions? Would  it  be  anything  short  of  a  miracle  if  'red-light' 
dives  and  less  miserable  brothels  did  not  flourish  in  such  surround- 
ings? What  Miss  Frances  A.  Kellor  has  to  say  in  an  account  of  her 
investigations  in  employment  agencies  brings  a  flood  of  testimony. 
When  in  a  certain  instance  it  was  hinted  that  the  supposed  situa- 
tion was  not  in  every  way  desirable  for  a  young  girl,  the  woman 
proprietor  shrugged  her  shoulders  and  said :  *  I  don't  care  for  what 
purpose  you  want  her.  I  give  you  a  girl  for  a  waitress  —  you  do 
what  you  please  with  her  when  you  get  her  there.'  Says  Miss  Kellor : 
'  Only  too  often  did  we  find  old,  grey-haired  women  and  young  wives 
and  mothers  sending  into  such  places,  without  hesitation,  their  own 
countrywomen,  who,  but  for  them,  were  friendless  in  a  new  country, 
and  when  they  knew  they  would  come  back  physical  and  moral 
wrecks  and  utterly  unfitted  for  any  honest  work.  .  .  .  Figures 
can  -only  be  approximate,  but  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in 
New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Chicago,  about  seventy-five  per  cent, 
are  not  averse  to  sending  women  as  employes  to  questionable  places, 
and  from  forty  to  sixty  per  cent,  send  them  as  inmates,  obtaining 
their  consent  where  possible.' 

"When  it  comes  to  trying  to  live  by  making  children's  dresses  at 
the  rate  of  35  cents  a  dozen  or  children's  aprons  with  ruffles  and 

373 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

sashes  for  45  cents  a  dozen,  vice  holds  out  new  allurements.  Women 
are  compelled  to  enter  bread-winning  fields  hitherto  given  up  solely 
to  men.  And  positions  are  too  often  accepted  where,  if  the  regular 
pay  is  low,  it  is  understood  important  extras  may  be  earned  '  in  other 
ways/ 

"  The  public  of  New  York  has  recently  been  aghast  to  find  that  it 
had  in  its  '  red-light '  dens,  with  their  '  cadets '  or  procurers,  their 
thin  young  girls  and  their  brass  checks,  a  horrible  species  of  Oriental 
slavery.  Yet  it  is  a  slavery  not  arising  from  innate  depravity.  Nor 
is  it  imported.  It  is  made  by  social  conditions.  It  is  a  fruit  of  pov- 
erty, and  that  in  the  metropolis  of  our  country/' 

On  March  8th,  1906,  the  Boston  press  prints  an  account  of  the 
kidnapping  of  a  former  Boston  man  into  slavery  and  his  punish- 
ment for  attempting  to  escape.  The  gentleman  in  question  was 
Charles  S.  O'Brien,  who,  according  to  his  story  written  to  'a  friend, 
was  drugged  in  Miami,  Florida,  and  shanghaied  to  one  of  the  Florida 
Keys,  "where  he  was  marooned  and  forced  into  slavery,  then  sen- 
tenced to  endure  two  months  of  torture  in  a  chain-gang  for  attempting 
to  escape."  On  March  15th,  1906,  the  Boston  press  printed  the  story 
of  Alfred  Michaelson,  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  described  as  the  first  Boston 
man  to  return  from  "  white  slavery  "  on  Florida  Keys.  We  extract 
the  following  from  the  "  Boston  Post "  of  the  above  date.  "  Between 
40  and  50  Boston  men  are  now  white  slaves  on  one  of  the  Florida 
Keys,  Alligator  Reef  Island.  Every  man  says  he'll  go  to  his  Con- 
gressman as  soon  as  he  escapes.  The  place  is  hell,  and  the  men  can't 
escape  through  the  armed  guards."  .  .  . 

"  Broken  in  health  as  the  result  of  working  knee-deep  in  fever 
trenches  and  suffering  from  a  skin  trouble  resulting  from  innumerable 
sand-fly  bites,  Michaelson  told  his  story  of  white  slavery  only  by 
exerting  what  strength  was  left  to  him. 

'  Some  of  our  Boston  men  who  have  mysteriously  dropped  out  of 
sight  are  in  those  death-exhaling  trenches,'  he  said.  '  I  know  of  from 
40  to  50  strapping  Hub  fellows  who  are  down  there  unable  to  escape 
and  with  their  mail  cut  off/  '; 

The  next  day,  March  16th,  the  Boston  press,  under  the  caption  of 
" '  White  Slave '  Who  Escaped  Tells  Tale,"  printed  the  story  of  Den- 
nis F.  Shiels  of  South  Boston.  We  quote  the  following  from  the 
article :  "  Dennis  F.  Shiels,  of  398  K  street,  South  Boston,  the  first 
Boston  man  able  to  return  home  from  '  white  slavery '  endured  on 
the  Florida  Keys,  told  a  tragic  tale  of  suffering  in  fever  trenches  and 
described  the  method  used  in  a  certain  employment  office  on  William 
street,  New  York  city,  to  lure  men  into  involuntary  servitude.  He 
says  that  270  men  there  would,  if  armed,  murder  the  guards,  seise  a 
boat  and  escape." 

The  trial  of  Bertha  Claiche,  a  white  slave  of  New  York,  has  had 
the  effect  of  arousing  public  opinion  in  regard  to  this  nefarious 
traffic.  A  tithe  of  the  horrors  which  occur  will  never  be  unearthed, 
but  enough  is  already  known  to  show  beyond  a  peradventure  that  an 
actual  chattel  slavery  with  all  its  attendant  horrors  exists,  not  only 
in  the  South,  but,  to  some  extent,  in  all  our  northern  centres.  Its 
presence  is  but  part  and  parcel  of  the  breaking-down  of  social  moral- 

374 


PEONAGE 

ity  in  the  United  States.  Indeed,  to  such  a  condition  have  we  come 
that  we  have  already  passed  the  early  stages  of  flat  denial.  We  have 
now  gotten  to  the  point  where  bipeds  calling  themselves  men  are 
boldly  affirming  the  commercial  necessity  of  various  forms  of  slavery. 
In  connexion  with  this  subject  we  quote  the  following  from  that  care- 
ful and  conservative  periodical,  "  The  Outlook "  (issue  of  July  18, 
1903)  :  "But  if  it  were  true  that  cotton  cannot  be  raised  by  free 
labour,  it  would  not  alter  the  resolve  of  the  Nation.  If  we  cannot 
have  both  cotton  and  liberty,  we  will  have  liberty  and  get  along  with- 
out cotton.  The  argument  of  the  peonage  planter  is  the  argument  of 
the  sordid  money-getter  in  all  sections  and  at  all  times.  '  We  must 
close  our  mines  and  factories  if  we  cannot  employ  children/  is  the 
argument  for  child  labour.  '  We  cannot  get  an  adequate  return  for 
our  money  if  we  are  compelled  to  build  sanitary  houses/  is  the  argu- 
ment of  the  coffin-building  landlords.  '  We  cannot  compete  with  the 
shrewd  and  shifty  Jews,  therefore  their  massacre  is  an  economic 
necessity/  is  the  argument  of  Kishenev.  And  the  answer  is  always 
the  same :  manhood  is  worth  more  than  money." 

In  closing  this  subject  we  beg  to  submit  that  the  American  peon, 
whether  a  white  or  a  black  slave,  is  a  lasting  reproach  to  our  boasted 
civilisation,  and  goes  far  to  prove  that  we  are  slipping  away  from 
national  ideals  faster  than  any  other  nation  on  earth. 


375 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE    DARK    SIDE   OF   THE    LAW 


377 


The  Chief-justice  was  rich,  quiet,  and  infamous. 

Macaulay  —  On  "Warren  Hastings. 


Mastering  the  lawless  science  of  our  law, — 
That  codeless  myriad  of  precedent, 
That  wilderness  of  single  instances. 


The  more  corrupt  the  state,  the  more  laws. 


Aimer's  Field. 


Tacitus  —  Annales. 


A  corrupt  judge  does  not  carefully  search  for  the  truth. 

Horace  —  Satire. 


378 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE    DARK   SIDE   OF   THE   LAW 

T  is  not  so  very  long  ago  that  in  England  there  were 
held  to  be  but  three  thoroughly  high-toned  avoca- 
tions, the  church,  the  army  and  the  law. 

Within  the  memory  of'  the  present  generation  Mr. 
Gladstone  cut  this  number  down  to  two,  declaring 
that  there  were  but  two  thoroughly  respectable  call- 
ings open  to  a  young  man,  the  army  and  the  church. 

If  a  young  man  of  "good  family"  coveted  a  more  productive 
occupation,  his  aspirations  were  usually  frowned  upon.  We  in  Amer- 
ica have  been  more  or  less  tinged  with  this  same  barbaric  heritage, 
and  it  is  regrettable  that  to-day  we  exhibit  so  marked  a  tendency  to 
look  with  ever  increasing  favour  upon  the  military,  that  unless  things 
change,  we  will  not  long  be  behind  England  in  the  matter  of  admira- 
tion for  brass  buttons  and  gold  braid.  It  is  a  singular  comment  upon 
human  nature  that,  in  singling  out  three  callings  for  a  special  social 
laudation,  it  should  choose  the  three  named,  all  of  them  to  a  great 
degree,  and  often  totally,  unproductive,  or  worse.  The  soldier,  as 
such,  never  produces.  His  mission  is  to  destroy.  The  lawyer,  as 
such,  rarely  increases  production,  but  often  is  second  only  in  de- 
structiveness  to  the  soldier.  The  clergyman  may  be  a  factor  in  pro- 
duction, but  often,  it  must  be  confessed,  he  is  little  more  than  an  un- 
productive consumer.  At  its  best  the  ministerial  function  would,  of 
course,  have  a  high  social  value,  but  it  is  only  of  late  years,  it  seems 
'to  us,  that  the  clergy  have  begun  to  be  an  active  factor  for  good  in 
social  matters,  and  even  now  there  is  a  long  list  of  clericals  who  are 
a  most  virulent  and  active  menace  to  American  progress.  We 
prophesy  that  the  time  will  yet  come  when  the  professions  or  avoca- 
tions, which  have  dowered  the  human  race  with  pretty  much  all  the 
benefits  it  has  ever  received  will  be  those  which  are  held  in  highest 
esteem. 

In  considering  the  subject  of  this  chapter,  we  shall  do  well  to 
begin  by  tracing  briefly  the  genesis  of  the  lawyer.  The  law  has  been 
defined  as  "common  sense  made  mandatory/'  and  Burke  termed  it 
"  beneficence  acting  by  rule."  All  this,  however,  was  long  ago.  No 
well-informed  man  to-day  regards  the  law  of  our  land  either  as 
"  common  sense "  or  "  beneficence."  Any  man  who  has  acquired  a 
nine-days'  sight  knows  perfectly  well  that  the  laws  are  made  by,  and 
for  the  protection  of,  the  propertied  class.  More  than  this,  they  are 
executed  with  studied  discrimination  for  the  purpose  of  favouring  the 
aforesaid  class.  Even  as  we  write,  an  act  before  the  legislature  is 
being  defeated  by  corporate  interests,  simply  because  it  provides  that 

379 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

its  violation  shall  be  punished  by  imprisonment,  instead  of  the  time- 
honoured  alternative,  fine  or  imprisonment.  In  a  preceding  chapter 
we  have  alluded  to  the  same  thing  in  the  national  legislature.  They  of 
the  propertied  class,  in  whose  interest  legislation  is  made,  are  willing 
to  take  their  chances  in  preventing  their  indictment,  if  their  wrong- 
doing be  discovered,  and,  in  the  event  of  their  being  indicted,  of 
manipulating  the  law  so  as  to  escape  conviction,  provided  that,  should 
an  unforeseen  combination  of  circumstances  really  convict  them,  they 
should  not  be  sent  to  the  prison  intended  solely  for  the  poor  man. 

That  the  ethics  of  lawyers  is  singularly  unreliable  is  proverbial. 
The  Danish  proverb,  "*  Virtue  in  the  middle'  said  the  devil  when 
seated  between  two  lawyers,"  is  typical  of  a  semi-humourous  character- 
isation of  the  legal  profession.  The  French  are  even  less  compli- 
mentary when  they  say,  "  Until  hell  is  full  no  lawyer  will  be  saved." 

The  German  proverb  reads,  "  When  the  lawyer  acts  according  to  his 
conscience,  the  blind  man  will  believe  what  his  eyes  see." 

The  Italians  put  the  matter  thus,  "  Of  three  things  the  devil  makes 
a  salad,  lawyers'  tongues,  notaries'  fingers,  and  the  third  shall  be 
nameless,"  while  the  Dutch  say,  "  The  better  lawyer,  the  worse  Chris- 
tian." These  views  are  not  confined  to  any  one  age  or  to  any  one 
nation,  and  they  are  so  general  that  they  must  represent  a  large  de- 
gree of  fact.  We  find  Goldsmith  saying,  "  Laws  grind  the  poor  and 
rich  men  rule  the  law,"  while  Pope  has  the  couplet, 

"  The  hungry  judges  soon  the  sentence  sign, 
And  wretches  hang  that  jurymen  may  dine." 

When  Peter  the  Great  was  in  London  he  pointed  to  some  English 
barristers  wearing  their  wigs  and  gowns  and  asked,  "  Who  are  those 
men  ?  "  "  Lawyers,"  was  the  reply.  "  Lawyers !  "  ejaculated  Peter. 
"  What  is  the  use  of  so  many  ?  I  have  only  two  in  my  whole  em- 
pire, and  I  mean  to  hang  one  of  them  as  soon  as  I  return." 

There  are,  of  course,  many  fine  men  in  the  legal  profession,  but 
they  are  not  able  numerically  to  raise  the  general  average  of  legal 
goodness  much  above  the  slough  of  corruption.  The  fact  of  the 
matter  is,  that  the  study  of  law  and  its  practice  is  doubly  corruptive. 
First,  because  it  deals  with  relations,  which  are  man-made  and  arti- 
ficial and  the  constant  consideration  of  which  tends  to  unmoor  the 
character,  injure  the  sense  of  proportion,  and  replace  absolute 
ethics  with  expediency.  Second,  because  the  mind  of  the  lawyer 
searches  not  so  much  for  the  truth  as  for  what  can  be  made  to  appear 
truth.  He  has  ever  a  brief  to  prove,  and  it  is  his  constant  tendency 
knowingly  and  intentionally  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  all  evi- 
dence making  toward  his  side  of  the  issue,  while  he  denies,  conceals, 
refuses  to  recognise,  or  minimises  every  fact  tending  to  disprove  his 
thesis.  That  legal  usage  justifies  and  applauds  this  sort  of  thing,  is 
nothing  to  us.  It  is  fundamentally  wrong  and  its  influence  most 
corruptive,  nevertheless.  Of  all  men  in  the  world  there  are  none 
who  so  love  truth  as  those  who  give  their  lives  to  the  cause  of  physical 
science.  The  reason  for  this  is  not  far  to  seek.  Their  case  never 
closes,  and  their  findings  are  always  subject  to  appeal.  If  their  wish 

380 


THE    DARK    SIDE   OF   THE    LAW 

played  father  to  the  thought  to-day,  so  that  they  fitted  facts  to  their 
theories  instead  of  theories  to  the  facts,  to-morrow  would  expose  the 
deception  and  subject  them  to  ridicule.  Suppose  now  that  the  sci- 
entist should  evolve  a  theory  and  then,  in  his  determination  to  secure 
its  acceptance,  should  falsify  his  experiments,  misinterpret  his  ob- 
servations, write  large  all  the  facts  tending  to  prove  his  postulate  and 
suppress  and  distort  those  which  would  immediately  expose  its  falsity, 
and  suppose  .he  should  do  this  knowingly  and  habitually  year  after 
year, —  in  short,  suppose  this  were  considered  the  proper  thing  for  a 
scientist  to  do,  what  think  you  would  be  the  effect  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  scientist,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  public's  confidence  in 
his  alleged  findings,  on  the  other?  Would  it  not  be  about  that  of 
the  average  lawyer  as  estimated  by  the  average  layman?  Would 
any  sane  man  consider  the  assertion  of  a  Choate  in  regard  to  a  case 
which  he  was  trying  as  worthy  the  same  amount  of  credence  which 
would  be  given  to  a  statement  of  fact  made  by  a  Charles  Darwin? 
Most  assuredly  not. 

In  a  very  able  article  entitled  "  The  Reign  of  Law,"  by  Julian 
Hawthorne,  published  in  "  Wilshire's  Mazagine,"  December,  1905, 
we  find  the  following :  "  There  is  another  class  of  law-breakers,  much 
in  evidence  of  late,  and  more  menacing  to  the  integrity  of  our  law  than 
are  the  technically  criminal  classes;  and  that  is,  the  lawyers.  These 
men  are  outlaws  scientifically  and  by  profession,  and  instead  of  risk- 
ing penalties  they  are  paid  for  tKeir  work.  They  make  it  the  study 
of  their  lives  to  find  holes  in  our  statutes  through  which  their  crimi- 
nal clients  can  escape.  Lawyers  who  prosecute  criminals  have  a 
meagre  time  of  it  —  there  is  no  money  or  reputation  to  be  got  from 
that  branch  of  the  business.  The  ' great'  lawyers  are  the  ones  who 
defend  crime  and  perplex  or  delay  justice.  No  one  pays  much  to 
have  the  law  carried  out  —  it  ought  to  carry  itself  out.  But  people 
will  gladly  pay  fortunes  to  have  the  law  outraged,  and  the  profes- 
sionals who  outrage  it  are  caressed  and  flattered  and  regarded  as 
the  lights  of  the  bar.  Here,  then,  we  have  the  singular  spectacle  of 
sons  prostituting  their  mother,  and  making  money  and  winning  glory 
out  of  her  shame.  Ancl  the  fact  that  they  do  win  glory  explains  how 
they  are  able  to  make  money.  It  is  that  they  have  the  sympathy  and 
support  of  the  public.  They  would  not  dare  to  do  their  work  in 
the  teeth  of  public  anger  and  detestation.  They  would  not  be  hired 
to  do  the  work,  because  their  clients  would  be  intimidated  before- 
hand by  the  popular  menace.  But,  because  we  approve  of  such  pro- 
ceedings, they  exist." 

Referring  to  the  higher  exponents  of  the  law,  Mr.  Hawthorne  points 
out  the  grave  menace  which  Jefferson  so  clearly  foresaw  more  than 
a  century  ago,  a  menace  which  the  great  author  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  pointed  out  again  and  again.  Mr.  Hawthorne  says: 
l:  Another  deadly  foe  to  the  law  is  the  Bench,  from  the  august 
thrones  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  down  to  the 
cane-bottomed  chair  of  the  municipal  police  justice  or  country  judge. 
Judges  are  sometimes  corrupt,  and  they  are  often  narrow,  prejudiced, 
bigoted,  partial,  ignorant,  swayed  by  politics,  intemperate,  cowardly, 
or  indifferent  But  all  that  does  comparatively  little  harm;  judges 

381 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

have  always  been  like  that,  and  the  judge  who  is  not  purified  and 
greatened  by  his  office  is  quite  certain  to  be  morally  worsened  by  it. 
The  real  mischief  of  the  Bench  begins  when  it  is  upright  and  in- 
telligent. This  is  no  cheap  paradox  —  the  upright  judge  is  a  despot, 
from  whom  there  is  no  appeal. 

"  The  .Supreme  Bench  of  this  country  is  the  most  dangerous  of 
menaces  to  human  liberty  and  social  development.  For  there  is 
nothing  beyond  it ;  it  is  the  last  resort  of  suitors  —  its  decision  is 
binding  and  final.  And  yet  it  is  human,  finite,  fallible,  and  even 
susceptible  to  political  bias.  We  have  the  extraordinary  spectacle 
of  a  nation  calling  itself  democratic,  being  ruled  or  limited  by  an 
oligarchy,  in  which  is  vested  the  interpretation  of  the  law.  Seven 
or  eight  frail  human'  beings,  like  you  or  me,  are  given  the  power,  un- 
der certain  easily  qonceived  conditions,  of  absolutely  controlling  the 
destiny  of .  the  Bepublic.  There  can  be  no  redress,  except  through 
impeachment ;  but  impeachment  can  be  enforced  only  when  the  judges 
can  be  proved  to  have  violated  the  law.  But  suppose  the  law  is  not 
violated  by  them  —  that  law  itself  was  made  by  another  set  of  frail 
human  beings,  namely,  by  Congress. —  Who  is  to  control  Congress  and 
the  Supreme  Bench  in  alliance  ?  Nothing,  except  revolution. 

"  But  it  will  be  answered,  obviously,  e  Why  should  they  be  con- 
trolled? If  we  are  to  have  any  law  at  all,  is  it  not  as  safe  in  their 
hands  as  it  could  be  in  anybody's  ?  We  are  limited  by  natural  law  just 
as  much  as  by  human,  and  we  do  not  complain.  What  is  the  differ- 
ence ? ' 

"  WTell,  it  is  thus  that  we  arrive  at  the  vitals  of  my  subject. 

"Human  law  is  not  Divine  law,  not  natural  law;  it  is  —  or  it  is 
based  upon  —  the  moral  law;  and  our  moral  law,  however  just  and 
logical  it  may  seem  to  us  to  be,  is  inevitably  concerned,  not  with 
what  we  inwardly  are,  but  with  what  we  outwardly  appear  to  be,  or 
with  what  we  do.  From  the  standpoint  of  moral  law,  then,  a  well- 
behaved  devil  is  a  better  citizen  than  a  contumacious  angel.  There- 
fore, the  moral  law  provokes  hidden  evils  in  the  community.  They 
are  hidden,  because  they  fear  the  penalties  o,f  overt  defiance;  and 
the  reason  they  fear  the  penalties  is,  that  the  penalties  are  physically 
enforced.  The  moral  law  is,  in  other  words,  a  law  of  force  in  the 
last  resort ;  and  such  a  law  does  not  make  men  good ;  it  does  nothing 
to  reform  human  nature;  it  simply  induces  good  manners,  so  to  ren- 
der human  association  possible.  For  love  it  substitutes  fear,  instead 
of  brethren  it  creates  hypocrites,  and  in  place  of  a  heaven  on  earth  it 
supplies  us  with  a  white-washed  hell." 

It  is  the  business  of  the  lawyer  to  sell  his  advocacy,  and,  if  suc- 
cessful in  his  profession,  he  does  this  so  frequently  that  he  is  more 
than  apt  to  come  ultimately  to  think  that  advocacy  exists  for  no 
other  purpose  than  to  be  sold.  That  honest  lawyers  exist  —  men 
whose  clear  vision  for  justice  and  truth  is  never  blurred  by  personal 
motives,  is  a  most  eloquent  tribute  to  the  incorruptible  grandeur  of 
certain  rare  members  of  the  human  race,  for  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  psychology  of  the  legal  profession  is  more  corruptive  than  that 
of  any  other  so-called  legitimate  vocation.  Consider  for :  a  moment 
the  governmental  corruption  which  is  being  laid  bare  on  every  hand 

382 


THE    DARK    SIDE   OF   THE    LAW 

in  a  way  that  fairly  breaks  the  teeth  out  of  our  strenuous  President's 
muck  rake,  and  then  ask  yourself  what  is  the  lawyer's  part  in  all 
this  infamy. 

Of  the  ninety  Senators  in  the  3rd  Session  of  the  58th  Congress 
on  March  4th,  1905,  we  have  been  able  to  ascertain  the  professions 
of  eighty-six,  the  other  four  having  since  died.  Of  these  eighty-six, 
fifty-three  are  or  have  been  practising  lawyers,  and  several  others 
were  educated  to  the  law  but  have  not  practised.  It  will  be  seen, 
therefore,  that  the  august  body  of  men,  which  supplies  the  material  for 
Mr.  David  Graham  Phillips'  "  The  Treason  of  the  Senate,"  is  more 
than  sixty  per  cent,  composed  of  lawyers.  The  overwhelming  legal 
presentation  is  of  course  out  of  all  just  proportion.  In  connexion 
with  this  subject,  we  quote  the  following  from  a  well  known  Boston 
lawyer,  Prof.  Frank  Parsons;  it  will  be  found  on  pages  692-3  of  his 
"  The  Story  of  New  Zealand :  "  "  The  lawyers  and  their  families  con- 
stitute less  than  half  of  one  per  cent.  (.4  of  1%)  of  our  people,  yet 
they  have  60%  of  the  representatives.  It  is  true  that  lawyers  are 
experts  on  the  law,  or  ought  to  be,  and  we  need  the  advice  of  a  few 
good  counsellors  in  our  legislative  bodies,  but  the  wisdom  of  filling 
our  halls  of  legislation  with  lawyers  is  very  questionable.  Most  of 
them  who  get  to  Congress  are  attorneys  for  giant  corporate  interests 
more  or  less  opposed  to  the  public  interest,  and  about  all  of  them  are 
subject  to  the  psychology  of  their  profession,  which  means  that  their 
advocacy  is  for  sale  —  that  is  a  lawyer's  training  and  profession,  to 
sell  his  abilities  as  an  advocate.  Big  corporations,  trusts  and  com- 
bines employ  lawyer  representatives  to  plead  their  cases  in  court  and 
represent  their  interests  in  other  ways.  The  attorney  gets  full  of  his 
client's  ideas  and  interests,  and  sees  things  from  his  standpoint,  so 
that  even  without  any  direct  bribery  or  conscious  immorality,  the  cor- 
porations usually  have  no  difficulty  in  controlling  a  legislative  body 
composed  of  lawyers.  Yet  our  farmers  and  voters  in  general  con- 
tinue to  send  a  class  of  men  whose  profession  it  is  to  sell  their 
advocacy,  to  the  very  place  where  the  corporations  most  want  to 
buy  advocacy,  instead  of  sending  men  whose  psychology  and  training 
would  lead  them  to  advocate  what  they  believe  to  be  right  and  noth- 
ing else." 

In  his  contrasts  between  the  United  States  and  New  Zealand  the 
same  author  says :  "  The  United  States  is  in  form  a  republic,  but  in 
fact,  at  least  so  far  as  the  National  Government  is  concerned,  it 
is  largely  a  Government  by  wealth, —  a  plutocracy  —  an  aristocracy 
of  industrial  power.  New  Zealand  is  in  form  an  imperial  province, 
but  in  fact  it  is  substantially  a  republic.  The  will  of  the  great  body 
of  the  common  people  is  in  actual  control  of  the  Government.- 

"  Years  ago  the  larger  part  of  the  United  States  was  really  a  re- 
public, but  the  power  of  the  people  has  gone  down  as  the  power  of 
wealth  has  risen,  till  now  the  Government  often  represents,  the  cor- 
porations and  party  machines  more  fully  than  it  represents  the  public. 
The  trusts  and  monopolies  have  more  influence  in  our  legislative  bodies 
than  the  people."  .  .  . 

"  The  movement  of  the  last  decade  has  been  toward  plutocracy  in 
the  United  States,  and  away  from  it  in  New  Zealand, 

383 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

"Our  people  have  an  easy-going  confidence  in  the  future  of  the 
Republic  because  of  its  wonderful  history.  We  boast  of  our  freedom, 
while  a  new  tyranny  is  silently  but  rapidly  growing  round  us.  New 
Zealand  has  awakened  from  the  dream  of  confidence,  and  knows  that 
political  liberty  is  not  safe  till  industrial  liberty  is  established  and 
the  Government  rescued  from  the  hands  of  the  monopolists. 

"  In  New  Zealand  organised  labour  uses  the  ballot  to  accomplish  its 
ends,  but  in  America  the  workingmen  carefully  refrain,  for  the  most 
part,  from  using  this  greatest  of  all  the  powers  they  possess."  .  .  . 

"  Legislation  is  for  sale  in  the  United  States.  It  cannot  be  bought 
in  New  Zealand." 

The  words  of  another  lawyer,  an  essentially  great  and  profoundly 
good  man,  are  instructive  on  this  subject.  Their  author  was  him- 
self an  eminent  jurist  and  a  man  who  earned  well  the  right  to  be 
considered  one  of  our  great  Americans.  We  refer  to  John  P.  Altgeld, 
ex-governor  of  Illinois.  The  extract  is  from  the  chapter  on  lawyers 
in  "  The  Cost  of  Something  for  Nothing."  "  No  class  of  men  wield 
more  influence  in  American  affairs  than  lawyers.  Their  experience 
gives  them  a  familiarity  with  all  branches  of  business,  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  all  classes  of  men."  .  .  . 

"  They  have  almost  monopolised  the  legislative  and  judicial 
branches  of  our  government,  and  have  been  very  prominent  in  the 
executive  branch.  Even  when  not  seeking  positions  themselves,  they 
are,  by  reason  of  their  readiness  and  experience,  employed  by  selfish 
interests  to  manipulate  conventions  and  control  nominations.  It  is 
in  some  sense  true  that  the  American  Government  has  been  a  lawyer's 
government."  .  .  . 

"  In  the  nature  of  things,  the  lawyer  should  be  not  only  learned, 
but  he  should  develop  into  a  man  of  broad  culture.  Having  to  deal 
with  great  principles  of  justice,  he  should  be  above  the  very  thought 
of  trickery  and  mean  things.  Theoretically,  the  lawyer  is  not  em- 
ployed to  win  cases,  but  to  see  that  the  law  is  properly  applied  to  his 
client's  case.  He  is  an  officer  of  the  court,  and  is  supposed  to  assist 
the  court  in  the  administration  of  justice."  .  .  . 

"  It  is  a  sad  comment  on  human  nature,  that  while  the  profession 
of  law  should  produce  great  characters,  the  harvest  in  that  regard  has 
been  meagre. 

"  Even  before  commercialism  degraded  the  profession,  there  was  a 
tendency  to  become  narrow  and  petty.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  courts  in  their  practice  had  made  the  law  a  mesh  of  technicalities. 
Instead  of  getting  at  the  merits  of  a  controversy  at  once,  and  de- 
ciding it,  there  was  a  persistent  effort  to  find  out  how  not  to  do  it. 
This  turned  the  eye  of  the  profession  to  little  things,  so  that  many 
men  have  entered  the  law,  possessing  splendid  ability,  fine  education, 
and  high  aspirations,  who  after  twenty  years  of  practice  become 
mental  and  moral  mummies.  It  requires  great  strength  of  character 
to  rise  above  the  environment. 

"  In  so  far  as  the  courts  or  the  lawyers  indulge  in  quibble  and 
refinement,  the  profession  of  the  law  has  a  belittling  and  a  degrad- 
ing tendency.  In  just  so  far  it  paralyses  the  intellect  and  shrivels  the 
soul.  No  quibbler  ever  becomes  great.  He  is  like  a  hen  scratching 

384 


THE    DARK   SIDE   OF   THE    LAW 

in  a  barn-yard, —  he  never  looks  out  over  the  barn-yard  fence.  He 
holds  his  eyes  so  close  to  the  ground  seeking  his  daily  food,  that  he 
never  gets  a  view  of  the  vast  fertile  landscape  just  outside. 

"  The  advancing  intelligence  of  the  world  gradually  made  the  prac- 
tice of  law  more  reasonable;  and  then  came  a  degrading  commer- 
cialism which  used  the  profession  as  a  convenience. 

"  Instead  of  viewing  everything  from  the  lofty  standpoint  of  an 
honourable  profession,  there  was  a  constant  tendency  in  lawyers  to 
sink  to  the  level  of  trained  conveniences,  to  the  level  of  hired  men, 
shrewd  and  able  and  in  the  market,  ready  to  take  anybody's  money 
and  to  try  to  win  his  case  for  him,  whether  right  or  wrong.  And 
that  fatal  fallacy  began  to  take  possession  of  the  legal  mind,  that  a 
man  may  do  things  as  a  lawyer  that  he  could  not  do  as  an  honourable 
citizen.  This  absurd  sophistry  has  ruined  more  lawyers  than  has 
any  other  one  thing.  Once  inoculated  with  this  idea,  a  lawyer  is 
lost.  The  effect  is  perceptible  almost  immediately.  He  sinks  to  the 
level  of  a  trickster.  The  cellular  structure  of  his  brain  changes ;  the 
expression  of  his  eyes  changes;  and  although  a  temporary  success 
may  attend  his  course,  there  can  be  but  one  ending  to  his  career. 
Nothing  more  true  was  ever  written  than  that  '  tricks  destroy  the 
trickster/ 

"  The  writer  has  had  reasonable  opportunities,  at  the  bar,  the  bench, 
and  in  public  life,  to  notice  the  career  of  all  classes  of  lawyers,  and 
he  has  seen  no  exception  to  the  rule  that  tricks  will  destroy  the 
trickster.  After  each  successful  trick  the  man  is  weaker,  and  in- 
stead of  growing  he  deteriorates.  A  moral,  mental,  spiritual  and 
physical  atrophy  destroys  him. 

"  A  lawyer  may  get  a  reputation  because  he  has  won  cases,  even  if 
he  won  them  by  questionable  methods;  and  a  reputation  for  winning 
will  bring  him  business,  and  for  a  time  he  may  flourish.  If  he  is  a 
man  of  strong  physique  and  mentality,  he  may  seemingly  escape  pay- 
ing the  just  penalty  of  his  acts;  and  then  the  whole  burden  of  expia- 
tion falls  upon  his  children.  And  yet,  mental  suffering  is  not  often 
paraded  before  the  world;  and  a  lawyer  who  has  suborned  witnesses 
and  packed  juries,  who  has  bribed  officials  and  falsified  records,  and 
thus  balked  justice,  must  be  hardened  indeed  if  he  has  no  pangs  of 
conscience,  no  bitter  regrets  that  he  has  allowed  himself,  because 
of  his  greed,  to  become  one  of  the  worst  enemies  of  mankind." 

The  following  opinion,  held  by  one  of  the  greatest  orators  who 
ever  lived  concerning  one  of  the  greatest  advocates  who  ever  lived, 
is  interesting  at  this  juncture.  Thus  said  Wendell  Phillips  of  Rufus 
Choate : 

"  The  honours  we  grant  mark  how  high  we  stand,  and  they  educate 
the  future.  The  men  we  honour,  and  the  maxims  we  lay  down  in 
measuring  our  favourites,  show  the  level  and  morals  of  the  time. 
Two  names  have  been  in  every  one's  mouth  of  late,  and  men  have 
exhausted  language  in  trying  to  express  their  admiration  and  their 
respect.  The  courts  have  covered  the  grave  of  Mr.  Choate  with 
eulogy.  Let  us  see  what  is  their  idea  of  a  great  lawyer.  We  are 
told  that  '  he  worked  hard,'  '  he  never  neglected  his  client,'  *  he  flung 
over  the  discussions  of  the  forum  the  grace  of  a  rare  scholarship,' 
25  385 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

'  no  pressure  or  emergency  ever  stirred  him  to  an  unkind  word.'  A 
ripe  scholar,  a  profound  lawyer,  a  faithful  servant  of  his  client,  a 
gentleman.  This  is  a  good  record  surely.  May  he  sleep  in  peace! 
What  he  earned,  God  grant  he  may  have!  But  the  bar  that  seeks 
to  claim  for  such  a  one  a  place  among  great  jurists  must  itself  be 
weak  indeed;  for  this  is  only  to  make  him  out  the  one-eyed  monarch 
of  the  blind.  Not  one  high  moral  trait  specified;  not  one  patriotic 
act  mentioned;  not  one  patriotic  service  even  claimed."  .  .  . 

"  Incessant  eulogy ;  but  not  a  word  of  one  effort  to  lift  the  yoke  of 
cruel  or 'unequal  legislation  from  the  neck  of  its  victim;  not  one 
attempt  to  make  the  code  of  his  country  wiser,  purer,  better;  not  one 
effort  to  bless  his  times  or  breathe  a  higher  moral  purpose  into  the 
community;  not  one  blow  struck  for  right  or  for  liberty,  while  the 
battle  of  the  giants  was  going  on  about  him ;  not  one  patriotic  act  to 
stir  the  hearts  of  his  idolaters;  not  one  public  act  of  any  kind  what- 
ever about  whose  merit  friend  or  foe  could  even  quarrel,  unless  when 
he  scouted  our  great  charter  as  a  '  glittering  generality/  or  jeered 
at  the  philanthropy  which  tried  to  practise  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ! 
When  Cordus,  the  Eoman  Senator,  whom  Tiberius  murdered,  was 
addressing  his  fellows,  he  began :  '  Fathers,  they  accuse  me  of  illegal 
words;  plain  proof  that  there  are  no  illegal  deeds  with  which  to 
charge  me.'  So  with  these  eulogies, —  words,  nothing  but  words; 
plain  proof  that  there  were  no  deeds  to  praise. 

"  The  divine  can  tell  us  nothing  but  that  he  handed  a  chair  or  a 
dish  as  nobody  else  could ;  in  politics,  we  are  assured  he  did  not  wish 
to  sail  outside  of  Daniel  Webster;  and  the  Cambridge  Professor 
tells  his  pupils,  for  their  special  instruction,  that  he  did  not  dare 
to  think  in  religion,  for  fear  he  should  differ  from  Southside  Adams ! 
The  Professor  strains  his  ethics  to  prove  that  a  good  man  may  defend 
a  bad  man.  Useless  waste  of  labour!  In  Egypt,  travellers  tell  us 
that  the  women,  wholly  naked,  are  very  careful  to  veil  their  faces. 
So  the  Professor  strains  his  ethics  to  cover  this  one  fault.  Useless, 
Sir,  while  the  whole  head  is  sick  and  the  whole  heart  faint. 

"  Yet  this  is  the  model  which  Massachusetts  offers  to  the  Pantheon 
of  the  great  jurists  of  the  world ! 

"  Suppose  we  stood  in  that  lofty  temple  of  jurisprudence, —  on  either 
side  of  us  the  statues  of  the  great  lawyers  of  every  age  and  clime, — 
and  let  us  see  what  part  New  England  —  Puritan,  educated,  free  New 
England  —  would  bear  in  the  pageant.  Rome  points  to  a  colossal 
figure  and  says,  '  That  is  Papinian,  who,  when  the  Emperor  Caracalla 
murdered  his  own  brother,  and  ordered  the  lawyer  to  defend  the 
deed,  went  cheerfully  to  death,  rather  than  sully  his  lips  with  the 
atrocious  plea;  and  that  is  Ulpian,  who,  aiding  his  prince  to  put 
the  army  below  the  law,  was  massacred  at  the  foot  of  a  weak,  but 
virtuous,  throne.' 

"  And  France  stretches  forth  her  grateful  hands,  crying,  '  That  is 
D'Aguesseau,  worthy,  when  he  went  to  face  an  enraged  king,  of  the 
farewell  his  wife  addressed  him, 

•*  Go !  forget  that  you  have  a  wife  and  children  to  ruin,  and  re- 
member only  that  you  have  France  to  save.' 

"  England  says,  '  That  is  Coke,  who  flung  the  laurels  of  eighty  years 

386 


THE    DARK    SIDE   OF   THE    LAW 

in  the  face  of  the  first  Stuart,  in  defence  of  the  people.  This  is 
Selden,  on  every  book  of  whose  library  you  saw  written  the  motto 
of  which  he  lived  worthy,  'Before  everything,  Liberty!'  That  is 
Mansfield,  silver-tongued,  who  proclaimed, 

'Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England;    if  their  lungs  4 

Receive  our  air,  that  moment  they  are  free.' 

'This  is  Romilly,  who  spent  life  trying  to  make  law  synonymous  with 
justice,  and  succeeded  in  making  life  and  property  safer  in  every 
city  of  the  empire.  'And  that  is  Erskine,  whose  eloquence,  spite  of 
Lord  Eldon  and  George  III.,  made  it  safe  to  speak  and  to  print.' 

"  Then  New  England  shouts,  '  This  is  Choate,  who  made  it  safe  to 
murder;  and  of  whose  health  thieves  asked  before  they  began  to 
steal.' " 

We  have  stated  that  there  is  one  law  for  the  poor  man  and  an- 
other for  the  rich  man.  The  following  extracts  from  an  address  de- 
livered to  the  prisoners  in  the  Chicago  Jail  by  Mr.  Clarence  S.  Dar- 
row,  one  of  our  brightest  contemporary  lawyers,  bear  upon  this  point. 
"  Some  so-called  criminals  —  and  I  will  use  this  word  because  it  is 
handy,  it  means  nothing  to  me  —  I  speak  of  the  criminals  who  get 
caught  as  distinguished  from  the  criminals  who  catch  them  —  some 
of  these  so-called  criminals  are  in  jail  for  the  first  offences,  but  nine- 
tenths  of  you  are  in  jail  because  you  did  not  have  a  good  lawyer,  and 
of  course  you  did  not  have  a  good  lawyer  because  you  did  not  have 
enough  money  to  pay  a  good  lawyer.  There  is  no  very  great  danger 
of  a  rich  man  going  to  jail."  .  .  . 

"  In  England  and  Ireland  and  Scotland  less  than  five  per  cent, 
own  all  the  land  there  is,  and  the  people  are  bound  to  stay  there  on 
any  kind  of  terms  the  landlords  give.  They  must  live  the  best  they 
can,  so  they  develop  all  these  various  professions,  burglary,  picking 
pockets  and  the  like."  .  .  . 

"  Because  the  fellows  who  control  the  earth  make  the  laws.  If 
you  and  I  had  the  making  of  the  laws,  the  first  thing  we  would  do 
would  be  to  punish  the  fellow  who  gets  control  of  the  earth.  Nature 
put  this  coal  in  the  ground  just  as  much  for  me  as  it  did  for  anyone, 
and  nature  made  the  prairies  up  here  to  raise  wheat  for  me  as  well 
as  for  them;  and  then  the  great  railroad  companies  came  along  and 
fenced  it  up. 

"  Most  all  of  the  crimes  for  which  we  are  punished  are  property 
crimes.  There  are  a  few  personal  crimes,  like  murder  —  but  they  are 
very  few.  The  crimes  committed  are  mostly  those  against  property. 
If  this  punishment  is  right  the  criminals  must  have  a  lot  of  property. 
How  much  money  is  there  in  this  crowd?  And  yet  you  are  all  here 
ior  crimes  against  property." 

If  any  of  our  readers  imagine  for  a  moment  that  the  law.  is  en- 
forced against  the  rich  man  as  it  is  against  the  poor  man,  we  sug- 
gest that  he  get  himself  into  court,  and  then,  when  he  is  questioned 
upon  the  stand,  that  he  answer  after  the  fashion  of  Mr.  H.  H.  Eogers, 
and  see  what  happens. 

387 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"  The  Arena "  for  March,  1906,  prints  the  following  under  the 
heading,  "  How  Mr.  Rogers'  Buffoonery  and  Openly  Insolent  Con- 
tempt for  the  High  Court  Alarmed  His  Associates  " :  "  Mr.  Rogers, 
the  present  fighting  front  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  was  less 
fortunate  than  some  of  his  partners.  He  was  caught  before  he  could 
escape  and  was  haled  before  the  commissioner  appointed  to  take  evi- 
dence. Then  it  was  that  the  American  Republic  and  the  world  beheld 
an  amazing  example  of  the  insolent  contempt  which  this  money- 
mad  representative  of  the  most  corrupt  and  corrupting  system  en- 
tertained for  the  authority  of  the  higher  courts  of  the  land.  Mr. 
Rogers  alternately  played  the  buffoon  and  the  insolent  money-lord 
who  feels  himself  above  law  and  the  courts.  He  sandwiched  his 
positive  refusal  to  answer  the  questions  asked  with  cheap  jokes  and 
gibes,  making  a  spectacle  that  alarmed  his  confederates.  They  were 
evading  the  court  summons;  they  were  to  all  practical  purposes 
fugitives  from  justice,  and  they  were  giving  the  country  a  danger- 
ous example  of  the  lawlessness  of  corporate  wealth,  when  it  cannot 
make  the  laws  and  control  the  courts.  But  Mr.  Rogers'  contempt 
for  law  and  the  high  courts  was  a  little  too  obvious.  It  might  be  well 
to  let  the  people  .understand  that  the  courts  could  do  nothing  with 
the  Standard  Oil  Company,  but  it  was  not  wise  to  be  too  blatant  in 
imparting  the  information.  Hence  on  one  day  we  find  those  three 
conspicuous  organs  of  corporate  and  privileged  wealth  and  reaction, 
the  '  New  York  Sun/  '  Times '  and  '  Evening  Post/  remonstrating 
with  the  indiscreet  high-priest  of  plutocracy." 

In  another  portion  of  the  same  issue  we  find  the  following :  "  The 
action  of  the  Standard  Oil  magnates  in  the  present  case  gives  em- 
phasis to  the  recent  declaration  of  the  well-known  Republican  organ, 
the  '  Daily  Eagle/  of  Wichita,  Kansas,  which  recently  published  the 
following  as  coming  from  a  member  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company : 

"We  are  bigger  than  the  government.  .Standard  Oil  is  stronger 
than  the  United  States.  We  own  the  senate  and  the  house.  If  you 
pursue  your  investigations  beyond  the  point  necessary  to  fool  the 
public  we  will  have  you  removed.  We  can  secure  the  instant  deposi- 
tion of  the  secretary  of  commerce  and  labour,  Mr.  Metcalf,  and  the 
commissioner  of  corporations,  Mr.  Garfield.  If  you  persecute  us  in 
the  slightest  degree  you  will  be  out  of  your  job,  and  if  you  keep  at  the 
business  you  will  find  what  we  say  is  absolutely  true.  Rockefeller  is 
a  bigger  man  than  Roosevelt. 

• "  Like  the  revelations  of  the  insurance  investigation,  the  high- 
handed stand  taken  by  the  Standard  Oil  Company  is  of  immense  value 
at  the  present  time,  demonstrating  anew  the  growing  insolence  and 
presumption  of  the  despotism  of  wealth  —  an  insolence  and  presump- 
tion that  suggest  in  a  striking  manner  the  spirit  evinced  by  Charles 
I.  and  James  II.  of  England,  which  resulted  in  the  decapitation  of 
the  one  and  the  flight  of  the  other;  the  spirit  evinced  by  George  III. 
toward  the  Colonies,  which  led  to  the  founding  of  the  American 
Republic;  and  the  spirit  evinced  by  the  Bourbon  kings  toward  the 
people  of  France,  which  resulted  in  their  overthrow  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Republic  of  France. 

"  The  American  people  to-day  are  in  the  presence  of  a  commercial 

'  388 


THE    DARK    SIDE    OF   THE    LAW 

despotism  quite  as  arrogant,  heartless  and  oppressive  as  the  political 
despotism  which  resulted  in  the  birth  of  modern  democracy.  If  free 
institutions  are  to  be  preserved;  if  the  happiness,  prosperity  and  de- 
velopment of  all  the  people  are  to  be  the  master  or  controlling  aim 
of  government^  if  freedom,  justice  and  fraternity  are  to  be  aught  but 
empty  words,  the  feudalism  of  wealth  built  on  privilege  must  be  over- 
thrown. Economic  emancipation  must  complement  political  emanci- 
pation" , 

Referring  still  to  the  unequal  administration  of  the  law  we  excerpt 
the  following  from  "The  Dark  Side  of  the  Beef  Trust":  "And 
the  pure-food  laws,  and  laws  prohibiting  the  adulteration  of  foods, 
do  not  seem  to  apply  to  the  giant  in  control  of  our  animal  foods ;  no 
more  do  the  laws  in  regard  to  commerce,  or  interstate  commerce,  or 
the  secret  combinations  to  systematically  rob  the  people  by  destroy- 
ing competition.  It  has  become  to  be  an  admitted  fact  that  there 
are  laws  for  the  poor  and  laws  for  the  rich;  that  the  laws  for  the 
poor  must  be  enforced  for  the  better  protection  of  society ;  and  that 
the  laws  for  the  rich  are  not  meant  to  be  enforced,  but  that  the  com- 
mon people  may  be  the  more  easily  blinded  while  the  bandit  of  the 
trust  is  collecting  the  levy." 

Apropos  of  this  subject,  "  The  Wall  Street  Journal "  of  March 
26,  1906,  prints  the  following,  regarding  "Rich  and  Poor  in  the 
Law  " :  "  Mr.  Perkins  ought  not  to  be  made  to  suffer  because  he  is 
rich,  a  partner  of  Mr.  Morgan  and  a  director  of  powerful  corpora- 
tions. Nor  should  he  be  excused  because  he  is  a  leader  in  the  finan- 
cial world.  What  would  Mr.  Jerome  do  if  Mr.  Perkins,  instead 
of  having  been  vice-president  of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany, had  been  vice-president  of  '  The  Carpenters'  Benevolent  Asso- 
ciation, No.  3  ? '  Would  Mr.  Jerome  be  solicitous  about  proof  of 
intent  before  bringing  an  indictment,  and  become  angry  at  a  judge 
and  sarcastic  at  an  ex-judge  and  bitter  in  denunciation  of  news- 
papers, because  they  held  a  different  opinion  from  his  on  the  subject, 
if  Mr.  Perkins  had  not  been  what  he  is?  .  .  .  There  is  a  dan- 
gerous feeling  among  many  that  there  is  one  law  for  the  rich  man 
and  another  for  the  poor,  and  that  the  case  of  a  poor  man  would 
not  have  aroused  the  solicitude  as  to  proof  of  intent,  which  District 
Attorney  Jerome  displays  in  regard  to  the  case  of  Geo.  W.  Perkins." 

Suppose  two  men  are  arrested  for  drunkenness,  one  a  millionaire, 
the  other  a  workingman  without  resources.  The  next  morning  each 
receives  as  his  sentence  $10  or  thirty  days.  Surely  this  is  even- 
handed  justice,  you  say ;  but  consider  it  a  moment.  What  is  the  pur- 
pose of  punishment?  Ignoring  those  who  seem  to  consider  punish- 
ment as  an  act  of  vengeance.,  we  must  admit  that  punishments  have 
no  other  reason  underlying  them  than  the  theory  that  they  act  as 
deterrents  and  tend  to  promote  social  order.  We  are  not  here  con- 
sidering those  punitive  measures  which  seek  to  repair  a  damage  done 
by  the  payment  of  its  equivalent.  If,  then,  punitive  measures  are 
used  solely  for  the  purpose  of  inflicting  hardships  which  shall  act  as 
deterrents,  is  it  not  clear  that  justice  demands  that  upon  the  same 
crime  shall  always  be  visited  an  equal  hardship?  The  fine  of  $10  is 
but  a  hundred-thousandth  part  of  the  millionaire's  resources,  a  veri- 

389 


table  nothing  which  he  pays  with  less  sacrifice  than  would  be  repre- 
sented by  the  forfeiture  of  a  one-cent  postage-stamp  by  the  average 
labourer.  The  poor  drunkard,  however,  finds  his  case  very  different. 
Ten  dollars  is  probably  more  than  he  has,  if  he  be  an  habitual  tippler 
—  it  is  more  than  his  all,  and  he  goes  to  jail.  Hftw  much  of  a 
deterrent,  think  you,  would  the  fine  of  a  one-cent  stamp  be  to  him? 
When  you  determine  this  amount,  you  have  only  to  set  below  it  a  good 
round  figure  for  a  denominator,  in  order  to  form  a  sufficiently  ac- 
curate estimate  of  the  sacrifice  which  a  ten-dollar  fine  inflicts  upon 
a  millionaire.  This  alternative  punishment,  devised  for  the  sake  of 
punishing  the  poor  and  exempting  the  rich,  is  one  of  the  most  crying 
evils  of  our  legal  system,  an  evil  which  will  have  to  be  remedied 
before  thoughtful  people  will  be  able  to  regard  the  alleged  justice 
of  the  law  in  any  other  light  than  a  Machiavelian  joke. 

Another  abuse  which  calls  for  at  least  passing  notice  is  the  cow- 
ardly methods  pursued  by  many  attorneys  during  trials.  Presuming 
upon  the  protection  of  the  court,  they  defame  witnesses  and  insult 
them  with  a  brutal  rudeness  which,  if  used  upon  the  street,  would 
be  considered  tantamount  to  an  assault.  Should  the  witness,  how- 
ever, retort  in  kind,  he  is  summarily  dealt  with.  How  judges  ex- 
pect to  uphold  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  the  "  dignity  of  the 
law"  by  constantly  permitting  these  insults  to  truth,  to  fair  play, 
and  to  decency,  they  may -be  able  to  explain.  It  is  certainly  quite 
beyond  the  ken  of  laymen,  unversed  in  those  intellectual  somer- 
saults and  handsprings  which  form  the  stock  in  trade  of  most  legal 
lights.  A  goodly  per  cent,  of  lawyers  may  justly  be  regarded  as  de 
facto  disturbers  of  the  peace  to  whom  blackmail  is  often  their  readiest 
asset.  Nor  is  this  confined  to  that  class  of  lawyers  who  chase  am- 
bulances in  the  hope  that  they  may  trump  up  a  damage  case.  We 
do  not,  of  course,  contend  that  reputable  attorneys  are  guilty  of  black- 
mail, but  we  do  contend  that  more  than  one  law-firm,  enjoying  a 
most  lucrative  practice  and  a  fair  degree  of  lay-confidence,  is  guilty 
of  just  such  disreputable  methods.  One  of  the  busiest  firms  in 
Boston,  whose  name  is  as  familiar  as  that  of  any  legal  firm  in  the  city 
and  whose  cases  crowd  the  court  calendars,  habitually  resorts  to  every 
sort  of  crooked  procedure  known  to  "shysters/'  and  that  without 
apparently  adversely  affecting  their  income.  All  reputable  lawyers,  of 
course,  are  aware  of  this  firm's  methods  and  despise  both  them  and 
the  men  who  stoop  to  them,  yet  to  see  the  senior  trickster  in  court 
day  after  day  and  to  witness  the  judicial  deference  bestowed  upon 
him  as  one  of  the  court's  best  customers,  is  an  instructive,  if  sicken- 
ing, sight.  When  such  men  as  these,  can,  with  the  full  knowledge  of 
their  colleagues  and  of  the  courts,  cut  a  swath  through  society  like  the 
path  of  the  locusts,  or  the  wake  of  the  army-worm,  is  it  any  wonder 
that  we  are  confronted,  everywhere  we  look,  with  outrages  committed 
in  the  name  of  the  law  ? 

Coke  said,  "A  common  error  makes  law/'  and  to-day  society 
groans,  not  only  because  of  the  bad  laws,  but  because  of  flagrant 
violations  of  all  law  practised  by  those  whose  duty  it  should  be  to 
protect  the  sanctity  of  justice.  Erskine  said,  "A  prisoner  is  cov- 
ered all  over  with  the  armour  of  the  law."  Yet,  despite  this,  the 

390 


THE    DARK   SIDE   OF   THE    LAW 

"  sweat-box "  flourishes  in  our  large  cities,  depriving  men  of  their 
fundamental  rights  as  citizens  and  human  beings.  In  a  case  which 
came  up  in  New  York  in  the  spring  of  1902,  Justice  Mayer  granted 
a  motion  made  by  defendant's  lawyer,  praying  for  the  suppression  of  . 
admissions  made  by  his  client  to  police  detectives  in  whose  custody 
she  was,  without  any  previous  warning  that  she  was  not  obliged  to 
make  statements  unless  she  wished  to,  and  that,  if  she  should  make 
any,  they  might  be  used  to  convict  her.  Concerning  this,  "  The 
Public  "  says  editorially,  in  part,  "  Justice  Mayer  must  be  a  veritable 
Daniel  come  to  judgment,  for  in  this  decision  he  has  delivered  a 
decisive  blow  at  the  police  '  sweat-box '  system,  which  has  been  prac- 
tised for  years  by  the  police  in  all  the  great  cities,  and  at  which,  law- 
less as  it  manifestly  is,  judges  in  the  criminal  courts  have  winked. 

"  The  extent  of  this  illegal  practice  may  be  inferred  from  the  plea 
of  the  assistant  district  attorney  to  Justice  Mayer,  in  the  case  alluded 
to.  He  urged  the  judge  not  to  make  the  decision  he  did  because  — 
it  is  going  to  work  the  greatest  innovation  in  the  system  in  vogue,  not 
only  in  the  city  of  New  York,  but  over  the  entire  country.  Thou^ 
sands  of  cases  have  been  decided  in  court  here  on  statements  made 
by  prisoners  to  officers  before  the  arraignment  in  court. 

"  The  general  nature  of  this  '  sweat-box '  system  is  well  known,  yet 
it  is  tolerated  because  its  victims  are  usually  friendless  persons  ac- 
cused of  crime.  It  is  a  system  of  torture  applied  for  the  purpose  -of 
extorting  confessions/' 

At  about  the  time  President  McKinley  was  assassinated  the 
"Minneapolis  Journal"  gave  a  candid  and  approving  description  of 
the  "  sweat-box  "  system.  It  said :  "  The  practice  of  '  torturing ' 
suspected  criminals  to  wring  from  them  information  that  will  lead  to 
the  apprehension  and  punishment  of  accomplices  is  followed  gen- 
erally throughout  the  country,  and  is  almost  invariably  a  speedy  and 
satisfactory  method,  leading  in  many  cases  to  the  discovery  of  insti- 
gators for  whose  crime  their  dupes  or  tools  would  otherwise  have 
suffered  alone. 

"While  admitting  that  very  drastic  measures  are  adopted  in  the 
'  sweat-box '  in  order  to  extract  a  confession  from  suspects,  the  police 
officials  seldom  divulge  the  nature  of  the  process  employed.  There 
is  no  set  method  in  use.  Each  prisoner  when  taken  into  the 
'  sweat-box '  is  given  different  treatment,  depending  entirely  on  his 
temperament  and  mental  condition  and  the  degree  of  anxiety  on  the 
part  of  the  police  to  make  him  talk.  Often  it  is  only  necessary  to 
browbeat  and  threaten  the  witness  or  to  harrow  his  feelings  by  some 
of  the  numberless  methods  known  to  an  experienced  police  officer. 

"  But  often  prisoners  are  not  to  be  scared  by  threats  or  '  bulldosing ' 
methods,  and  when  these  means  fail,  torture  is  used  as  a  last  resort. 
It  is  applied  unflinchingly  and  relentlessly,  and  with  such  severity 
that  the  prisoner  is  frequently  rendered  wild  or  insane  with  fear  and 
pain.  Human  endurance  and  self-control  fail  before  some  of  the 
methods  employed.  Probably  the  most  common  method  of  forcing 
confession  from  unwilling  lips  is  to  string  the  prisoner  up  by  the 
thumbs.  This  will  fetch  the  majority  of  criminals  to  terms,  for  the 

\  391 


GILLETTE'S   SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

intense  pain  such  treatment  induces  will  subdue  the  most  stubborn 
spirit. 

"  But  if  the  prisoner  maintains  his  defiance  after  this  torture,  the 
inquisitors  are  not  balked,  by  any  means.  There  are  other  more  pain- 
ful tortures,  and  while  they  do  not  rival  the  methods  of  the  old  Span- 
ish inquisition  in  their  cruelty  or  barbarity,  they  are  just  as  effective. 

"  Whatever  the  people  may  mean  by  '  pincers '  can  be  as  well  in- 
ferred as  described.  Ordinarily  the  torture  —  for  it  is  nothing  more 
—  is  specially  devised  to  fit  the  particular  case  under  consideration. 
If  the  police  are  satisfied  that  any  person  possesses  information  which 
may  reveal  the  principals  or  participants  in  a  great  crime,  they  will 
get  it,  and  they  feel  justified  in  employing  any  means,  no  matter  how 
severe  and  cruel,  if  it  will  result  in  a  confession." 

Commenting  on  this  "  The  Public "  says,  in  the  issue  above  re- 
ferred to :  "  When  it  is  considered  not  only  that  the  tortured  prison- 
ers are  plied  with  questions  without  any  notice  to  them  that  it  is 
their  legal  right  to  make  no  disclosures,  but  also  that  our  constitu- 
tions forbid  unusual  punishments  and  cruelty  even  to  convicted 
criminals,  the  litter  disregard  of  law  involved  in  this  brutally  in- 
quisitorial '  sweat-box '  system  cannot  but  excite  the  indignation  of 
all  men  who  really  respect  the  law.  It  is  a  system  which  puts  the 
sworn  officers  of  the  law  who  practise  it  upon  the  criminal  level  of 
the  '  anarchist '  as  they  describe  him. 

"  The  police  are  usually  reticent,  as  the  '  Minneapolis  Journal '  says, 
about  their  '  sweat-box '  methods ;  but  from  items  written  by  police- 
court  reporters,  and  the  disclosures  of  victims,  it  is  reasonably  in- 
ferred that  there'  are  three  degrees.  The  first  degree  consists  in 
impressing  the  prisoner  with  the  idea  that  he  must  answer  questions 
whether  he  wants  to  or  not.  This  is  entirely  lawless,  as  the  decision 
of  Judge  Mayer  now  points  out.  Having  so  impressed  the  prisoner, 
all  kinds  of  ingenious,  irritating  and  confusing  questions  are  asked. 
Under  such  an  ordeal  shrewd  and  self-governed  criminals  may  come 
out  first  best;  but  the  timid,  the  slow  of  thought,  the  unsophisticated 
and  frightened  prisoner  who  is  innocent,  may  very  easily  be,  and 
he  not  infrequently  is,  led  into  a  tangle  which  fixes  apparent  guilt 
upon  him. 

"  An  instance  of  the  first  degree  in  the  '  sweat-box '  was  given  simply 
as  matter  of  current  news  not  long  ago  in  one  of  the  Chicago  papers. 
The  prisoner's  name  was  Thombs.  He  was  in  the  custody  of  the 
police,  whose  sole  duty  it  was  to  keep  him  safely  for  trial.  But  they 
violated  their  duty  and  the  law  by  subjecting  him  to  a  ' sweat-box' 
experience.  We  quote  the  report : 

f  For  over  an  hour  Thombs  was  kept  under  fire.  He  was  told  all 
about  how  he  had  abused  his  wife,  Minnie  Ristau,  and  compelled 
her  to  work  for  him  and  support  him.  Tombs  did  not  know  where 
the  information  came  from  nor  how  much  of  it  the  police  had  in  re- 
serve, and  he  soon  weakened.  Then  Lieut.  Haines  switched  suddenly 
and  asked  Thombs  whether  he  had  ever  been  at  Cedar  Lake,  Ind. 
The  question  caught  Thombs  off  his  guard  and  he  answered  '  Yes/ 
Thombs  scarcely  had  made  this  admission  when  Lieut.  Haines  bom- 
barded him  with  a  string  of  questions  in  the  same  line.  It  was  all 

392 


THE    DARK    SIDE   OF   THE    LAW 

too  rapid  for  Thombs's  slow  mind,  and,  apparently  without  realising 
what  he  said,  he  told  the  lieutenant  that  three  years  ago,  in  1898,  he 
and  his  '  wife '  had  driven  to  Cedar  Lake  together.  He  declared  they 
had  come  back  together  also.  Thombs  had  said  too  much,  and  Lieut. 
Haines  could  get  no  further  admissions.  In  the  afternoon  Capt. 
Wheeler  tried  another  sweat-box  method.  Thombs  declared  at  first 
that  he  wished  to  make  a  statement.  When  told  to  go  ahead  he 
launched  into  a  tirade  on  Mrs.  Severs,  whom  he  at  once  connected 
with  the  Cedar  Lake  charge.  He  asked  the  police  to  send  for  Mrs. 
Severs  and  his  wife,  and  begged  that  he  be  kept  at  the  police  station 
until  his  brother-in-law  could  see  him.  Then  Capt.  Wheeler  began. 
Thombs's  heavy  features  did  not  move  at  first,  but  soon  he  began 
to  flinch.  Finally  the  prisoner  began  to  weep,  but  it  was  not  from 
grief.  The  man  was  racked  by  rage.  'I  never  abused  my  wife.  I 
would  hang  for  her  if  I  had  to/  he  shouted.  '  I  love  her.  I  never 
threatened  to  throw  my  baby  out  of  the  window.  That  .Severs  woman 
has  told  you  all  this,  and  she  is  the  one  that  hatched  up  the  Cedar 
Lake  story/  Capt.  Wheeler  ended  the  interview,  and  Thombs,  with 
his  cloth  cap  pulled  down  over  his  eyes,  was  handcuffed  to  a  police- 
man and  taken  to  the  county  jail.  He  will  not  be  questioned  by 
the  police  any  further  on  the  Larson  murder  unless  he  wishes  to 
confess/ 

"  On  the  following  day  the  police  captain  who  conducted  this  '  sweat- 
box  '  proceeding  was  quoted  in  the  news  columns  of  one  of  the  papers 
as  saying  about  this  case: 

'  It  has  been  the  most  trying  police  investigation  in  the  history  of 
the  Chicago  department.  The  alleged  alibi  produced  by  Thombs  up- 
set us,  and  for  a  few  hours  the  police  were  lost.  But  we  set  about 
to  knock  the  alibi  sky-high,  and  in  this  we  succeeded.  Thombs  while 
in  my  custody  put  up  a  defiant  air,  but  I  am  positive  that  before 
his  case  reaches  the  grand  jury  he  will  break  down  and  confess. 
He  told  me  on  Saturday  that  all  that  kept  him  from  making  such  a 
confession  was  the  warning  of  his  lawyer/ 

"  There  is  an  instance  of  the  first  degree.  Could  anything  be  more 
defiant  of  law?  The  second  and  third  degrees  are  known  only  to 
police  inquisitors  and  their  friendless  prisoners.  It  is  generally  be- 
lieved, however,  that  they  consist  in  physical  torture.  The  second 
degree  is  described  by  some  as  including  sudden  and  violent  changes 
of  temperature,  accompanied  by  probing  and  confusing  questions,  until 
the  victim's  nervous  system  gives  way  and  he  answers  at  the  wiil  of 
his  official  but  lawless  persecutors.  If  this  fails,  the  third  degree  —  in 
which,  perhaps,  a  brilliant  light  is  steadily  directed  at  the  victim's 
eyes,  both  while  he  is  awake  and  when  he  tries  to  sleep  —  is  resorted 
to.  That  there  certainly  is  a  ' third  degree'  is  fairly  evident  from 
the  following  item  in  a  New  York  news  report  in  the  '  Chicago  Tri- 
bune': 

'  The  passage  of  this  '  third  degree '  from  police  headquarters,  so 
far  as  official  support  is  concerned,  took  place  to-day,  when  Com- 
missioner Partridge  and  District  Attorney  Jerome  had  a  conference. 
The  'third  degree'  is  to  be  left  out  of  the  methods  of  the  district 
attorney's  office  in  preparing  prosecutions.  While  it  has  never  be- 

393 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

come  a  habit  there,  as  it  was  at  police  headquarters  and  even  at 
police  stations,  nevertheless  it  is  not  unknown.'  " 

In  closing  its  editorial  "  The  Public  "  says :  "  If  inquisitorial  pro- 
ceedings are  necessary,  let  them  take  place  only  in  the  presence  of  a 
responsible  magistrate,  as  in  the  courts  of  first  instance  in  Europe, 
where  the  prisoner  can  have  some  responsible  protection.  Let  the 
inquisition  be  no  longer  allowed  in  the  inner  rooms  of  irresponsible 
police  detectives,  where  the  prisoner  has  no  protection  at  all  and  is  at 
the  mercy  of  merciless  men. 

"  Of  course  a  law  providing  for  an  inquisitorial  examination  of 
prisoners  charged  with  crime  would  be  invalid,  for,  under  the  Eng- 
lish and  American  theory  of  the  administration  of  justice,  no  man 
can  be  compelled  to  give  evidence  against  himself.  But  if  such  pro- 
ceedings would  be  without  constitutional  validity,  surrounded  as  the 
prisoner  would  be  with  judicial  safeguards,  what  shall  we  say  of  the 
same  kind  of  proceedings  when  they  are  carried  to  the  extent  of 
cruelty  by  policemen  unchecked  by  judicial  restraints?  On  what 
other  basis  can  any  man  justify  lawless  proceedings  of  that  sort  than 
that  he  has  turned  '  anarchist '  and  cares  nothing  for  the  sanctity  of 
law?" 

When  that  neat  little  farce  known  as  the  Meat  Trust  Prosecution 
was  being  played  before  a  spell-bound,  or  at  all  events  trust-bound 
public,  so  much  difficulty  was  experienced  in  getting  evidence  against 
the  trust,  owing  to  the  great  secretiveness  of  its  members  that  the 
"  Red  Wing  Argus,"  a  Minnesota  Weekly,  trenchantly  remarked, 
"  Well,  then,  why  not  try  the  water-cure  ? 

"  Witnesses  from  the  Philippines  say  it  is  harmless  and  refreshing. 
When  they  suspected  natives  of  having  guns,  they  applied  it,  and, 
they  add,  '  we  got  the  guns/  The  government  suspects  these  men  of 
using  instruments  of  warfare  against  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
but  the  evidence  is  concealed.  Imagine  one  of  Knox's  lieutenants 
coming  in  to  report:  'We  applied  the  water-cure/  and  grinning, 
'  we  got  the  evidence/ 

"  You  can't  imagine  it ;  it  is  unthinkable  ?  Thank  God  it  is  un- 
thinkable. And  yet  the  police  in  the  large  cities  use  daily  devices 
of  that  sort,  what  they  call  the  sweat-box  method,  against  vulgar 
criminals.  Where  they  know  a  man  is  guilty,  but  have  no  evidence, 
where  they  suspect  he  is  guilty,  where  they  believe  he  ought  to  be 
guilty  if  he  isn't,  they  put  him  in  the  sweat-box.  Wherein  is  it  worse 
before  the  law  to  apply  the  sweat-box  method  to  Morgan  or  Rocke- 
feller or  Armour  or  Swift,  than  the  Red  Leary  or  Six-Fingered  Jake  ? 
Are  they  not  equal  before  the  law,  are  they  not  presumed  to  be  in- 
nocent until  they  are  proved  guilty  ? 

"  If  the  gravity  of  the  offence  is  to  measure  the  severity  of  the 
means  employed  to  gain  evidence,  the  argument  is  all  on  the  side  of 
applying  it  to  the  conspirators  against  the  people.  Red  Leary 
snatches  a  pocketbook;  the  beef  trust  takes  the  meat  out  of  the 
mouths  of  whole  communities.  Six-Fingered  Jake  pilfers  a  hand- 
kerchief ;  the  great  robbers  loot  a  continent/' 

That  the  "  sweat-box "  system  of  torture  not  only  exists,  but  is 
actually  defended  is  the  astonishing  truth.  We  quote  the  following 

394 


THE    DARK    SIDE   OF   THE    LAW 

from  a  Chicago  periodical  of  Aug.  30,  1902:  "Inspector  Shea,  of 
the  Chicago  police  department,  defends  the  '  sweat-box '  with  the  same 
audacity  that  characterised  Mayor  Harrison's  defence  of  it.  He 
tries  to  convince  the  public  that  the  '  sweat-box '  harms  no  innocent 
man  and  leads  to  the  conviction  of  guilty  men.  But  not  one  word 
has  he  to  say  of  the  law  which  guarantees  immunity  to  innocent  and 
guilty  alike  from  '  sweat-box '  persecution.  The  question  is  not 
whether  the  laws  for  the  protection  of  the  rights  of  persons  charged 
with  crime  are  good  laws.  Good  or  bad,  they  exist.  The  question, 
therefore,  is  whether  policemen  shall  obey  them  or  may  defy  them. 
If  the  '  sweat-box '  is  a  desirable  adjunct  to  the  police  function,  let 
it  be  established  by  law.  But  until  it  has  been  so  established,  let  us 
not  allow  ourselves  to  become  apologists  for  crime  by  getting  befogged 
in  the  sophistries  of  law-breaking  policemen." 

Under  date  of  Oct.  25,  1905,  the  "  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer  "  printed 
the  following :  "  It  is  clearly  incumbent  upon  someone  at  least  to 
inquire  to  what  extent  the  practice  prevails  in  flat  violation  of  the 
fundamental  law,  for  that  it  does  prevail  is  beyond  contradiction. 
Often  the  process  consists  merely  of  browbeating  and  bullyragging 
a  prisoner,  who  may  be  no  more  than  a  suspect,  but  that  more  extreme 
measures  have  been  resorted  to  in  dealing  with  a  particularly  stub- 
born subject  is  more  than  suspected.  .  .  .  It  is  worthy  of  remark, 
too,  that  the  victim  of  this  savagery  is  invariably  a  prisoner  without 
money  or  friends.  None  of  the  '  aristocracy  of  crime '  are  ever  sub- 
jected to  the  third  degree.  On  the  contrary  they  are  treated  with 
a  consideration,  not  to  say  deference,  and  sometimes  by  courts  as  well 
as  police,  that  gives  too  much  colour  to  the  assertion  so  often  heard 
that  there  is  one  law  for  the  poor  and  another  for  the  rich.  If  the 
'third  degree'  should  be  applied  to  a  thieving  bank-president  the 
whole  country  would  be  made  to  ring  with  the  outrage,  and  the 
'  third  degree '  would  become  on  the  instant  as  extinct  as  the  '  boot ' 
or  the  rack.  Nor  are  the  police  wholly  to  blame.  They  are  not  as  a 
rule  a  fine-grained  gentry,  and  their  continual  contact  with  the  crim- 
inal element  has  the  inevitable  effect  of  blunting  sensibilities  none  too 
keen  in  the  first  place.  Probably  many  of  them  honestly  believe  that 
the  end  justifies  the  means.  But  they  have  superiors  to  whom  they 
are  amenable,  and  it  is  upon  these  that  the  responsibility  for  the 
abuse  of  the  '  third  degree  '  ultimately  rests." 

It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  treat  this  matter  more  at  length.  Enough 
has  been  presented  conclusively  to  show  that  we  not  only  have  a 
system  of  torture  in  the  Philippines,  but  that  we  have  one  right  here 
at  our  own  doors.  We  do  not  have  to  go  back  to  the  dark  ages,  nor 
to  a  foreign  country,  to  find  inquisitorial  methods  in  full  vogue. 
These  criminal  practices  against  alleged  criminals  are  not  only  with- 
out any  legal  warranty  whatsoever,  but  are  in  the  flattest  contradic- 
tion to  the  American  principle  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  We  call  attention  to  these  facts,  since  they  show  most  con- 
clusively how  rapidly  we  are  slipping  away  from  the  ideals  of  our 
forefathers.  They  who  think  such  crimes  can  be  practised  upon  the 
alleged  criminal  class  without  spreading  further,  have  read  history, 
even  recent  history,  to  very  poor  purpose.  We  have  seen  how,  to  cite 

395 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

a  single  instance,  the  postal  censorship  began  by  restricting  the  rights 
of  those  whose  business  did  not  conform  to  popular  ideas  of  morality 
or  public  policy,  and  how  from  this  the  contagion  of  injustice  gradu- 
ally widened  its  area  until  it  was  made  practically  to  attack  the  con- 
stitutional right  of  freedom  of  belief  and  its  expression.  The  plain 
fact  of  the  matter  is  that  the  perpetration  of  a  wrong  against  indi- 
viduals however  unpopular  or  undeserving,  reacts  upon  the  public 
conscience -with  a  deadening  effect  which  permits  ever-increasing  in- 
roads upon  the  rights  of  constantly  widening  masses  of  the  people. 
A  democracy  can  only  exist  so  long  as  its  people  consider  a  govern- 
mental offence  against  one  as  the  concern  of  all.  The  body  politic, 
like  the  body  corporate,  owes  its  health  to  the  perfect  interrelation 
of  its  parts. 

As  well  might  the  brain  neglect  to  protect  the  heart  from  injury 
and  expect  the  well-being  of  the  physical  body  of  which  both  mem- 
bers formed  a  part,  as  for  one  member  of  a  social  body  to  be  indiffer- 
ent to  the  rights  of  another  member  thereof  while  expecting  to  main- 
tain the  health  of  said  society.  The  cell-like  units  of  society  are  not 
egocentric  and  independent  units.  They  are  bound  together  by  a 
social  gravitation  -which  ramifies  the  whole  body  politic,  so  that  the 
slightest  disturbance  in  any  part  of  the  structure  is  felt  throughout 
the  mass.  An  offence  against  the  humbler  classes  seems,  like  the 
breaking  down  of  the  white  corpuscles  of  the  blood,  to  be  a  relatively 
small  matter  at  the  start,  but  when,  as  is  inevitably  the  case,  the 
evil  increases  and  social  tubercles  form  ending  in  tissue-degeneration 
in  the  social  body  which  day  by  day  grows  worse  until  finally  the 
death  of  Liberty  ensues  and  with  it  disappears  all  worthy  the  name 
of  society.  He  is  a  coward  who  asks  of  another  what  he  will  not 
grant  himself,  and  he  is  dead  to  all  finer  sense  of  manhood  who  will 
not  protect  all  others  in  each  and  every  right  he  demands  for  him- 
self. The  Gillette  System  for  Social  Eedemption  is  devised  with  es- 
pecial care  upon  these  points ;  under  it  all  men  will  be  brothers  — 
in  effect  twin  brothers,  for  the  elder  brother  principle,  with  all  the  in- 
justices inherent  in  primogeniture,  both  literal  and  figurative,  will  be 
banished  forever  from  the  face  of  the  earth.* 

*  For  a  brief  outline  of  the  System,  see  Appendix  A. 


396 


BOOK   VIII 

CHAPTER      I.     POLITICAL  CORRUPTION 
CHAPTER    II.    A  KINGDOM  OF  THE  DOLLAR 
CHAPTER  III.     MUNICIPAL  CONDITIONS 

CHAPTER   IV.     THE  FATHER  OF  GRAFT  —  THE 
BUSINESS  MAN 


397 


Given  a  few  men  who  own  the  land  on  which  all  mankind  must  live 
and  work;  given  a  few  men  who  own  all  the  valuable  public  franchises, 
given  a  few  men  who  have  enormous  special  privileges,  and  it  makes  no 
difference  how  much  money  there  is  in  the  country,  or  how  it  is  furnished. 
Under  conditions  which  will  allow  every  man  freely  to  produce  wealth 
and  freely  exchange  it,  a  system  of  free  banking  will  contribute  greatly 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  whole  people.  The  money  question,  like  all  other 
problems  of  the  time,  is  to  be  solved  by  more  freedom  and  not  by  more 
interference. 

Bolton  Hall  in  Free  America. 

Once  the  people  could  be  fooled  with  the  story  that  their  poverty  was 
the  will  of  God.  After  a  time,  when  men  came  to  know  that  this  was  not 
true,  "  scientists  "  like  Professor  Huxley  tried  to  show  that  all  the  in- 
justice and  inequality  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  was  due  to  natural 
laws.  Now  that  it  has  proved  that  this  is  also  a  lie,  the  men  who  profit 
by  monopoly  seek,  by  appeals  to  national  prejudice  and  race  hatred,  to 
delude  the  people  into  running  after  a  false  remedy,  and  so  to  neglect  the 
true  one.  Can  the  people  be  fooled  all  the  time? 

Ibid. 

Our  supple  tribes  repress  their  patriot  throats, 
And  ask  no  questions  but  the  price  of  votes. 

Sam'l  Johnson  —  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes. 

Corruption  is  a  tree,  whose  branches  are 
Of  an  immeasurable  length:   they  spread 
Ev'ry where;  and  the  dew  that  drops  from  thence 
Hatn  infected  some  chairs  and  stools  of  authority. 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher  —  Honest  Man's  Fortune. 

The  restrictions  -which  well-meaning  conservative  men  think  necessary  in 
the  introduction  of  the  referendum,  for  example,  remind  one  forcibly  of  the 
provision  in  the  charter  of  the  first  German  railway,  that  a  high  fence  must 
be  erected  on  both  sides  of  the  track  to  avoid  the  mental  disorders  which 
would  be  caused  by  the  sight  of  a  rapidly  moving  train. 

C.  J.  K.,  in  The  Rate  of  Human  Progress.     The  Public. 


398 


CHAPTEE  I. 
POLITICAL   CORRUPTION 


HE  discovery  of  the  germs  of  a  malignant  disease  in 
the  blood  of  a  patient  is  a  warning  to  the  wise  phy- 
sician that  there  is  trouble  ahead,  and  he  does  not 
think  it  necessary  in  reporting  the  result  of  his  diag- 
nosis to  enlarge  upon  the  fact  that  there  are  many 
diseases  with  which  his  client  is  not  afflicted.  He 
informs  him,  if  he  thinks  it  wise  to  be  perfectly  frank,  that  he  has 
tuberculosis,  and  advises  him  what  to  do.  He  might,  were  he  an 
irrepressible  optimist,  take  an  hour  of  his  time  in  pointing  out  dan- 
gers which  his  patient  had  escaped,  but,  since  his  purpose  is  to  show 
how  actual  evils  can  be  successfully  combatted,  he  confines  himself 
strictly  to  that  issue.  The  daily  paper,  which  reports  a  murder, 
occurring,  let  us  say,  in  a  country  town,  does  not  waste  any  space 
upon  the  fact  that  the  said  town  contained  a  great  many  citizens 
incapable  of  committing  murder.  In  like  manner,  in  pointing  out 
the  diseases  which  sorely  afflict  the  American  body  politic,  we  do  not 
find  it  necessary  to  enlarge  upon  the  well-known  fact  that  all  Ameri- 
cans, even  all  American  politicians,  are  not  corrupt.  There  are  doubt- 
less Senators  who  are  not  in  the  least  vendible  and  judges  who  do  not 
receive  railroad  passes  and  who  are  neither  consciously  nor  uncon- 
sciously prejudiced  in  favour  of  transportation  or  any  other  corporate 
interests.  To  pile  Pelion  on  Ossa,  there  are  most  likely  some  lawyers 
who  would  sooner  lose  a  case  in  the  interest  of  justice  than  win  it  in 
defiance  thereof.  All  this  may  be  true  without  in  the  least  affecting 
our  fundamental  contention  that  morality  in  America  is  on  an  Alpine 
down-grade,  with  everything  greased  for  the  occasion.  We  do  not 
claim  that  there  are  not  some  healthy  cells  in  the  body  politic,  but 
we  do  contend  that  their  number  is  proportionately,  shamefully  small, 
that  it  is  hourly  growing  smaller  and  that  there  are  in  the  social 
organism  enough  robust,  octopus-like  germs  to  make  short  work  of 
the  little  that  is  left,  unless  their  malevolent  course  is  speedily 
checked.  The  habitual  optimist  has  been  a  facile  tool  for  evil  in 
the  hands  of  the  professional  corruptionist.  Wherever  deeds  have 
been  too  hideous  to  be  seen  in  their  full  atrocity,  there  has  the  opti- 
mist ever  been  found  with  his  rosy  glow-lamp  dimly  lighting  the 
picture,  softening  the  obtrusive  hardness  of  its  outlines  and  so  blurring 
its  perspective  and  losing  its  details  that  it  might  almost  pass  for  a 
monochrome  of  virtue.  Under  his  rosy  lamp  the  hideous  frown  of 
imperialism  has  been  made  to  pass  for  the  beneficent  smile  of  patriot- 
ism. The  abuses  of  the  .Supreme  Court,  a  body  which  is  perhaps 
the  gravest  menace  to  American  America  which  to-day  confronts  our 

399 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

country,  the  pink-eyed  optimist  has  bedizened  in  the  cap,  bells  and 
motley  of  his  own  folly,  under  the  fallacious  impression  that  he  was 
clothing  Justice  in  unsullied  ermine.  Upon  every  occasion  and  in 
every  department  he  has  innocently  become  the  devil's  secretary. 
Nor  has  the  smell  of  sulDhur  alarmed  in  the  least  his  self-centred 
conscience.  He  has  promptly  concluded  that  the  odour  was  the  result 
of  a  beneficent  attempt  on  the  part  of  his  divinely  good  principals 
to  smoke  the  aphis  from  off  the  tree  of  life.  It  would  be  easy  to 
show  that  this  sort  of  "  optimism  "  is  not  real  optimism  at  all,  that 
it  has  in  it  nothing  either  regenerating  or  constructive,  but  is  what 
Mr.  Louis  F.  Post,  in  his  "  Ethics  of  Democracy/'  calls  "  spurious 
optimism."  Under  this  heading  he  says :  "  While  pessimism  as  a 
philosophy  has  been  correctly  characterised  as  a  species  of  atheism, 
that  characterisation  is  certainly  not  true  of  all  fault-finding;  and 
when  fault-finding  is  called  pessimism  and  then  indiscriminately  de- 
nounced as  atheism,  which  is  quite  a  usual  thing,  the  characterisation 
is  so  unjust  as  to  warrant  the  retort  in  kind  that  the  optimism  which 
consists  in  applause-making  is  devil  worship.  Indeed,  what  but  devil 
worship  can  it  be  to  make  applause  for  wrong-doing? 

"  Optimism,  as  too  commonly  understood  and  boastfully  inculcated, 
is  a  spurious  thing.  So  far  from  being  a  living  protest  against 
atheism,  as  genuine  optimism  is,  it  is  nothing  better  than  a  manifes- 
tation of  mental  and  spiritual  indolence.  '  Things  have  always  come 
out  right,  and  they  always  will ! '  laughs  the  spurious  opti- 
mist." .  .  . 

"  Too  lazy  mentally  to  think,  too  lazy  spiritually  to  desire  to  act, 
they  hail  contentment  as  a  virtue,  and  denounce  as  a  pessimist  who- 
ever disturbs  their  indolent  serenity. 

"  Think  for  a  moment  of  the  attitude  of  these  spurious  optimists. 
It  is  not  for  them  to  consider  indications  of  social  stagnation  or  de- 
cadence, nor  to  work  for  social  improvement.  Leave  all  that  to  God ! 
To  doubt  the  certainty  of  progress  is  to  doubt  Him.  Are  we  as  a 
nation  breaking  away  from  our  democratic  moorings  and  drifting  as 
the  republic  of  Eome  did,  into  a  whirlpool  of  imperialism  ?  '  Never 
fear !  God  will  take  care  of  us.  Don't  blaspheme  Him  by  urging 
that  the  prow  of  the  ship  of  state  be  turned  in  another  direction.  He 
will  do  that  Himself  if  it  is  for  the  best.  Let  us  enjoy  the  exciting 
voyage.  Don't  be  a  pessimist ! '  Are  our  institutions  making  classes 
of  very  rich  and  very  poor,  of  luxurious  idlers  and  impoverished 
workers  ?  '  Impossible.  God  is  too  good  to  allow  that,  and  He  is  too 
wise  and  powerful  to  need  advice  or  help  from  us.  Let  us  laugh  at 
these  idle  fears  and  enjoy  the  unparalleled  progress  we  are  making. 
Don't  be  a  pessimist ! ' 

"  That  is  not  genuine  optimism.  It  is  only  the  pathetic  optimism 
of  the  child  in  a  boat,  gliding  swifter  and  swifter  down  Niagara 
Kiver,  on  toward  the  brink  of  the  thundering  cataract,  that  claps  its 
hands  in  baby  glee  at  the  flowers  along  the  banks  as  they  rush  by, 
until  the  boat  topples  on  the  very  edge  of  the  abyss.  It  is  too  late 
then  for  genuine  optimism. 

"  Optimists  of  that  spurious  sort,  who  are  really  the  most  dangerous 
of  pessimists,  never  tire  of  cheerfully  assuring  everybody  that  'the 

40Q 


POLITICAL   CORRUPTION 

world  moves  onward  and  upward  in  spite  of  grumblers  and  fault- 
finders/ They  seldom  reflect  that  it  is  those  they  call  grumblers  and 
fault-finders,  the  people  who  '  rail/  as  they  would  put  it,  at  commu- 
nity evils  —  the  anti-monarchy  Sam  Adamses  and  Patrick  Henrys, 
the  anti-slavery  Garrisons  and  Beechers,  the  anti-monopoly  agitators 
of  our  own  time  —  who  compel  the  world  to  move  onward  and  up- 
ward. Yet  evils  must  be  rejected  if  progress  is  to  be  made.  No 
community  any  more  than  an  individual  soul  ever  learned  to  do  well 
without  first  ceasing  to  do  evil.  It  is  contrary  to  the  natural  order. 
'  Cease  to  do  evil ;  learn  to  do  well/  expresses  the  universal  sequence 
of  human  progress.  And  as  no  imperfect  individual  would  ever  cease 
to  do  evil  if  the  grumblings  and  fault-findings  of  his  conscience  did 
not  spur  him  to  it,  so  no  community  evils  would  ever  be  put  aside  if 
it  were  not  for  the  grumblers  and  fault-finders  who  disturb  the  social 
calm  by  demanding  that  society  cease  to  do  evil  in  order  that  it  may 
learn  to  do  well. 

"  What  happy-go-lucky  optimists  have  ever  contributed  to  the  on- 
ward and  upward  movement  of  the  world  ?  None.  They  seem  to  sup- 
pose that  the  world  moves  on  and  up,  not  in  consequence  of  impulses 
from  so-called  ( pessimists/  who  agonise  for  it,  dying  daily  upon  ten 
thousand  crosses  for  the  remission  of  its  sins,  but  through  some  di- 
vinely miraculous  influence  if  they  belong  to  a  church,  or  some 
atheistically  evolutionary  process  if  their  affiliations  are  '  scientific/  " 

Of  all  the  departments  of  life  none  has  withstood  the  black-is- 
white  hallelujahs  of  the  "  spurious  optimist "  so  well  as  politics. 
All  attempts  to  gild  the  modern  politician  seem  only  to  have  had  the 
effect  of  making  his  native  brass  look  still  more  brazen,  until,  at 
present  writing,  one  might  rake  the  country  with  a  fine-tooth  comb 
without  finding  a  corporal's  guard,  outside  of  lunatic  asylums,  who 
are  not  fully  aware  of  the  extreme  dishonesty  of  American  politics. 
It  is  common  knowledge  that  the  post-bellum  amendment  to  the 
Federal  Constitution,  designed  solely  for  the  purpose  of  safeguard- 
ing the  political  rights  of  the  black  man,  has  failed  utterly  in  accom- 
plishing that  purpose,  but  has  been  used  instead  to  enslave  the  white 
man  at  the  behest  of  monopoly  and  through  the  instrumentality  of  a 
conveniently  willowy  judiciary.  The  Southern  negro  is  openly  dis- 
franchised by  every  possible  means  and  upon  all  occasions  seeming  in 
the  opinion  of  politicians  to  warrant  it.  Voting-booths  have  even 
been  placed  where  they  could  only  be  reached  by  a  ladder,  and  then 
this  ladder  has  been  monopolised,  throughout  the  entire  time  the 
polls  were  open,  by  white  men  whose  snail-like  movements  effectually 
prevented  the  casting  of  the  black  vote.  We  quote  the  following  from 
a  speech  entitled  "The  Disfranchisement  of  the  Negro,"  delivered 
by  the  Hon.  Albert  E.  Pillsbury,  on  the  12th  of  Feb.,  1903,  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  Boston :  "  There  are  some  of  us,  at  least,  who  under- 
stand that,  until  every  black  man's  rights  are  secure,  no  white  man's 
rights  are  safe."  .  .  . 

"The  South  received  the  constitutional  amendments  with  a  sort 

of  sullen  submission  so  long  as  Federal  bayonets  were  in  sight.     When 

the  Federal  troops  were  withdrawn  from  the   South  in   1877,  the 

whites  proceeded  to  strip  the  negro  of  his  political  rights,  by  mob- 

20  401 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

bing  and  shooting  him  if  he  tried  to  exercise  them.  This  disturbed 
some  sensitive  minds  at  the  North;  and,  what  was  of  more  conse- 
quence, it  made  political  capital  for  the  Eepublican  party.  Accord- 
ingly, they  looked  for  a  better  device,  and  found  one.  For  shooting, 
they  substituted  cheating.  The  tissue  ballot  was  as  sure  as  the  bullet, 
and  it  looked  less  offensive.  They  made  no  secret  of  this.  The 
Charleston  man  who  claimed  to  have  invented  them  showed  me  his 
collection  of  fraudulent  ballots  in  1880,  and  boasted  of  the  success 
of  the  scheme. 

"  The  Republican  party  kept  up  the  attempt  to  vindicate  the  laws 
and  maintain  the  political  rights  of  all  citizens,  irrespective  of  colour, 
until  the  so-called  ' force  bill'  of  1890  had  to  be  abandoned,  because 
it  was  evident  that  public  sentiment  in  the  North  was  less  resolute 
in  support  of  it  than  was  the  public  sentiment  of  the  South  against 
it,  and  that  to  press  it  would  create  '  unpleasantness '  with  our  South- 
ern brethren. 

"  The  South  took  this  as  the  signal  that  the  North  had  abandoned 
the  negro.  Then  they  threw  off  the  mask,  and  began  openly  and  on 
a  large  scale  the  process  of  his  complete  disfranchisement  by  consti- 
tutional provisions.  Mississippi  led  the  way,  South  Carolina  followed, 
then  Louisiana,  and  Alabama,  and  Virginia,  and  so  on.  The  country 
has  looked  on  with  indifference  while  the  negro  has  been  stripped 
of  his  constitutional  rights,  and  a  state  of  things  established  so  much 
worse,  politically,  than  before  slavery  was  abolished,  that  while  but 
three-fifths  of  the  negroes  were  then  counted  in  the  basis  of  represen- 
tation, they  now  are  all  counted,  while  the  white  men  do  the  voting 
and  exercise  all  the  political  power.  In  the  former  slave  states  there 
was  in  1900  a  coloured  population,  in  round  numbers,  of  eight  mil- 
lions, calling  for  forty  representatives  in  Congress.  These  forty  rep- 
resentatives are  sitting  there,  making  laws  to  govern  us,  though  few 
if  any  of  them  have  a  constitutional  right  to  their  seats.  In  the 
five  states  which  have  already  disfranchised  the  negro  by  their  consti- 
tutions there  is  a  coloured  population,  in  round  numbers,  of  four 
millions,  practically  excluded  from  the  suffrage,  while  twenty  repre- 
sentatives are  sitting  and  voting  in  Congress  in  their  right." 

Mr.  Pillsbury  went  on  to  state  further,  that  the  South  had  no 
objection  to  the  negro  as  a  negro,  but  that  they  would  not  accept 
him  as  a  citizen,  saying :  "  And  one  of  the  leading  reasons  why  they 
will  not  accept  him  as  a  citizen,  as  they  openly  avow,  is  that  it  will 
impair  his  usefulness  as  a  labourer.  They  mean  to  reduce  him,  and 
they  are  reducing  him,  to  a  state  of  servitude  as  complete  actually, 
if  not  legally,  as  his  former  state  of  slavery.  The  old  axiom  of  the 
slave-owners  was  that  *  capital  should  own  labour/  This  is  practically 
what  they  are  now  aiming  at,  and  what  they  are  likely  to  accomplish 
if  we  stand  indifferent.  Indeed,  it  is  already  being  done.  Read  the 
peonage  laws  of  Alabama  and  other  states,  if  you  doubt  it." 

Referring  to  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  the  speaker  enunciated  the 
following  great  truth :  "  More  than  this,  it  was  adopted  as  a  measure 
of  high  political  wisdom,  in  view  of  the  fact,  which  a  few  far-sighted 
statesmen  saw  then,  and  sooner  or  later  the  blindest  of  us  will  come 
to  see,  that  free  institutions  can  stand  only  on  the  basis  of  equal 

403 


POLITICAL   CORRUPTION 

rights,  and  that  no  great  body  of  citizens  can  be  defrauded  of  their 
rights  without  corrupting  the  whole  political  body  and  putting  in  peril 
the  rights  of  all  the  rest.  And,  finally,  it  was  adopted  to  make  im- 
possible the  very  thing  which  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  left  open, 
and  which  has  now  happened, —  the  actual  exclusion  of  millions  of 
citizens  from  the  suffrage,  while  those  who  exclude  them  retain  the 
political  power  to  represent  them  in  Congress  and  in  the  choice  of 
presidents.  Some  of  the  northern  apologists  for  this  crime  are  fond 
of  saying  that  President  Lincoln  never  would  have  favoured  negro 
suffrage.  One  of  the  last  declarations  of  Lincoln,  whose  prophetic 
vision  had 'already  forecast  this  issue,  was  that  negro  suffrage  would 
have  to  come,  on  grounds  both  of  justice  and  expediency.  Have  we 
abandoned  Abraham  Lincoln  to  follow  Elihu  Root? 

"  If  any  man  supposes  that  we  can  safely  submit  to  have  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  United  States  defied  and  set  at  naught  by  disfran- 
chising the  negro  race,  he  is  not  fit  to  be  entrusted  with  political 
power.  The  general  reasons  against  it  are  enough,  but  let  me  put  a 
concrete  case.  Some  day  there  will  be  a  presidential  election  so  close 
that  it  will  turn  upon  a  handful  of  electoral  votes.  Each  state  has  a 
'number  of  electoral  votes  equal  to  the  whole  number  of  senators  and 
representatives  in  Congress  '  to  which  the  state  may  be  entitled.'  The 
Eepublican  party,  in  order  to  retain  power,  will  then  be  obliged  to 
raise,  and  of  course  will  raise,  the  question  of  the  right  of  the  electors 
of  the  states  which  have  disfranchised  the  negro  to  vote  in  the  choice 
of  president.  We  shall  then  have  this  issue  precipitated  upon  us 
under  the  most  difficult  and  exciting  conditions,  and  the  result  will 
be  a  convulsion  that  will  shake  the  government  to  its  foundation.  The 
dispute  of  1876  was  but  a  passing  breeze  in  comparison  with  the 
storm  that  may  burst  upon  us  if  we  leave  the  question  to  be  dealt  with 
in  the  fiercest  heat  of  party  passions,  with  the  possession  of  the  gov- 
ernment at  stake." 

Quoting  the  words  of  Lincoln  addressed  to  his  countrymen  in  1857 : 
— "In  your  greedy  chase  to  make  profit  of  the  negro,  beware  lest 
you  cancel  and  tear  to  pieces  the  white  man's  charter  of  freedom,"- 
Mr.  Pillsbury  concluded :  "  Have  they  forgotten  the  price  they  had 
to  pay  to  save  the  white  man's  charter?  Every  dollar  of  it,  and 
every  drop  of  blood,  was  the  price  of  injustice  to  the  negro.  Shall 
we  pay  the  price  again  ?  —  or  shall  we  act  on  that  prophetic  admoni- 
tion, and  act  in  time  ?  " 

This  is  no  new  condition.  It  is  so  old,  so  well  known,  so  matter 
of  course,  that  it  scarcely -attracts  more  than  a  passing  comment  from 
those  who  witness  it.  Nor  is  this  form  of  political  corruption  di- 
rected solely  against  the  black  race.  The  history  of  the  Bucklin 
amendment  in  Colorado  will  be  profitable  reading  to  any  one  suffi- 
ciently uninformed  still  to  think  that  the  white  man  has  escaped  this 
baneful,  political  corruption. 

Another  form  of  political  corruption,  for  which  a  new  word  has 
been  coined,  is  what  is  called  "  Ripperism."  In  explaining  this  term, 
and  at  the  same  time  citing  some  of  its  applications  we  cannot  do 
better  than  to  quote  from  an  editorial  in  "  The  Public "  of  April 
26,  1902. 

403 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

"  Political  movements  toward  industrial  justice  seem  likely  to  fmd~ 
their  starting-points  in  cities.  Cleveland  and  Toledo  are  just  now 
instances  in  point.  The  latest  newspaper  word,  is  the  verb  active  to 
'  tomjohnsonise/  The  answer  of  the  plutocrat  is  the  new  expression 
'  ripperism/ 

"  The  cities  which  become  imbued  with  real  democratic  Democracy, 
and  show  symptoms  of  putting  it  into  effect  in  the  form  of  laws  for 
the  municipal  ownership  of  public  utilities,  or  the  placing  on  the 
monopolies  of  something  like  their  true  share  of  the  burden  of  taxa- 
tion, are  to  be  disciplined  and  plundered  at  once  by  ripper  legislation. 
Indeed  in  Pennsylvania  ripperism  was  inaugurated  for  plunder  rather 
than  party  advantage;  and  the  extent  of  the  stealings  of  the  Quay 
machine,  in  the  form  of  franchise  grants  in  cities,  made  at  Harris- 
burg  in  defiance  of  the  wishes  of  the  people  of  the  cities  interested, 
together  with  the  shamelessness  of  the  robbery,  has  been  something 
to  excite  the  astonishment  and  horror  of  the  civilised  world. 

"  The  Eepublican  majority  in  Ohio  is  said  to  be  casting  about  for 
means  to  deprive  Cleveland  of  local  self-government  by  a  ripper  bill 
to  balk  Mayor  Johnson;  and  a  modified  form  of  ripperism  has  been 
used  in  Michigan,  to  hold  in  check  the  progessists  of  Detroit. 

"  Kipperism  is  based  upon  the  idea  that  cities  are  mere  creations  of 
the  state  legislature,  with  no  inherent  right  to  self-government. 
Pennsylvania  courts  have  long  held  to  this  view;  and  Quay  and  his 
crowd  found  the  laws  all  in  their  favour.  But  in  Michigan  a  different 
state  of  things  existed. 

"  Largely  through  the  opinions  and  writings  of  one  man,  Michigan's 
great  constitutional  lawyer,  Thomas  M.  Cooley,  ripperism  in  Michi- 
gan has  to  overcome  the  obstacle  of  a  splendid  series  of  Supreme 
Court  decisions  upholding  the  inherent  right  of  local  self-government 
in  cities.  In  Pennsylvania,  when  it  is  the  desire  of  an  unscrupulous 
machine  to  rob  cities,  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  state  legislature  to 
do  is  to  pass  an  act  removing  the  mayor  and  common  council  and 
appointing  machine  parasites,  either  resident  or  non-resident,  armed 
with  the  requisite  licence  to  steal.  This  has  been  done  time  and  time 
again  in  Pennsylvania.  But  in  Michigan,  and  all  states  following  the 
same  rule  of  law,  some  mode  must  be  found  of  doing  the  same  thing 
through  the  medium  of  locally  elected  officers.  So  we  find  the  Michi- 
gan ripper  bills  but  a  faint  shadow  of  those  of  Pennsylvania.  Boards 
are  reorganised  by  state  laws,  and  the  appointment  of  the  new  boards 
placed  with  mayor  or  council,  as  one  or  the  other  happens  to  be  for 
the  moment  '  right '  on  the  question.  But  the  ghost  of  Cooley  still 
pronounces  its  '  Thou  shalt  not '  against  the  real  thing  in  ripperism. 

"  For  the  courts  of  Michigan  have  spoken  in  no  uncertain  tones  on 
this  point.  They  have  said  that  the  city  existed  anterior  to  the  state,- 
and  the  right  to  build  cities  and  to  govern  them  is  a  right  which 
men  had  before  any  state  constitution  was  adopted.  They  have  said 
that  back  of  the  written  constitution  is  an  unwritten  constitution, 
under  which  cities  have  the  right  to  local  self-government/' 

It  will  be  remembered  that  "  ripperism  "  was  made  to  do  yeoman 
service  in  1902  against  the  reforms  of  Tom  Johnson,  Mayor  of  Cleve- 
land, Ohio.  The  legislature  of  the  state  was  practically  in  the  hands 

404: 


POLITICAL   CORRUPTION 

of  that  great  corrupter  of  political  morality,  the  late  Mark  Hanna. 
The  first  attack  upon  the  city  of  Cleveland  was  made  on  April  17, 
1902,  and  consisted  of  the  passage  of  a  bill  taking  the  control  of  the 
park  system  of  Cleveland  away  from  the  city  and  placing  it  under 
a  special  board.  On  the  first  of  May  another  "  ripper "  bill  was 
passed  as  a  republican  party  measure.  This  was  a  tax-board  "  ripper  " 
bill,  the  object  of  which  was  to  legislate  out  of  office  in  Cleveland 
the  city  tax-board,  appointed  by  Mayor  Johnson,  and  to  provide  that 
any  county  auditor  may  request  and  secure  from  the  state  board  of 
appraisers  and  assessors  the  appointment  of  a  tax  review  to  supersede 
all  other  taxing  bodies. 

The  cause  of  this  was  the  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Johnson 
board  to  raise  the  valuation  for  taxation  of  local  monopolies,  includ- 
ing street  railways,  to  the  60  %  basis  at  which  other  kinds  of  property 
are  appraised  for  taxation.  This  lawless  "  ripperism  "  in  Ohio  was 
by  no  means  confined  to  the  city  of  Cleveland.  The  city  of  Toledo 
came  in  for  its  share  also. 

The  object  of  the  Toledo  outrage  was  to  obstruct  the  administra- 
tion of  Mayor  Samuel  M.  Jones,  known  as  "  Golden  Eule  Jones,"  and 
to  serve  the  party  machine.  For  these  purposes  the  legislature  legis- 
lated the  police  commission,  of  which  Mayor  Jones  was  ex-officio 
president,  out  of  office,  and  authorised  the  governor  to  appoint  a 
police  board  in  its  place.  Mayor  Jones  refused  to  submit  to  this 
action.  The  matter  was  considered  by  the  whole  board,  which  adopted 
resolutions  from  which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

"  Resolved,  That  we  regard  this  act  of  the  legislature  as  a  species 
of  tyranny  that  we  as  free  men  must  resist,  as  a  meek  surrender  of 
our  responsibilities  would  prove  that  we  are  unworthy  of  the  confi- 
dence reposed  in  us  by  the  voters  who  elected  us;  and,  further,  be  it 
resolved  that  the  chief  of  police  is  hereby  instructed  to  take  his  orders 
from  this  board  as  heretofore.  'Resistance  to  tyrants  is  obedience 
to  God/  K 

Commenting  on  these  high-handed  practices,  "  The  Columbus 
Press"  says,  under  date  of  April  29,  1902:  "Director  Salen,  of 
Mayor  Johnson's  cabinet,  hits  the  nail  on  the  head  when  he  says  that 
each  city  should  have  absolute  home  rule  and  form  its  own  govern- 
ment. Home  rule  is  being  made  more  popular  as  an  issue  by  vicious 
ripper  legislation,  not  only  in  Ohio  but  in  other  states.  The  people 
of  any  organised  community  should  be  best  qualified  to  determine  the 
form  of  local  government  they  want.  If  the  legislature,  as  Mr.  Salen 
suggests,  would  put  an  end  to  ripperism  forever  by  passing  an  enabling 
act  permitting  municipalities  to  have  their  own  constitutional  conven- 
tion and  establish  a  system  of  home  government  subject  to  ratifica- 
tion by  a  referendum,  our  state  Solons  would  find  something  more 
useful  to  do  during  a  session  of  the  legislature  than  connive  and  con- 
spire to  rip,  reorganise  and  disorganise  the  system  for  governing  our 
chief  cities.  Home  rule  in  temperance  laws  and  home  rule  in  tax- 
ation do  not  comprehend  all  the  vital  interests  of  a  community,  but 
the  reasons  advanced  in  favour  of  these  issues  could  easily  be  broadened 
into  arguments  in  favour  of  absolute  home  rule  on  all  local  affairs." 
Referring  to  the  same  subject,  "  The  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer  "  said, 

405 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

in  its  issue  of  May  4,  1902:  "'  There  is  a  bare  possibility  of  the 
Ohio  Kepublicans  going  into  the  municipal  ripping  ring  just  once 
too  often/  says  the  '  Washington  Post/  And  just  once  is  quite  often 
enough  to  insure  the  usual  penalty." 

In  considering  present  political  corruption  we  cannot  refrain  from 
mentioning  the  last  Mayoralty  election  in  New  York.  On  this  occa- 
sion certain  sections  of  the  metropolis  presented  a  "hells-kitchen" 
aspect  which  we  do  not  believe  could  be  duplicated  anywhere  in  the 
world  outside  of  the  United  States.  Certainly  such  atrocities  would 
not  be  tolerated  in  any  other  civilised  community,  if  we  are  war- 
ranted in  so  characterising  this  country. 

While  it  is  not  easy  to  bring  such  accusations  home  in  specific  in- 
stances, for  reasons  which  will  be  apparent,  yet  it  is  well  known,  by 
all  those  enlightened  upon  such  subjects,  that  the  police  of  many  of 
our  large  cities  are  directly  in  league  with  the  criminals  they  are  sup- 
posed to  hunt.  This  is  notoriously  true,  for  example,  of  New  York. 
Not  only  are  houses  of  ill  fame,  kitchen  bar-rooms  and  gambling 
resorts  protected  and  exploited  by  the  police,  but  they  actually  divide 
plunder  with  pick-pockets  and  sneak-thieves. 

Concerning  this  subject  Mr.  Henry  Crcorge,  Jr.,  says,  in  his  "  The 
Menace  of  Privilege  " :  "  What  fosters  the  police  blackmail  evil  is  the 
policy  so  prevalent  in  this  country  of  late  years  of  using  criminals 
to  catch  criminals.  This  makes  a  back-door  connexion  between  the 
police  and  what  might  be  called  '  the  instituted  criminals.'  It  is  told 
as  illustrative  of  this  connexion  that  a  certain  judge  complained  at 
New  York  Police  Headquarters  that  he  had  had  his  pocket  picked 
while  crossing  Brooklyn  Bridge,  and  had  lost  his  watch,  the  number 
of  which  he  gave.  A  detective  was  put  upon  the  case.  A  few  hours 
later  report  was  made  to  the  judge  that  he  must  have  been  mistaken ; 
that  he  must  have  lost  his  watch  somewhere  else ;  that  the  department 
had  means  of  locating  every  watch  stolen  on  the  bridge  during  the 
last  forty-eight  hours  and  that  no  watch  bearing  the  number  he  had 
given  was  among  them ! 

"  It  is  furthermore  a  solemn  fact  that  corruption  money  is  actually 
used  by  the  Police  Department  and  the  District  Attorney's  Office  in 
New  York  City  to  get  evidence  against  infractors  of  the  liquour  laws 
and  against  disreputable  houses.  On  file  in  the  Controller's  office  in 
New  York  may  be  seen  the  approved  and  paid  bills  of  *  plain  clothes 
men '  and  '  special  detectives '  for  clothing  outfits,  theatre  tickets,  sup- 
pers, carriages,  wines  and  women.  Controller  Edward  M.  Grout  early 
in  his  administration  made  a  vigourous  and  indignant  public  protest 
against  this  use  of  public  moneys,  but  the  District  Attorney's  office 
and  the  Police  Department  said  the  practice  was  necessary,  and  dis- 
cussion of  the  matter  soon  dropped;  but  not  the  practice,  which  has 
continued." 

He  says  further,  "  Criminal  gangs  flourish  in  particular  localities 
until  their  too  brash  operations  at  last  raise  such  a  public  outcry  as 
to  cause  them  to  be  routed  out  by  the  police.  For  that  matter,  it  is 
too  plain  to  be  ignored  or  denied  that  the  police  organisation  itself 
in  the  greater  cities  is  made  largely  particeps  criminis.  Many  police 
chiefs,  superintendents,  inspectors  and  captains,  not  in  New  York 

406 


POLITICAL   CORRUPTION 

alone,  but  in  most  of  the  cities,  have,  with  but  brief  interruption, 
regularly  demanded  and  regularly  received  heavy  blackmail  as  the 
price  of  blindness  to  vice  and  crime. 

"  It  is  true  that  the  infraction  of  puritanical  sumptuary  laws,  which 
is  made  a  penal  offence,  is  the  cause  of  many  arrests.  Yet,  being  on 
the  statute  books,  they  should  be  obeyed.  And  it  should  be  the  duty 
and  practice  of  the  law's  municipal  servants  to  see  to  their  enforce- 
ment. But  it  is  seriously  and  credibly  charged  that,  while  the  ar- 
rests in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  for  the  year  1903  amounted  to  the 
enormous  number  of  75,699  cases,  a  great  number  of  most  serious  cases 
of  vice  and  crime  were  overlooked  by  the  police  for  blood-money. 

"  The  ratio  of  arrests  in  Philadelphia  for  1903  was  one  person  out  of 
every  seventeen  of  the  population. 

"  That  is  exceeded  by  New  York  and  Chicago  only  in  the  greater 
gravity  of  offence.  The  cases  of  four  young  men  in  the  latter  city 
illustrates  the  nature  of  these  crimes.  Gustav  Marx,  age  twenty-one; 
Peter  Niedermeyer,  age  thirty-two;  Harvey  van  Dine,  age  twenty- 
one  ;  and  Emil  Roeski,  age  nineteen,  acting  together,  committed  eight 
murders  and  at  least  one  hundred  hold-ups.  The  most  significant  fact 
in  relation  to  these  young  men  was  that  they  were  American  born, 
and  belonged  to  what  many  might  regard  as  middle-class  families. 
They  but  imitated  those  driven  to  such  things  by  poverty,  or  the 
fear  of  it. 

"  And  if  present  tendencies  continue,  we  shall  soon  have  among  us 
a  horrible  practice  which  has  caused  such  grave  scandal  in  England  — 
the  crime  of  murdering  children  for  the  insurance  placed  on  their 
lives.  Not  only  have  such  atrocities  been  detected  of  late,  but  also 
cases  where  men,  without  their  knowledge,  were  insured  for  a  few 
hundred  dollars,  and  then  mysteriously  died.  A  series  of  such  cold- 
blooded crimes  occurred  recently  in  Bayonne,  New  Jersey,  one  of  £he 
commercial  and  industrial  suburbs  of  New  York  City. 

"  Mr.  S.  S.  McClure  shocked  the  thoughtful  of  the  country  by  quoi> 
ing,  in  '  McClure's  Magazine,'  for  December,  1904,  a  summary  of 
statistics  on  murders  and  homicides  throughout  the  country,  collected 
by  the  '  Chicago  Tribune/  and  covering  twelve  years  ending  1902. 
These  figures  seemed  to  prove  that  in  1904  there  were  four  and  a  half 
times  as  many  murders  and  homicides  for  each  million  of  people  in 
the  United  States  as  there  were  in  1881." 

The  favourite  habit  of  the  optimistic  American  in  such  cases  is  to 
lay  all  these  atrocities  at  the  door  of  immigration,  but  those  who  are 
looking  for  the  truth,  rather  than  for  a  pleasant  and  lulling  sedative 
pill  of  optimism,  will  have  no  difficulty  in  seeing  that  this  is  an  expla- 
nation which  does  not  explain.  Mr.  George  has  the  following  foot- 
note referring  to  this  subject :  "  Mr.  McClure  says  that,  taking  the 
census  for  1900  as  a  basis,  from  only  one  country  sending  us  emigrants 
—  Russia,  which  sent  us  only  1-23  part  of  all  that  came  that  year  — 
was  there  a  higher  murder  and  homicide  rate  than  in  the  United 
States.  And  even  in  Russia  the  rate  but  slightly  exceeded  ours.  The 
remaining  22-23  of  the  immigrants  came  from  countries  no  one  of 
which  has  half  as  many  murders  and  homicides  per  million  popula- 
tion as  we  have.  See  '  McClure's  Magazine,'  December,  1904." 

407 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

If  there  be  any  who  still  believe  morality  in  this  country  is  not 
breaking  down,  we  invite  them  again  to  consider  the  astonishing  show- 
ing of  the  city  of  brotherly  love  for  the  year  of  our  Lord  1903,  to  wit, 
one  person  arrested  out  of  every  seventeen  of  the  population. 

In  regard  to  present-day  corruption  and  its  effect  upon  the  courts, 
the  legislatures,  and  the  ballot-box,  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Lawson  says,  in 
his  "  Fools  and  Their  Money,"  published  in  the  May,  1906,  "  Every- 
body's Magazine  " :  "  It  is  through  this  machinery  that  the  *  .System ' 
is  enabled  to  prevent  the  present  laws  being  enforced  or  the  making 
of  new  laws  which  would  reverse  it.  To  this  I  know  the  entire  brood 
of  theoretical  reformers  will  object.  I  am  not  dealing  in  theories  but 
in  hard,  cold  practicalities.  Illustration : 

"  Heinze,  Cole,  Ryan,  Rogers,  and  their  ilk  make  by  a  trick  one  hun- 
dred millions  of  securities.  They  exchange  them  for  the  dollars  of 
the  people.  The  people  go  to  law  to  get  back  their  money.  These 
'  System '  votaries  use,  if  necessary,  one-half  of  their  spoils,  fifty  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  to  'educate'  the  courts  and  law-enforcers.  Courts 
and  the  law-enforcers,  being  human,  are  '  educated/  Had  the  peo- 
ple fifty  millions,  and  were  they  willing  to  meet  the  '  .System  *  in  its 
'vile  methods,  there  might  be  some  show  for  them,  but  having  been 
robbed  of  one  hundred  millions,  they  have  no  fifty  millions  to  stack 
up  against  the  *  System's '  pile  —  they  have  nothing  to  stack  up 
against  the  '  System's '  pile.  Hence  present  and  future  unhappy  con- 
ditions. 

"  So  it  is  with  the  ballot-box.  When  the  time  comes  for  the  people 
to  stack  up  against  the  Heinze-Cole-Ryan-Rogers  gangs  with  their 
scores  of  hundreds  of  millions,  they  will  have  about  the  same  chance 
as  eighty  million  snow-flakes  would  have  of  extinguishing  the  fires  of 
hell.  Again  I  hear  the  theorists  protest,  and  loudly  proclaim  that 
the  ballot-box  is  the  panacea  for  all  our  ills.  Yet  each  of  the  Big 
Three  insurance  companies  not  only  admitted  that  the  policy-holders' 
money  had  been  contributed  to  campaign  funds  to  be  used  in  perpetu- 
ating the  control  of  vested  interests  at  the  polls,  but  the  'System's' 
great  votaries  who  act  as  trustees  for  the  policy-holders'  money  stood 
up  in  their  boots  when  caught  and  boldly  swore  that  this  money  had 
been  given  to  the  Republican  party  to  save  the  nation  from  anarchy. 
And  McCall,  on  his  death-bed,  declared  that  if  he  had  the  opportunity 
he  would  do  it  over  again,  and  this  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  a  large 
proportion  of  the  policy-holders  of  the  Big  Three  were  Democrats, 
who  at  the  time  were  working  and  spending  their  own  money  to  defeat 
the  Republicans.  Even  the  great  'Andy'  Hamilton,  who  admitted 
having  spent  a  million  and  a  half  to  three  millions  of  the  policy- 
holders'  money  in  '  educating '  legislatures  and  courts,  returned  from 
Europe  for  the  express  purpose  of  appearing  before  the  New  York 
Legislature  and  openly  glorifying  that  act  and  others  akin  to  it  — 
yes,  and  the  New  York  Legislature  cheered  him  to  the  echo ! " 

Regarding  the  Insurance  Corruption  recently  unearthed,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  the  ledger  assets  and  income  of  the  Equitable 
Assurance  Society  is  approximately  $440,000,000,  while  its  paid-up 
capital  is  only  1-4400  of  that  amount.  Now  whoever  controls  the 
majority  interest  in  this  $100,000  capital  controls  the  business  of  the 

408 


POLITICAL   CORRUPTION 

company.  In  reference  to  this  subject  Mr.  Henry  George,  Jr.,  says, 
in  his  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege  " :  "  Gay  young  Mr.  James  Hazen 
Hyde  owned  $50,200  par  value  of  this  Equitable  stock.  He  therefore 
was  in  the  end  the  master  of  the  Equitable  Society.  He  transferred 
that  majority  interest  to  Mr.  Thomas  F.  Eyan.  The  purchase  price 
was  presumably  several  million  dollars,  for  while  the  par  value  of  this 
block  of  Equitable  stock  can,  by  the  limitation  of  the  charter,  earn 
only  $3,514  per  annum  in  dividends,  the  control  of  the  society,  and 
the  handlings  of  its  moneys  is  worth  millions. 

"  Mr.  Ryan,  who  thus  became  the  virtual  master  of  the  Equitable, 
also  is  believed  to  control  the  big  Mutual  Life  and  the  smaller  Wash- 
ington Life  Insurance  Companies.  The  ledger  assets  and  incomes  of 
the  three  companies  approximate  $1,000,000,000 ! 

"  Why  does  Mr.  Ryan  want  control  of  these  enormous  funds  ?  Not 
because  he  wishes  to  engage  in  the  life  insurance  business.  He  may 
know  little  and  care  less  about  such  a  business,  considered  in  itself. 
He  desires  control  of  its  great  investment  funds  because  he  wants 
to  name  the  investments  in  which  the  funds  shall  be  placed.  For  many 
years  it  was  the  policy  of  the  insurance  companies  to  invest  largely  in 
United  States,  State  and  municipal  bonds.  Late  reports  show  that 
now  such  bonds  constitute  but  a  small  fraction  of  one  per  cent,  of 
their  assets.  What  are  those  assets?  Largely  railroad  stocks  and 
bonds.  And  who  controls  the  railroads  ?  Mr.  Ryan  and  his  railroad- 
king  and  banking  friends.  Mr.  Jacob  H.  Schiff  admitted  before  the 
Legislative  Investigating  Committee  in  New  York,  that  his  banking 
house  had  sold  many  million  dollars'  worth  of  securities  to  the  Equi- 
table. Mr.  Schiff  is  and  was  during  these  transactions  on  the  finance 
committee  of  the  Equitable  .Society,  and  the  transactions  were  con- 
ducted in  the  teeth  of  the  insurance  statutes  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
which  expressly  forbids  the  director  of  an  insurance  company  from 
participating  in  any  way  in  the  purchase  for  such  company  of  securi- 
ties of  another  company  in  which  he  has  interest. 

"  And  the  relation  that  Mr.  Schiff  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Co.,  bankers, 
held  toward  the  Equitable  Life,  Mr.  George  W.  Perkins  of  J.  P. 
Morgan  &  Co.,  bankers,  held  toward  the  New  York  Life  Insurance 
Company.  As  finance  committee  chairman  of  the  latter  company, 
Mr.  Perkins  sold  to  it  large  quantities  of  securities  of  companies  pro- 
moted by  his  own  banking  house. 

"  Is  it  not  clear  that  men  of  the  Morgan  and  Ryan  type  possess  great 
financial  powers  arising  from  the  privilege  of  incorporation,  and,  be- 
hind that,  of  transportation,  and  other  privileges?  And  these  privi- 
leges and  powers  give  them  potency  in  legislation  by  which  to  protect 
what  they  have  and  to  acquire  new  privileges  and  powers.  This  is 
constantly  shown  in  our  Federal  and  State  capitals,  where  the  lobbies 
are  supported  by  Privilege.  Did  not  Mr.  George  W.  Perkins,  chair- 
man of  the  finance  committee  of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany, testify  before  the  legislative  investigating  committee  that  his 
company  made  a  contribution  of  $48,000  to  the  Republican  National 
Committee- fund  in  the  presidential  contest  of  1904-,  and  that  it  like- 
wise made  a  $50,000  contribution  to  the  same  fund  in  each  of  the 
immediately  preceding  contests  ?  Did  it  not  further  appear  from  tes- 

409 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

timony  that  the  '  big  three '  insurance  companies,  New  York,  Equi- 
table and  Mutual,  were  in  the  habit  of  paying  regularly  into  a  legis- 
lative fund  '  to  effect  legislation? ' ' 

Referring  to  the  shady  business  methods  of  the  said  Insurance 
Companies,  the  same  author  says :  "  And  what  can  be  made  of  the 
books  of  such  banking  and  fiduciary  magnates  at  the  best,  when  Mr. 
Perkins,  chairman  of  the  finance  committee  of  the  New  York  Life 
Insurance  Company,  testifies  under  oath  in  the  legislative  investiga- 
tion that  his  company,  not  wishing  to  have  the  public  find  a  certain 
investment  of  $800,000  in  the  bonds  of  the  International  Mercantile 
Marine  Company,  exchanged  those  bonds  on  December  31,  1903,  with 
J..P.  Morgan  &  Co.,  of  which  firm  Mr.  Perkins  is  a  member,  for  a 
check  of  the  same  amount,  $800,000,  and  then,  on  January  2,  1904, 
reexchanged  check  and  securities?  In  this  way  the  insurance  com- 
pany, in  its  sworn  report  to  the  Insurance  Commissioner  of  New 
York,  could  show  $800,000  cash  assets,  instead  of  that  particular 
amount  of  the  Marine  Company's  bonds."  .  .  . 

"  President  McCall,  of  the  New  York  Life,  testified  before  the 
legislative  investigating  committee  that  his  company  alone  paid  one 
Andrew  Hamilton  nearly  $800,000  within  a  period  of  five  years,  mostly 
for  '  watching.'  For  no  part  of  this  large  sum  does  a  receipt  seem 
to  have  been  asked  or  given.  Mr.  Hamilton  was  merely  looked  to 
for  '  results.'  That  this  '  watching '  takes  an  active  as  well  as  a  pas- 
sive form  is  evident  from  the  shaping  of  life-insurance  legislation. 
Such  a  policy  of  '  watching '  and  '  shaping '  is  of  long  standing.  Mr. 
Henry  B.  Hyde,  founder  of  the  Equitable  company,  for  instance,  as 
early  as  1867,  secured  an  amendment  to  the  insurance  law  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  striking  out  the  requirement  that  insurance  com- 
panies must  pay  dividends  to  their  policy-holders  every  five  years,  and 
provided  instead  that  they  may  declare  dividends  '  from  time  to  time/ 
This  '  from  time  to  time '  clause  has  ever  since  remained  the  language 
of  the  New  York  law,  with  the  result  that  dividends  of  the  insurance 
companies  incorporated  under  it  are  as  elusive  as  the  jam  that  Alice 
in  Wonderland  complained  of  — '  jam  yesterday  and  to-morrow,  but 
never  to-day.' '' 


410 


CHAPTER  II 
A    KINGDOM    OF.  THE    DOLLAR 


411 


At  length  corruption,  like  a  general  flood 
(So  long  by  watchful  ministers  withstood), 
Shall  deluge  all;  and  avarice,  creeping  on, 
Spread  like  a  low-born  mist,  and  blot  the  sun. 

Pope  —  Moral  Essays. 

The  movement  of  thought  and  events  in  America  is  in  the  direction  of 
direct  legislation  as  is  also  the  general  trend  of  political  history  through- 
out the  civilised  world.  All  over  the  world,  the  current  sets  from  despot- 
ism to  democracy.  Thrones  have  been  crumbling  for  a  hundred  years, 
Constitutions  have  been  written  and  are  growing  more  and  more  liberal, 
giving  the  people  larger  and  larger  powers.  The  whole  movement  is 
toward  the  full  and  effective  sovereignty  of  the  people  in  the  expression  of 
which  direct  legislation  performs  so  indispensable  a  part. 

Our  century  is  filled  from  end  to  end  with  the  growth  of  the  people's 
power.  The  progress  of  civilisation  means  the  uplift  of  the  common  peo- 
ple. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons  —  The  City  for  the  People. 

But  the  jingling  of  the  guinea  helps  the  hurt  that  Honour  feels. 

Tennyson  —  Locksley  Hall. 

Government  is  a  trust,  and  the  officers  of  the  government  are  trustees; 
and  both  the  trusts  and  the  trustees  are  created  for  the  benefit  of  the 
people. 

Henry  Clay  —  Speech  at  Lexington. 

Patricians  and  plebeians,  aristocrats  and  democrats,  have  alike  stained 
their  hands  with  blood  in  the  working  out  of  the  problem  of  politics. 
But  impartial  history  declares  also  that  the  crimes  of  the  popular  party 
have  in  all  ages  been  the  lighter  in  degree,  while  in  themselves  they  have 
more  to  excuse  them;  and  if  the  violent  acts  of  revolutionists  have  been 
held  up  more  conspicuously  for  condemnation,  it  has  been  only  because 
the  fate  of  noblemen  and  gentlemen  has  been  more  impressive  to  the 
imagination  than  the  fate  of  the  peasant  or  the  artisan. 

Fronde's  "  Ccesar." 


412 


CHAPTER  II 

A    KINGDOM   OF   THE    DOLLAR 


T  is  a  bit  jarring  to  our  national  egotism  to  learn 
that  other  countries  do  certain  things  in  a  way  which 
leaves  us  far  in  arrears,  yet  since  we  are  after  the 
unvarnished  truth  we  must  confess  that  such  is  the 
case.  In  insurance  matters,  not  to  mention  many 
other  departments  of  human  activities  of  which  the 
same  might  be  said,  Germany  can  teach  us  much  upon  the  subject. 
New  Zealand  is  so  far  beyond  us  that  she  seems  to  have  passed  out 
of  our  range  of  observation.  Switzerland  leads  us  here,  as  in  most 
other  things  political  and  social.  Comparing  the  corrupt  methods 
in  vogue  in  the  United  States  with  the  better  political  and  social  con- 
ditions in  Switzerland,  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Russell  says,  in  the 
April,  1906,  installment  of  his  "  Soldiers  of  the  Common  Good," 
published  in  "  Everybody's  Magazine  " :  "  Whether  we  like  or  dis- 
like the  admission  we  shall  confess,  if  we  know  them  intimately,  that 
the  Swiss  fare  exceedingly  well.  In  Switzerland  are  no  trusts,  no 
criminal  conspiracies  of  capital,  no  '  Systems,'  no  Standard  Oil  Com- 
panies,- no  advancing  and  swelling  money  autocracies  to  corrupt  the 
courts  and  seise  the  government,  no  special  enactments  are  favoured 
speculators,  no  purchased  elections,  no  political  bosses,  no  crooked 
Congressmen,  no  greasy  Senators  elected  by  the  railroad  companies, 
no  public  officers  maintained  by  thieving  corporations,  no  Aldriches, 
no  Depews,  no  Platts,  no  Forakers,  no  persons  that  in  the  least  re- 
semble this  precious  crew.  In  Switzerland  is  no  gang  of  public  plun- 
derers operating  under  the  shield  of  the  Government,  no  theft  of  the 
public  lands,  no  exchange  of  campaign  subscriptions  for  Government 
favours,  no  John  D.  Rockefeller,  no  H.  H.  Rogers,  no  Ogden  Armour, 
no  Pierpont  Morgan  —  on  a  great  scale  or  a  small  is  none  of  these, 
nor  likely  to  be.  Finally,  in  Switzerland  is  no  menace  that  the 
country's  resources  will  be  absorbed  by  a  few  individuals,  no  tremen- 
dous threat  of  the  accumulative  power  of  great  fortunes."  .  .  . 

"  The  Swiss  conception  of  a  public  office  seems  equally  odd.  Cer- 
tain men  are  hired  to  do  what  the  Swiss  people  tell  them  to  do.  That 
is  all.  A  Swiss  public  officer  would  not  think  it  well  to  take  office 
and  then  refuse  or  neglect  to  perform  the  duty  he  was  hired  to  per- 
form; he  would  not  think  it  conducive  to  health.  If  he  were  put 
into  office  to  prosecute  public  thieves  he  would  proceed  to  prosecute 
them.  They  might  be  some  of  the  best  fellows  in  the  world*  and  great 
friends  of  his  party  and  otherwise  admirable;  he  would  plod  on  and 
prosecute  them,  And  he  would  convict  them.  And  they  would  be 
sentenced  to  prison.  And  there  would  be  no  new  trials,  no  reversals, 

413 


no  stays,  no  delays.  Once  condemned,  the  criminals  would  go  to 
prison  and  remain  there  until  their  sentences  expired,  and  meantime 
fare  exactly  like  any  other  thieves.  And  that  seems  to  be  one  good 
reason  why  there  are  no  public  thieves  in  Switzerland.  Thieving  is 
not  a  healthful  occupation  there;  people  do  not  yearn  for  it.  In 
America  a  judge  of  a  Federal  Court  found  on  investigation  that  the 
Beef  Trust  had  been  violating  the  law.  He  issued  an  injunction  for- 
bidding it  to  continue  to  violate  the  law.  For  two  years  nothing 
was  done  to  enforce  that  injunction,  and  nothing  has  ever  been  done 
to  punish  the  Trust  for  the  offences  of  which  the  judge  had  found  it 
guilty.  The  method  in  Switzerland  is  different  —  very  different,  in 
fact.  There  are  no  unenforced  laws  nor  disregarded  injunctions  in 
Switzerland.  On  the  whole  the  Swiss  method  seems  to  have  advan- 
tages. It  saves  the  law  from  falling  into  general  disrepute.  It  dis- 
courages gentlemen  from  operating  Amalgamated  Copper  deals.  It 
bars  out  bribery  factories  such  as  Mr.  Lawson  has  described  in 
Massachusetts.  It  saves  the  country  from  the  spectacle  of  Attorney- 
Generals  apparently  in  league  with  lawbreakers.  We  had  a  case  in 
America  once  where  a  Federal  District  Attorney  wanted  to  indict  some 
very  notorious  Trust-thieves,  and  an  Assistant  Attorney-General  of 
the  United  States  traveled  from  Washington  to  Chicago  to  prevent 
the  indictment.  The  Swiss  method  would  seem  to  obviate  such  travel 
and  have  other  commendable  points  about  it.  I  should  like  to  see  the 
Swiss  method  tried  once  in  America.  It  might  reduce  our  house- 
hold expenses."  .  .  . 

"  Insurance  scandals  and  swindles  such  as  we  have  recently  been 
regaled  with  could  never  occur  in  Switzerland.  This  Government 
looks  upon  insurance  as  a  thing  vitally  concerning  most  of  its  citizens 
and  to  be  watched  lest  the  public  interests  suffer.  Therefore,  it  keeps 
the  insurance  companies  under  incessant  supervision  and  inspection. 
They  must  show  what  they  do  with  their  money,  and  if  they  fall  to 
fooling  with  their  reserves  and  surpluses,  out  they  go  from  Switzer- 
land. There  are  no  profitable  '  side  syndicates '  for  insurance  direc- 
tors here,  no  stock  pools,  no  checks  for  Mr.  Depew,  no  dinners  for 
actresses,  no  campaign  subscriptions.  The  Government  would  in- 
stantly detect  the  missing  money  and  demand  to  know  about  it.  For- 
eign insurance  companies  doing  business  in  Switzerland  must  make 
regular  returns  of  all  the  policies  they  issue  and  invest  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  the  total  in  Swiss  property,  and  this  property  the  Govern- 
ment is  prepared  to  confiscate  at  any  time  for  the  benefit  of  the  policy- 
holders." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  insurance  investigation  brought  to 
light  some  most  unsavoury  facts  in  connexion  with  press  corruption. 
It  was  shown  that  the  Insurance  Companies  bribed  the  newspapers  to 
print  false  news  for  the  sake  of  misleading  public  opinion,  and  that 
these  reports  were  printed  not  as  paid  advertisements  but  as  news 
items,  despite  the  fact  that  the  companies  paid  as  high  as  a  dollar  a 
line  in  some  cases. 

The  following  article  taken  from  the  "  New  York  Herald  "  of  Oct. 
25,  1905,  explains  the  situation  with  sufficient  thoroughness.  Should 

414 


A    KINGDOM    OF   THE    DOLLAR 

the  Reader  wish  more,  he  is  referred  to  almost  any  other  New  York 
papers  of  the  same  date: 

"  MUTUAL  LIFE  PAYS  A  DOLLAR  A  LINE  FOR  '  WHITEWASH.' 


DESPATCHES    TELLING    OF    '  FAVORABLE '     WORK    IN     INQUIRY 
PRINTED    BY    NEWSPAPERS. 


$14,000  THE  COST  TO  POLICY  HOLDERS. 


$8,000  a  Year  '  Specialist '  Explains  His  Method  and  is  Sure  He  Earns 

His  Salary. 


ALLAN  FORMAN  HIS  AGENT. 


John  R.  Hegeman  of  the  Metropolitan,  Tells  of  Loans  to  Himself 
and  to  Mr.  McCall,  of  New  York  Life. 


"  That  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company  is  at  present  maintain- 
ing a  publicity  bureau  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  to  readers 
throughout  the  country  favourable  reports  of  the  present  legislative 
inquiry  and  is  paying  for  such  publications  at  the  rate  of  one  dollar 
a  line  to  newspapers  which  consent  to  print  them,  was  proved  yester- 
day before  the  Armstrong  committee. 

"  Charles  J.  Smith,  who  is  employed  at  a  salary  of  $8,000  a  year  to 
do  this  work  in  connexion  with  other  duties,  testified  that  about 
$14,000  had  been  expended  from  the  company's  funds  in  this  partic- 
ular enterprise  within  a  few  weeks.  Mr.  Smith  prepares  the  notices, 
which  include  only  such  facts  as  may  be  elicited  showing  the  affairs 
of  the  company  in  a  roseate  light,  and  sends  them  to  Allan  W.  For- 
man,  the  editor  of  a  publication  known  as  the  '  Journalist,'  and  Mr. 
Forman,  through  his  so-called  '  telegraph  news  bureau '  procures  the 
publication  of  these  laudatory  reports  in  various  publications  through- 
out the  country. 

"  Six  despatches  have  been  sent  out  since  the  Mutual  came  under 
Mr.  Hughes'  scrutiny!  Vouchers  showed  that  something  more  than 
$11,000  had  already  been  paid  to  Mr.  Forman  in  connexion  with  this 
service  and  that  the  bills  are  not  all  yet  received. 

"  It  was  testified  that  all  this  matter  is  inserted  under  the  guise  of 
genuine  news  despatches  from  New  York,  that  some  newspapers  charge 
more  than  a  dollar  a  line  for  such  service  and  others  less,  but  that 
Mr.  Forman  lumps  the  contract  at  the  dollar-a-line  rate  for  each,  and 
succeeds  in  printing  the  despatches  sometimes  in  as  many  as  one 
hundred  newspapers  outside  of  New  York  city. 

"  Evidence  was  also  elicited  corroborating  the  statement  made  last 
week  by  the  'Herald'  that  the  advertising  accounts  of  the  Mutual 
Life  show  an  apparent  discrepancy  which  leaves  more  than  $300,000 

415 


unaccounted  for.  It  appeared  that  a  portion  of  the  funds  devoted 
to  advertising  purposes  had  been  handled  by  Andrew  C.  Fields,  the 
chief  of  the  Mutual's  supply  department  and  its  versatile  legislative 
agent  in  Albany,  whose  whereabouts  is  now  unknown  to  the  com- 
mittee. Mr.  Hughes  informed  Mr.  Beck,  counsel  for  the  Mutual, 
that  he  would  expect  the  proper  officer  of  the  company  to  account  for 
this  seeming  discrepancy  in  the  expenditures  charged  to  advertising." 

Eeferring  to  political  corruption  funds,  Mr.  Henry  George,  Jr., 
says,  in  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege  ":  "  Indeed,  if  only  a  few  of  the 
stories  flying  about  were  true,  the  Albany  legislative  session  of  1904- 
1905  was  a  carnival  of  putrescence.  Those  who  profess  to  watch  and 
understand  assert  that  during  that  brief  period  the  gas  monopoly 
must  have  spent  in  round  figures  $500,000  in  fighting  legislation 
adverse  to  its  privileges;  that  the  Pennsylvania  Eailroad  Company 
must  have  paid  out  as  much  to  effect  legislation  relative  to  its  new 
underground  terminal  in  New  York  city;  that  the  other  steam  rail- 
roads must  have  spent  at  least  half  that  amount  in  buying  favours  for 
themselves;  that  the  Interborough  Company  (elevated  and  subway 
in  New  York  city)  must  have  spent  a  quarter  of  a  million  for  legis- 
lative favours  and  protection;  that  the  Bell  telephone  spent  at  least 
$150,000  to  head  off  public  investigation  and  a  forced  wholesale  reduc- 
tion of  its  extortionate  tariff  rates;  that  the  great  insurance  com- 
panies, because  of  the  astounding  state  of  things  revealed  by  the  Equi- 
table Society  scandal,  were  forced  to  spend  half  a  million  to  kill  in- 
vestigating bills;  and  that  other  miscellaneous  privileged  interests 
were  compelled  to  put  up  perhaps  another  $500,000  either  to  promote 
desired  or  to  kill  objectionable  legislation.  This  would  make  an  aggre- 
gate of  $2,650,000,  three-quarters  of  which,  it  is  computed,  went  to 
the  Eepublican  party  organisation,  that  being  the  majority  party  in 
the  Legislature;  and  the  other  quarter  paid  out  to  individual  mem- 
bers." 

With  regard  to  this  Insurance  corruption,  "  The  Evening  Post/' 
Hartford,  Conn.,  prints  the  following  under  the  heading,  "  Eespec- 
table  Crime  " :  "  If  taking  money  from  the  treasury  of  an  insurance 
company  and  donating  it  to  a  political  campaign  committee  is  not  a 
crime,  what  is  it?  .  .  .  What  right  has  the  official,  because  he 
happens  to  be  a  Socialist,  and  therefore  believes  that  the  country  and 
consequently  the  company  would  be  benefited  by  the  election  of  the 
Socialist  national  ticket,  to  give  the  money  paid  in  by  Eepublicans, 
Democrats  and  Independents  to  the  Socialist  national  committee? 
By  the  same  course  of  reasoning  the  official  who  happens  to  be  a  Uni- 
versalist  in  religion,  might  think  that  the  country  and  consequently 
the  insurance  company,  would  be  benefited  by  the  supremacy  of  the 
Universalist  church,  and  that  he  had  a  right  to  donate  to  the  Uni- 
versalist  committee  the  money  paid  into  the  insurance  company  by 
Catholic,  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Episcopalian  and  Unitarian.  The  in- 
surance company  is  organised  to'  insure  people  and  not  to  save  the 
nation." 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  Eev.  C.  H.  McDonald,  a  coloured  preacher, 
who  was  called  upon  to  deliver  the  invocation  at  the  opening  of  the 
day's  session  of  the  Assembly  at  the  State  Capital  at  Albany,  April 

416 


A    KINGDOM    OF   THE    DOLLAR 

28,  1905,  should  have  felt  moved  to  allude  in  his  prayer  to  the  bare- 
faced condition  of  bribery  and  graft  which  was  evident  upon  every 
hand  ?  In  the  course  of  the  invocation  he  said :  "  Oh,  thou  merciful 
God,  we  thank  thee  this  morning  for  the  realisation  that  thou  art  the 
Supreme  Legislator  of  the  universe.  Bless  the  members  of  this  dis- 
tinguished body,  and  when  life's  journey  is  at  an  end,  we  ask  Thee 
to  bring  us  to  that  General  Assembly  where  Jesus  Christ  will  be  the 
Speaker,  and  business  shall  be  transacted  without  graft  or  the  dicta- 
tion of  lobbyists." 

That  graft  is  not  confined  to  state  governments  but  that  the  dis- 
ease is  also  undermining  the  national  morality  the  well-informed  have 
known  for  a  long  time.  On  May  26,  1906,  a  special  to  a  New  York 
paper  from  Washington  stated  that  nearly  $20,000,000  of  government 
funds  had  been  misapplied  or  otherwise  taken,  and  that  Congress  pro- 
posed to  take  steps  to  ascertain  what  had  become  of  this  money  and 
also  how  much  money  appropriated  by  Congress  had  disappeared 
without  an  accounting.  The  article  continues :  "  The  astounding 
discovery  has  just  been  made  that  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  1903,  the  enormous  sum  of  $19,887,866  was  expended  in  the 
various  executive  departments  without  a  scratch  of  the  pen  in  the 
way  of  bookkeeping  to  indicate  how  it  was  utilised.  It  is  expected  that 
an  equal  or  larger  amount  will  be  found  to  have  melted  away  the 
three  following  years.  A  total  discrepancy  of  $100,000,000  between 
the  appropriations  of  Congress  and  the  expenditures  of  the  executive 
departments  is  not  impossible. 

"  The  reports  of  the  various  department  auditors  show  that  for  the 
fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1903,  an  aggregate  of  $114,025,497  was 
expended.  This  covers  the  nine  executive  departments,  the  civil  serv- 
ice commission,  the  government  printing-office,  the  Smithsonian  insti- 
tution and  the  interstate  commerce  commission. 

"  The  director  of  the  census,  in  compiling  and  reporting  the  con- 
gressional appropriations  for  that  year,  finds  an  aggregate  of  $133,- 
913,363.  The  difference,  for  which  there  is  no  accounting,  being 
$19,887,866. 

"  The  appropriations  committees  of  the  senate  and  house  have  gone 
over  these  surprising  figures  and  reached  the  conclusion  that  imme- 
diate action  is  essential  to  learn  where  the  government  money  is 
going,  and  for  what  purpose  it  is  being  used. 

"  On  Monday  Eepresentative  Tawney  will  offer  a  joint  resolution  in 
the  house  and  Senator  Perkins  will  present  the  same  in  the  senate 
providing  for  a  congressional  committee  of  six,  three  senators  and 
three  representatives,  to  sit  during  the  summer  and  thoroughly  investi- 
gate the  discrepancy  covered  in  the  figures  for  1903  and  subsequent 
differences,  if  any  exist.  It  is  believed  that  the  resolution  will  be 
adopted." 

Despite  all  these  indisputable  facts  there  are  still  to  be  found 
'punky  intellects  who  cry  out  as  a  response  to  the  suggestion  of  munici- 
pal ownership  that  they  are  afraid  the  utility  in  question  will  be 
dragged  into  politics.     In  our  own  town,  for  example,  are  not  a  few 
-'who  look  askance  at  municipal  lighting  for  just  this  reason,  or  more 
properly  speaking,  lack  of  reason.     One  would  think,  to  hear  them 
27  417 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

voice  their  horror  of  political  influence  being  applied  to  what  should 
be  a  purely  business  proposition,  that  they  were  as  ignorant  as  babe& 
of  the  present  condition  of  the  lighting  companies,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  further  fact,  on  the  other,  that  their  own  town,  like  most 
other  Massachusetts  towns,  was  in  the  hands  of  a  little  political  ring, 
the  members  of  which  appear  to  feel,  and  on  some  occasions  seem  to 
show,  the  supremest  contempt  for  the  wishes  of  the  average  citizen. 
This  condition  of  affairs  is  not  peculiar  to  our  own  town ;  it  is  gen- 
erally an  epidemic  condition  throughout  the  country.  We  cite  the  case 
of  our  own  town,  for  the  sake  of  being  specific  on  the  one  hand,  and 
because,  on  the  other,  we  have  a  first-hand  knowledge  whereof  we 
speak.  We  recall  instances  where  politicians  railroaded  through  a 
town-meeting  resolution  to  the  end  that  the  legislature  should  be  in- 
duced to  pass  compulsive  legislation  where  permissive  legislation 
would  have  served  the  purpose  equally  well  and  would  have  at  the  same 
time  preserved,  as  far  as  possible,  the  home-rule  rights  of  the  town. 
Though  governed  ostensibly  upon  the  town-meeting  principle,  there 
is  a  wide  distrust  of  the  people,  and  .efforts  are  continually  in  evidence 
to  restrict  as  far  as  possible  the  power  of  the  voter.  Things  which 
should  be  considered  and  discussed  in  open  town-meeting  are  buried 
in  committee  where  they  often  die  still-born,  or,  failing  that,  are 
acted  upon  in  a  way  that  leaves  the  voter  no  means  of  determining 
what  attitude  his  several  official  servants  took  upon  these  important 
matters.  The  result  is  that,  when  election  day  comes  around,  he  is 
unable  intelligently  to  select  those  officials  whose  conduct  has  expressed 
his  desires,  or  to  register  his  protest  against  those  public  csrvants  who 
have  been  weighed  in  his  balances  and  found  wanting.  Indeed, 
within  the  last  few  weeks  we  have  witnessed  the  singular  spectacle  of  a 
voter  rising  in  our  town  caucus  and  apologising  for  asking  for  an  ex- 
pression of  the  views  of  a  candidate  for  nomination  —  and  these 
views  which  the  voter  desired  pertained  to  a  most  important  town  mat- 
ter of  years  standing  —  an  old  sore  as  it  were.  Think  of  such  a  con- 
dition of  affairs  in  an  intelligent  community !  Imagine,  if  you  can, 
such  a  thing  occurring  in  New  Zealand  or  in  Switzerland.  The 
fact  of  the  matter  is  that  the  town-meeting  spirit  is  gradually  dis- 
appearing along  with  our  other  cherished  ideals,  and,  as  if  by  the  irony 
of  fate,  the  soil  made  sacred  by  the  blood  of  our  revolutionary  fore- 
fathers leads  all  the  rest  in  this  sad  degeneracy. 

In  order  to  show  how  pernicious  is  every  encroachment  upon  tl.  5 
self-government  of  the  town-meeting  principle  it  may  not  be  amiss  Li 
quote  the  following  from  a  sermon  delivered  May  28,  1905,  by  tho 
Eev.  Herbert  S.  Bigelow,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio :  "  Before  our  ancestors 
conquered  old  England  they  had  their  home  in  the  forests  of  Germany. 
Each  clan  dwelt  in  a  community  by  itself,  which  was  called  the  mark 
or  the  town.  Each  town  had  its  folk-mote.  This  was  an  assembly  of 
all  the  people,  which  met  once  a  year  or  oftener.  All  laws  were  pro- 
posed, discussed  and  passed  by  this  assembly.  Each  citizen  had  voice 
and  vote,  and  the  folk-mote  was  a  pure  democracy. 

"  This  system  of  popular  government  was  transplanted  into  Eng- 
land. The  English  township  corresponded  to  the  mark,  and  each 

418 


A    KINGDOM    OF   THE    DOLLAR 

township  had  its  popular  assembly,  or  folk-mote,  through  which  the 
people  governed  themselves  directly. 

"  In  the  course  of  time  the  liberties  of  the  English  townships  were 
encroached  upon,  but  when  the  Pilgrim  fathers  arrived  in  the  New 
World,  they  reestablished  township  government  in  its  purity  under 
the  name  of  the  town-meeting. 

"  In  New  England  the  township  was  the  political  unit.  The  people 
elected  no  law-makers.  They  came  together  in  their  town-meetings 
and  made  their  own  laws.  Each  town  was  a  little  republic.  Popular 
sovereignty  was  not  merely  a  theory;  it  was  a  fact.  The  power  to 
make  laws  was  not  delegated,  as  now,  to  a  few.  In  New  England  the 
town-council  included  all  the  citizens,  and  each  man  had  a  vote  on  the 
laws  he  was  expected  to  obey. 

"John  Fiske  declared  the  New  England  town-meeting  to  be  'the 
most  complete  democracy  in  the  world,'  and  '  the  best  political  train- 
ing-school in  existence.'  Thomas  Jefferson  said  it  was  'the  wisest 
invention  ever  devised  by  the  wit  of  man  for  the  perfect  exercise  of 
self-government,  and  for  its  preservation.' 

"  In  the  course  of  time  these  towns  elected  delegates  to  a  general  as- 
sembly but,  unlike  our  present  State  representatives,  these  delegates 
were  under  the  direct  control  of  their  constituents.  We  petition  our 
representatives.  They  instructed  theirs.  Speaking  for  the  town- 
meeting  of  Boston,  in  1764,  Samuel  Adams  delivered  an  address  to 
the  newly  elected  delegates  to  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  inform- 
ing them  that  the  townsmen  '  have  delegated  to  you  the  power  of 
acting  in  their  public  concerns  in  general  as  your  own  prudence  shall 
direct  you;  always  reserving  to  themselves  the  constitutional  right 
of  expressing  their  mind  and  giving  you  such  instruction  upon  par- 
ticular matters  as  they  at  any  time  shall  judge  proper.' " 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  Samuel  Adams  considered  offi- 
cials as  public  servants  who  might,  properly,  at  any  time  be  instructed 
by  the  people  in  regard  to  their  wishes.  Things  have  changed  amaz- 
ingly since  then.  Officials  now  comport  themselves  as  if  they  were 
rulers  and  the  humble  voter,  if  he  lack  the  power  of  making  his  pres- 
ence politically  felt,  receives  scant  courtesy  from  them.  The  main 
tendency  to  apotheosise  the  dollar  and  to  look  upon  the  "  business 
man  "  as  something  only  short  of  divinity  is  responsible  for  a  goodly 
portion  of  municipal  inefficiency.  This  is  not  to  say  that  the  man 
of  business  may  not  be  a  most  estimable  person  and  a  most  eligible 
candidate  for  office,  but  it  is  to  say  that  the  pursuit  of  business  is  one 
of  the  cheapest  of  human  activities.  When  we  say  cheapest  we  do  not 
mean  that  any  ignominy  of  necessity  attaches  to  it.  What  we  would 
say  is  that  those  attributes  of  character  which  go  to  make  up  to-day's 
successful  "  business  man  "  are  not  especially  grand  or  worthy.  Busi- 
ness is  simply  the  Nimrod  tendency  brought  down  to  date.  Your 
business  man  is  a  sort  of  commercial  hunter,  seeking  to  replenish  his 
larder.  It  is  of  course  necessary  to  eat,  and  business  is  an  essential 
factor  of  modern  society,  but  we  have  assuredly  "  o'ersprung  our 
saddle,"  in  our  latter-day  fulsome  laudation  of  money-getting.  In 
his  lecture  entitled  "Life  without  Principle,"  that  profound  phi- 
losopher and  man  of  all  time,  Henry  D.  Thoreau,  said:  "This 

419 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

world  is  a  place  of  business.  What  an  infinite  bustle !  I  am  awaked 
almost  every  night  by  the  panting  of  the  locomotive.  It  interrupts  my 
dreams.  There  is  no  Sabbath.  It  would  be  glorious  to  see  mankind 
at  leisure  for  once.  It  is  nothing  but  work,  work,  work.  I  cannot 
easily  buy  a  blank  book  to  write  thoughts  in;  they  are  commonly 
ruled  for  dollars  and  cents.  An  Irishman,  seeing  me  making  a 
minute  in  the  fields,  took  it  for  granted  that  I  was  calculating  my 
wages.  If  a  man  was  tossed  out  of  a  window  when  an  infant,  and 
so  made  a  cripple  for  life,  or  scared  out  of  his  wits  by  the  Indians,  it 
is  regretted  chiefly  because  he  was  thus  incapacitated  for  —  business ! 
I  think  that  there  is  nothing,  not  even  crime,  more  opposed  to  poetry, 
to  philosophy,  ay,  to  life  itself,  than  this  incessant  business" 

When  we  add  to  this  apotheosis  of  the  "  business  man  "  as  such  the 
undue  respect  paid  to  the  utterances  of  lawyers  and  their  prevalence 
in  political  positions,  we  are  able  to  understand  how  it  happens  that 
intelligent  American  communities,  with  all  their  history  of  great 
deeds  and  their  elevated  ideals,  are  to-day  politically  fifty  years  be- 
hind several  foreign  pocket  principalities  that  could  be  mentioned. 
If  we  are  to  attain  to  anything  worthy  the  name  of  the  higher  civili- 
sation, we  shall  have  to  put  in  office  men  whose  horizon  is  not  limited 
by  the  nearest  dollar  in  sight,  or  rendered  perpendicular  by  legal 
sophistry.  What  is  needed  is  men  of  cosmopolitan  intellect,  men 
whose  horizon  is  the  universe  and  whose  knowledge  and  interests  em- 
brace the  whole  human  race  and  sweep  outwardly  to  the  remotest 
speck  of  star-dust.  The  tendency  toward  concentration  in  govern- 
ment is  now,  always  was,  and  ever  will  be  pernicious.  The  intelli- 
gent voter  must  insist  upon  the  maximum  amount  of  decentralisation 
which  is  attainable.  The  power  which  comes  from  the  people  must 
be  given  back  to  the  people.  Our  government  to-day  is  a  hydrostatic 
miracle.  The  stream  has  risen  higher  than  its  source.  If  this  mir- 
acle be  capable  of  any  explanation,  it  is  that  the  force-pump  of  graft 
has  raised  the  stream  geyser-like  far  above  the  source  of  its  waters. 

In  a  memorial  address  delivered  May  30,  1906,  at  the  Purdue  Uni- 
versity, J.  F.  Hanley,  Governor  of  Indiana,  spoke  at  length  upon  the 
subject  of  public  graft.  In  the  course  of  his  address  he  made  the 
following  prediction,  which  is  at  the  same  time  a  warning.  We  take 
this  extract  from  a  partial  report  of  the  Governor's  speech  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Cincinnati  Enquirer  " :  "  The  American  people  are 
at  the  beginning  of  a  great  revolution.  As  yet  there  is  in  a  literal 
sense  no  call  to  arms.  There  are  no  drum-beats,  no  bugle-blasts ;  but 
the  revolution  is  upon  us. 

"Stupendous  social,  economic  and  political  changes  are  involved. 
Deeply  imbedded  in  the  very  core  and  centre  of  this  revolution,  run- 
ning like  a  thread  of  gold  through  all  its  shifting  scenes  and  chang- 
ing forms,  are  certain  fundamental  principles  of  human  rights  and 
of  human  liberty,  and  unless  we,  in  our  day,  and  especially  you  in 
your  day,  possess  a  willingness  to  seek  for  these  and  the  wisdom  to 
find  them  and  the  patriotism  and  the  courage  to  proclaim  them, '  to 
stand  by  them  and  save  'them  when  found,  the  call  -to  arms!,  the  drum- 
beats, the  bugle-blasts,  the  serried  ranks,  the  marching' columns  and 

420 


A   KINGDOM    OF   THE    DOLLAR 

the  battlefields  will  come  to  us  and  to  you  as  certainly  as  in  the  past 
they  came  to  our  fathers. 

"  The  criminal  aggressions  of  incorporated  and  aggregated  wealth 
against  the  individual  must  be  stayed  by  legal  regulations  and  whole- 
some laws  courageously  enforced,  or  history  will  repeat  itself  in  your 
day  as  it  has  in  the  past.  You  will  no  more  be  exempt  than  other 
generations  have  been.  'Progress  must  and  will  be  made. 

"  I  do  not  look  with  pleasure  either  upon  the  '  muck  rake '  or  the 
'  muck-raker,'  but  either  is  better  than  the  { muck  bed.'  And  as  long 
as  the  muck  bed  remains  I  hope  the  *  muck-raker '  will  continue  to 
expose  it  and  to  lay  it  bare,  that  the  people  may  come  to  hate  it,  to  de- 
spise the  greed  that  feeds  it,  and  to  forsake  every  man  whose  hands 
are  soiled  with  its  pollution." 

We  have  seen  that  there  is  one  law  for  the  poor  and  another  for 
the  rich.  We  have  recently  witnessed  the  spectacle  of  an  oil  magnate 
flippantly  defying  the  mandates  of  the  courts.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  Herman  S.  Hadley,  attorney-general  for  the  State  of  Missouri, 
who  instituted  proceedings  against  the  Standard  Oil  Trust  for  viola- 
tions of  the  Missouri  laws,  went  in  person  to  New  York  to  take  evi- 
dence under  the  laws  of  that  State  for  use  in  Missouri.  Commenting 
upon  this  episode  a  Chicago  weekly  says:  "Among  the  witnesses 
he  examined  was  H.  H.  Eogers,  who  refused  to  answer  important 
questions,  and  was  consequently  brought  before  the  New  York  courts 
in  proceedings  for  contempt.  On  the  31st  the  New  York  court  sus- 
tained Mr.  Eogers."  This  could,  of  course,  have  easily  been  prophe- 
sied, for  this  is  the  same  Eogers  who,  according  to  Mr.  Thomas  Law- 
son,  exhibited  to  Clark  of  Montana  a  written  document  showing  that 
two  over  a  majority  of  the  United  States  Senate  were  pledged  in  writ- 
ing to  do  the  bidding  of  Standard  Oil  in  the  matter  at  issue  between 
them.  To  put  it  in  Mr.  Lawson's  own  words :  "  At  the  appointed 
time  the  great  manipulator,  as  calmly  as  though  he  were  exhibiting 
a  bill  of  sale  for  a  car-load  of  barreled  petroleum,  allowed  Clark  to 
inspect  a  list  of  two  over  a  majority  of  our  grave  and  reverend  seign- 
iors." This  is  the  Eogers  who,  according  to  the  report  to  the  Danish 
government  made  by  Captain  W.  Christmas,  Dirckinch,  Holmfeldt, 
Oct.,  1901,  and  published  in  our  own  "  Congressional  Eecord "  of 
March  27,  1902,  page  3340,  boasted  that  he  could  swing  more  than 
two  dozen  votes  in  the  Senate.  In  the  report  Capt.  Christmas  says : 
"  Mr.  Eogers  is  a  man  about  sixty,  extremely  wealthy,  but,  in  spite 
of  his  large  fortune  of  about  $50,000,000,  is  exceedingly  desirous  of 
making  more.  He  is  the  most  active  of  the  .Standard  Oil  Company, 
and  is  both  hated  and  feared  in  the  money  world  on  account  of  his 
absolute  inconsiderateness  in  his  money  operations.  :  .  .  .  Mr. 
Eogers  was  evidently  dissatisfied  because  I  had  taken  hold  of  the 
sale  of  the  islands,  and  he  repeated  several  times,  *  I  wish  to  make 
money  by  this,  and  don't  you  forget  it.' ): 

This  is  the  Eogers  regarding  whom  Mr.  Henry  George,  Jr.,  prints  the 
following  paragraph  on  page  258  of  "The  Menace  of  Privilege": 
"  In  Delaware  Addickism  is  a  synonym  for  political  putrefaction.  A 
detailed  charge  made  by  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Lawson  of  Boston  that  Mr. 
Henry  H.  Eogers,  vice-president  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  paid 

421 


GILLETTE'S   SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

in  cash  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  as  a  bribe  for  the  vacation  of  a 
receivership  of  the  Addicks  Bay  State  Gas  Company,  has  been  con- 
firmed by  several,  among  them  ex-United  States  Senator  Anthony  J. 
Higgins.  Mr.  Eogers  has  not  taken  the  trouble  even  to  deny  the 
charge  through  the  press." 

The  following  clipping  from  the  "  Plain  Dealer,"  entitled  "  A 
Model  Witness  "  suggests  very  vividly  Mr.  Rogers'  answers  upon  the 
witness  stand.  "  The  opposing  counsel :  *  What  is  your  name  ?  ' 

"  The  witness,  appealing  to  the  judge :  '  Am  I  obliged  to  answer 
this  ? ' 

"  The  judge :    <  You  are.' 

"  The  witness :    '  My  name  is  Todgers/ 

*  First  name  ?  ' 

1 1  decline  to  answer/ 
'  On  what  ground  ?  ' 

'  It  would  be  construed  into  a  reflection  on  the  good  taste  of  my 
parents/ 

'  Where  were  you  born  ? ' 

*  I  decline  to  answer/ 
'Why?' 

'  Because  all  my  information  on  the  subject  is  of  the  hearsay 
character/ 

*  But  you  were  there  at  the  time  ? ' 
'  I  decline  to  admit  it/ 

'  What  is  your  age  ?  ' 

'  Before  answering  I  desire  to  consult  with  my  attorneys/ 

'  What  is  your  ostensible  business  ?  ' 

'  I  do  not  remember/ 

'  Are  you  in  any  way  connected  with  the  Ramrod  trust  ? ' 

'  I  do  not  remember/ 

'  What  is  its  capitalisation  ? ' 

'  I  do  not  remember/ 

'  What  is  your  salary  ? ' 

'  I  do  not  remember/ 

'  Are  you  married  ?  ' 

'  I  do  not  remember/ 

"  The  judge :  *  The  hearing  will  now  be  adjourned  until  ten  a.  m. 
to-morrow.  And  I  want  to  congratulate  the  opposing  counsel  on  the 
marked  progress  they  have  made  in  advancing  the  case/ '' 

The  subserviency  of  high  national  officials  to  the  dictates  of  privi- 
lege is  so  well  known  that  it  scarcely  excites  comment.  Everywhere 
the  eye  meets  clippings  like  the  following,  printed  as  an  Exchange  in 
a  Kansas  weekly :  "  *  The  first  duty  of  a  leader,  civil  or  military,  is 
to  lead/  said  President  Roosevelt  in  his  Portsmouth  speech.  We 
thought  the  first  duty  was  to  compromise  with  Aldrich. — " 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connexion  to  peruse  the  following  from 
John  Adams'  "  Opinions  of  Philosophers " :  "  Sidney  says,  *  No 
sedition  was  hurtful  to  Rome,  until,  through  their  prosperity,  some 
men  gained  the  power  above  the  laws/ '; 

The  state  legislatures  are  if  possible  even  more  vendible  than  the 
national  legislature.  We  are  wont  to  consider  the  State  of  Massa- 

422 


A    KINGDOM    OF   THE    DOLLAR 

chusetts  as  about  as  high-toned  as  any  in  the  Union,  yet  this  is  the 
awful  indictment  which  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Lawson  brings  against  it,  on 
page  140  of  "  Frenzied  Finance  " :  "  The  Massachusetts  Legislature 
is  bought  and  sold  as  are  sausages  and  fish  at  the  markets  and  wharves. 
That  the  largest,  wealthiest,  and  most  prominent  corporations  in  New 
England,  whose  affairs  are  conducted  by  our  most  representative  citi- 
zens, habitually  corrupt  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  and  the  man 
of  wealth  connect&d  with  such  corporations  who  would  enter  protest 
against  the  iniquity  would  be  looked  on  as  a  'class  anarchist/  I 
will  go  further  and  state  that  if  in  New  England  a  man  of  the  type 
of  Folk,  of  Missouri,  can  be  found  who,  after  giving  over  six  months 
to  turning  up  the  legislative  and  Boston  municipal  sod  of  the  past  ten 
years,  does  not  expose  to  the  world  a  condition  of  rottenness  more  rot- 
ten than  was  ever  before  exhibited  in  any  community  in  the  civilised 
world,  it  will  be  because  he  has  been  suffocated  by  the  stench  of  what 
he  exhumes." 

Later  on,  in  "Everybody's"  for  July,  1906,  Mr.  Lawson  altered 
the  above  indictment  as  follows :  "  For  years  the  Massachusetts  Legis- 
lature, neither  questioning  nor  hesitating,  had  done  the  bidding  of 
King  Dollar.  Debauchery  of  the  ballot-box,  bribery  in  city  and  State 
offices,  the  purchase  and  sale  of  verdicts  in  the  courts,  and  perjury 
everywhere  were  the  proofs  of  obedience,  of  the  subjection  of  the  boot- 
blacks to  the  padrone.  During  these  years  the  law-makers  and  law- 
administrators  were  at  all  times  on  the  block  to  the  highest  bidder.  I 
have  told  you  that  they  were  bought  and  sold  as  are  sausages  and 
fish  at  the  market  and  wharves.  I  TELL  YOU  NOW  THAT  THEY 
ARE  BOUGHT  AND  SOLD  LIKE  PUTRID  SAUSAGES  AND  STINK- 
ING FISH,  IN  BULK,  AT  FERTILIZER  PRICES." 

That  the  present  condition  of  corruption  is  fast  effacing  all  our 
great  American  ideals,  he  who  runs  may  see ;  but  there  are  not  a  few 
Avho  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that  even  the  lives  of  innocent  men 
have  ceased  to  be  safe  from  the  terrible  Juggernaut  of  greed.  We 
have  seen  that  the  so-called  Chicago  anarchists  were  martyrs  rather 
than  criminals,  and  from  all  appearances  there  is  now  in  progress  .a 
cold-blooded  and  brazen  conspiracy  to  hang  labour  officials  who  are 
obnoxious  to  the  "  system/'  The  course  thus  far  pursued  by  the  hire- 
lings of  Mammon  has  been  in  defiance  of  all  law,  of  the  fundamental 
rights  of  American  citizens  and  of  the  simplest  tenets  of  social  de- 
cency. On  the  night  of  December  30,  1905,  Ex-Governor  Frank 
Steunenberg,  of  Idaho,  was  assassinated  by  a  bomb  placed  in  such  a 
position  that  it  would  explode  when  he  opened  his  front  gate.  On 
the  night  of  February  17th,  Charles  Moyer,  President  of  the  Western 
Federation  of  Miners,  was  arrested  in  Denver.  William  Haywood, 
the  Secretary  of  the  organisation,  and  C.  A.  'Pettibone,  a  former 
official,  were  also  arrested.  Commenting  on  this  summary  proceed- 
ing, Joseph  Wanhope  says,  in  an  article  entitled,  "  The  Haywood- 
Moyer  Outrage,"  written  "  on  the  spot,"  (see  "  Wilshire's  Magazine  " 
April,  1906)  :  "There  is  little  doubt  but  that  the  crime  was  per- 
petrated by  some  miner  who  had  suffered  from  his  cruelty  in  the  *  bull 
pen '  in  1899.  At  least  this  theory  is  far  more  probable  than  one  now 
in  circulation  that  his  death  was  due  to  the  vengeance  of  cattle  breed- 

423 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

ers  who  were  angered  against  him  on  account  of  his  connexion  with 
the  sheep  industry.  While  there  is  and  has  been  for  years  a  feud 
between  the  cattle  and  sheep  raisers,  and  many  murders  have  resulted 
therefrom,  all  of  these  so  far  have  been  through  the  medium  of  fire- 
arms, bombs  never  being  used  in  this  particular  warfare. 

"  This  was  the  chance  the  mine-owners  were  looking  for.  If  this 
crime  could  be  charged  to  the  officials  of  the  Western  Federation  of 
Miners,  it  might  be  possible  to  destroy  them  under  that  pretext. 

".So,  on  the  night  of  February  17th,  a  sudden  coup  was  decided  on, 
and  put  into  operation."  .  .  . 

"  The  arrest  was  secretly  and  illegally  carried  ou,t.  The  wives  and 
families  of  the  men  were  given  no  intimation  of  what  had  happened. 
The  prisoners  were  held  a  few  hours  in  the  county  jail,  and  then 
rushed  by  special  train  into  Idaho.  The  Federation  attorney,  Mr. 
Eichardson,  who  attempted  to  secure  the  release  of  the  prisoners  on 
a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  based  on  the  unlawfulness  of  the  arrest, 
describes  the  history  of  the  transaction  as  follows : 

'  It  reads  like  one  of  the  raids  of  Dick  Turpin  or  of  Robin  Hood. 
It  was  gentlemanly  in  the  extreme,  but  it  was  dastardly  in  the  execu- 
tion.' 

"  That  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  denied  was  to  be  expected. 
It  was  not  probable  that  the  conspirators  would  permit  any  such  fool- 
ishness to  rob  them  even  temporarily  of  their  prey.  Possession  was 
more  than  nine  points  of  the  law  in  this  case,  and  it  proved  to  be 
all  of  it.  The  Federation  attorneys  have  appealed  to  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court. 

"  Then  came  the  opportunity  of  the  press  to  play  its  part.  The 
guilt  of  the  prisoners  was  at  once  assumed.  A  torrent  of  lies,  rumours, 
reports  and  alleged  confessions  poured  forth  through  the  columns  of 
the  press  almost  hourly,  to  be  contradicted  in  the  succeeding  issues, 
and  new  stories  fabricated."  .  .  . 

"  The  accused  men,  on  their  arrival  in  Idaho,  were  placed  in  the 
penitentiary  at  Boise.  Though  waiting  trial,  they  were  assigned  to 
the  quarters  of  prisoners  already  convicted.  Moyer  and  Haywood 
occupied  separate  cells,  one  between  them  being  occupied  by  a  convict 
—  or  more  likely  a  detective  assuming  that  character.  The  rules  ap- 
plied to  them  were  those  for  convicts.  Their  correspondence  was  lim- 
ited to  one  letter  every  two  weeks.  Mrs.  Haywood,  a  helpless  invalid, 
assured  me  the  other  day  that  she  had  received  but  one  letter  from 
her  husband  since  his  arrest. 

"  Word  now  comes  that  this  has  been  changed  under  protest  of  the 
attorneys  against  its  illegal  character,  and  the  prisoners  have  been 
removed  to  the  jail  at  Caldwell,  which  is  surrounded  by  armed  men, 
on  account  of  the  alleged  desperate  characters  of  the  accused." 

Commenting  upon  this  episode  under  the  title  of  "  The  Colorado 
Assassination  Conspiracy,"  "  The  Public  "  of  March  17,  1906,  says 
editorially :  "  Eeports  of  a  horrible  conspiracy  to  assassinate  were 
published  over  the  country  early  this  week.  The  charges  are  against 
leaders  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners,  the  socialist  labour 
organisation  which  has  its  headquarters  at  Denver.  If  these  charges 
are  true,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  sympathy  with  the  men  accused. 

424 


A    KINGDOM    OF   THE    DOLLAR 

Their  crime  merits  unsparing  condemnation  and  relentless  punish- 
ment. But  as  published  the  charges  do  not  bear  the  earmarks  of 
truth.  They  rest  upon  a  fantastic  confession  purporting  to  have  been 
obtained  from  an  alleged  accomplice  by  means  avowedly  unlawful 
and  through  nerve-racking  methods;  and  the  corroborative  facts  are 
such  as  might  easily  be  '  faked '  by  detectives.  The  whole  affair  has 
less  the  appearance  of  the  discovery  of  a  conspiracy  of  assassins  than 
of  an  effort  to  arouse  public  prejudice  against  men  about  to  be  tried 
for  their  lives  —  men  who  are  innocent  but  whom  the  Standard  Oil 
crowd  have  marked  for  hanging.  That  there  has  been  a  conspiracy  to 
assassinate  is  true  beyond  peradventure ;  but  whether  the  prisoners 
or  their  prosecutors  are  the  conspirators  is  an  open  question." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  labour  leaders  who  have  been  ar- 
rested were  at  the  head  of  the  recent  strike  in  Colorado,  a  strike  in 
which   the  so-called   better   element,   as  we  have   seen,   resorted  to 
extremes  of  lawlessness,  the  like  of  which  has  never  before  been  wit- 
nessed in  this  country.     It  was  during  this  strike  that  General  Bell, 
according  to  press  reports,  adopted  the  following  high-toned  motto, 
"  To  hell  with  the  constitution ;  we'll  give  them  post-mortems."     The 
lawlessness  practised  in  the  Colorado  strike  was  in  the  interests  and 
at  the  instigation  of  the  mine-owners  who  were  determined  to  break 
the  Miners'  Union.     These  mine-owners  are  a  part  of  the  Standard 
Oil  crowd,  and  they  are  the  same  conspirators  who  apparently  are 
now  seeking  to  convict  Mover,  Haywood  and  Pettibone  by  means  as 
ridiculous  as  they  are  outrageous.     The  following  editorial  from  a 
Chicago  weekly  is  pregnant  with  suggestiveness.     It  is  from  the  pen 
of  a  lawyer,  Mr.  Louis  F.  Post,  and  reads  thus :     "  In  connexion  with 
the  kidnapping  under  legal  forms,  by  a  private  detective,  of  three 
citizens  of  Colorado,  upon  charges  of  having  conspired  to  murder  an 
ex-governor  of  Idaho,  certain  considerations  should  not  be  ignored, 
for  corporation  tools  are  endeavouring  to  build  up  a  public  sentiment 
hostile  to  the  prisoners.     We  allude  to  the  case  of  the  officers  of  the 
Miners'  Union  who  are  now  awaiting  trial  in  Idaho  upon  the  basis  of 
alleged  confessions  of  the  self-confessed  murderer.     The  accused  are 
labour  leaders;  their  prosecutors,  the  employers  of  the  private  de- 
tective who  has  constructed  the  case,  are  an  inner  circle  of  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  crowd.     The  labour  leaders  in  question  were  at  the  head  of 
the  recent  strike  in  Colorado,  which  grew  out  of  the  corrupt  refusal 
of  a  legislature  subsidised  by  the  employing  interests  to  obey  an  eight- 
hour-day  amendment  to  the  State  constitution,  and  in  connexion  with 
which  the  executive  authority  of  Colorado  was  used  against  the  strik- 
ers and  others  in  a  manner  fundamentally  lawless.     The  murder  in 
question,  that  of  ex-Gov.  Steunenberg  of  Idaho,  occurred  long  after 
his  influence  and  personality  had  ceased  to  be  of  the  slightest  concern 
to  any  labour  leader  or  organisation.     Now,  under  these  circumstances, 
what  are  the  probabilities  as  to  who  are  the  real  conspirators  to 
whom  Steunenberg's  murder  should  be  attributed? 

"  Motive  is  a  primary  consideration  in  determining  guilt  in  crim- 
inal cases.  But  these  labour  leaders  had  no  reasonable  motive  for 
murdering  Steunenberg.  On  the  other  hand,  the  conspirators  in  the 
mine-owners'  crowd  had  an  obvious  motive  for  his  murder,  if  thereby 

425 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

they  might  bring  about  the  condemnation  and  execution  of  these  labour 
leaders,  and  forestall  criminal  prosecutions  of  themselves  upon  an 
overturn  in  Colorado  politics.  Again,  murderous  tools  do  not  hire 
themselves  out  for  murderous  exploits  to  persons  powerless  to  protect 
them.  The  labour  leaders  could  offer  no  immunity,  even  though  will- 
ing to  pay  for  the  crime.  But  the  other  side  were  rich  enough  to 
pay  far  more  liberally,  andjaowerful  enough  to  afford  the  murderer 
protection.  According  to  the  alleged  confessions,  the  accused  labour 
leaders  were  idiotic  in  their  selection  of  a  murderous  tool,  idiotic  in 
their  modes  of  payment  for  murder,  without  motive  for  the  murder 
in  question,  and  manifestly  impotent  to  protect  the  murderer.  Not 
so  with  the  inner  circle  of  the  mine-owners'  union,  which  comes  into 
close  relations  with  the  Standard  Oil  crowd.  They  had  a  powerful 
motive,  they  could  pay  without  stint,  their  tool  could  trust  to  their 
power  for  immunity,  and  the  circumstances  are  precisely  what  they 
might  be  expected  to  be  had  the  murderous  conspiracy  originated 
with  them.  This  is  a  trail  which  should  not  be  overlooked  by  the 
Idaho  authorities  if  they  are  hunting  the  real  murderers.  If,  how- 
ever, they  are  engaged  in  helping  the  latter  to  consummate  a  con- 
spiracy, they  are  following  the  correct  course  by  diverting  attention 
from  all  these  significant  probabilities." 

Eeferring  to  the  kidnapping  of  these  officials  of  "  The  Western  Fed- 
eration of  Miners,"  a  Kansas  paper,  says :  "  From  the  moment  of  the 
arrest  of  these  men  they  were  denied  access  to  friends,  families  or 
attorneys.  Kidnapping  in  this  country  is  a  felony.  To  conspire  to 
kidnap  a  person  is  a  second  offence.  That  Moyer,  Haywood  and  Petti- 
bone  were  kidnapped  is  not  denied.  It  is  also  apparent,  and  can  be 
proved  in  court,  that  Governor  McDonald  and  his  aides  acted  in  col- 
lusion, jointly  conspired,  to  kidnap  the  men  whom  they  charge  with 
the  responsibility  of  the  Steunenberg  assassination.  It  remains  to 
be  seen  whether  the  governor  and  his  pals  are  convicted  of  conspiracy 
and  kidnapping  and  condemned  to  a  felon's  sentence." 

"FIRST    INSTANCE    ON    RECORD." 

"  This  is  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  this  country  that  the  gov- 
ernors of  two  states  conspired  to  take  persons  from  one  state  into 
another  without  first  giving  them  an  opportunity  to  apply  for  a  writ 
of  habeas  corpus.  Heretofore  it  has  been  the  custom  that,  before 
the  liberty  of  any  person  was  taken  from  him,  constitutional  methods 
were  employed,  and  the  statutes  of  the  state  in  which  he  resided  were 
complied  with  to  the  letter. .  When  the  prosecuting  attorney  of  Canyon 
county,  Idaho,  drew  up  the  warrants  and  made  out  the  papers  for  the 
arrest  of  Moyer,  Haywood  and  Pettibone,  he  knew  that  neither  of 
these  men  were  in  Idaho  at  the  time  of  the  commission  of  the  crime 
with  which  they  were  charged.  The  governor  of  Idaho  and  the  gov- 
ernor of  Colorado  knew  the  situation,  and  knew  this  to  be  the  fact. 
Yet,  regardless  of  the  federal  constitution,  and  in  plain  violation  of 
the  statutes  of  Colorado  and  Idaho,  McDonald  and  Gooding  de- 
liberately, illegally  and  clandestinely  conspired  and  confederated  to 
deprive  the  officials  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  of  their 

426 


A    KINGDOM    OF   THE    DOLLAR 

liberty,  spirit  them  secretly  away  to  another  state  and  there  hold  them 
on  the  infamously  trumped-up  charge  of  murder." 

Apropos  of  this  Mr.  Hugh  0.  Pentecost,  lawyer  and  lecturer,  said  in 
part,  in  an  address  delivered  on  March  26,  1906,  in  Lyric  Hall,  New 
York  city,  upon  the  subject  of  the  arrest  of  Moyer  and  Haywood: 
"  During  this  strike  three  startling  crimes  were  committed.  One  of 
them  was  the  pulling  out  of  some  spikes  which  held  the  rails  of  a 
railroad  track  in  place,  apparently  for  the  purpose  of  wrecking  a  train. 
Curiously  enough,  the  engineer  of  the  next  train  that  came  along  had 
a  suspicion  that  something  was  wrong,  and  stopped  his  train!  It 
is  natural  to  suppose  that  he  was  told.  A  number  of  union  men  were 
arrested  and  charged  with  pulling  the  spikes  because  a  man  by  the 
name  of  McKinney  and  another  man  confessed  to  having  pulled  the 
spikes  at  the  instigation  of  the  officers  of  the  union  —  just  such  a 
case  as  this.  On  the  trial,  under  cross  examination,  both  these  ac- 
cusers confessed  that  they  were  lying.  McKinney  himself  said  that  he 
had  been  told  by  a  representative  of  the  mine-owners  that  if  he  would 
lay  that  charge  to  the  officers  of  the  union  they  would  give  him  a 
thousand  dollars  in  cash,  immunity  from  punishment,  and  transpor- 
tation for  himself  and  family  to  any  part  of  the  world  that  he  wanted 
to  go.  Carroll  D.  Wright  reports  that  to  the  president ;  it  is  not  my 
story.  So  there  is  one  case  where  the  mine-owners  hired  men  to  make 
exactly  this  kind  of  charge  against  the  officers  of  the  union.  If  they 
would  do  that  in  one  instance,  is  there  any  reason  to  believe  that  they 
would  not  in  another?  There  were  two  other  occasions  of  the  same 
nature,  and  in  all  three  instances  the  labour  men  were  acquitted. 

"  Do  you  say  it  is  inconceivable  that  great  and  reputable  financiers 
could  be  guilty  of  putting  up  such  a  plot  as  the  accusing  of  Moyer 
and  Haywood  and  the  others  of  the  crime  of  murder?  Standard  Oil 
is  a  large  owner  in  those  mines.  J.  P.  Morgan,  George  Gould,  Meyer 
Guggenheimer,  and  western  capitalists  are  behind  the  capitalist  end 
of  this  controversy.  We  know  that  in  one  case  I  have  already  de- 
tailed to  you  they  did  hire  men  to  make  accusations  against  innocent 
men,  charge  them  with  a  crime  that  would  have  sent  them  to  the 
gallows.  And  anybody  that  will  read  the  history  of  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  will  not  have  much  diffi- 
culty in  believing  that  they  would  be  guilty  of  anything  whatever  to 
accomplish  their  purpose. 

"  Now,  mind  you,  I  do  not  pass  judgment.  I  do  not  say  whether 
Moyer  and  Haywood  and  the  others  are  guilty  or  not.  I  am  talking 
about  probabilities.  I  ask  you  what  motive  these  splendid  men  (for 
they  really  are  great  men,  high-minded,  peace-loving  men),  what 
motive  would  they  have  to  assassinate  ex-Governor  Steunenberg? 
The  troubles  were  all  over.  Steunenberg  was  no  longer  governor  of 
the  state.  What  motive  could  they  have  had  for  this  savage,  cowardly, 
contemptible  assassination?  Just  bare,  bald  revenge  for  something 
that  was  past  and  gone  ?  It  is  inconceivable !  On  the  other  hand, 
what  motive  have  the  mine-owners  for  arresting  these  men?  The 
motive  to  break  up  the  union,  for  until  the  union  is  broken  up  they 
cannot  reduce  the  miners  to  abject  submission.  So  I  say,  that  these 
men  are  guilty  is  inconceivable.  There  would  be  no  sense  in  their 

427 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

being  guilty.  It  would  be  not  only  an  act  of  insanity,  but  an  act  of 
stupidity. 

"  And,  lest  I  forget  it,  let  me  say  that  under  the  laws  of  this,  state 
(I  don't  know  what  the  laws  of  Idaho  are,  though  I  think  it  must  be 
the  same  there)  the  evidence  which  they  have  against  these  men  would 
not  be  sufficient  to  warrant  their  arrest,  even.  The  law  of  New  York 
very  wisely  says  that  no  one  can  be  convicted  of  a  crime  upon  the 
evidence  of  an  accomplice,  unless  that  testimony  is  otherwise  cor- 
roborated. Would  any  sane  person  believe  the  word  of  a  man  who 
says  that  he  has  committed  thirty  murders,  and  of  another  man  who 
is,  to  say  the  least,  a  cur,  for  a  man  who  will  commit  a  crime  with 
another  man  and  then  '  peach '  is  unworthy  of  belief.  Would  you 
take  the  word  of  these  two  men  against  the  word  of  these  labour  lead- 
ers whose  characters  are  stainless  and  whose  lives  are  known  and  read 
of  all  men  ?  Would  you,  if  you  were  on  the  jury,  think  the  word  of 
Orchard  and  Adams  any  evidence  at  all  ?  " 

At  the  conclusion  of  his  address,  the  speaker  said: 

"  If  these  men  are  to  be  tried  unfairly,  with  a  packed  jury,  and 
without  any  evidence  at  all,  believe  me,  the  class  that  hangs  them 
in  that  way  will  have  to  pay  the  price  to  the  very  last  farthing." 

Implicated  in  this  conspiracy  against  the  Western  Federation  of 
Miners,  if  such  it  be,  and  it  certainly  seems  to  bear  all  the  hall- 
marks of  a  conspiracy,  is  the  Pinkerton  detective,  McPartland,  regard- 
ing whom  we  read  that  the  "  New  York  Sun  "  recently  published  "  a 
two  and  a  half  column  exposure,"  and  also  that  the  "  New  York 
'  Evening  Post/  the  Wall  Street  organ,  has  told  of  his  ruthless  crime 
without  reserve."  We  extract  the  following  from  an  article  in  a 
Kansas  paper,  entitled  "  McPartland,  the  Pariah  " :  "  On  page  233 
of  the  '  American  Law  Review,?  the  best  authority  on  the  history  of 
law,  and  which  necessarily  is  unbiased,  is  to  be  found  the  following 
statement : 

'  Jame$  McPartland,  selected  by  Allan  Pinkerton,  at  the  behest  of 
the  capitalists,  went,  under  the  assumed  name  of  James  McKenna, 
among  the  Molly  McGuires  in  1873,  became  officer  and  very  promi- 
nent in  a  district  union  of  that  order.  Murders  were  committed. 
McPartland  instigated  them,  aided  and  abetted  the  crimes,  accord- 
ing to  testimony  adduced  and  used  by  the  defence  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  using  his  participation  as  evidence  in  the  prosecution  of  his  alleged 
accomplices;  seven  of  them  were  hanged,  although  McPartland's 
testimony  of  their  guilt  should  have  required  corroboration." 

Apropos  of  the  part  played  by  another  shady  character,  one  Harry 
Orchard,  the  "  Chicago  American "  says,  in  commenting  upon  the 
charge  of  murder  against  Moyer  and  Haywood  growing  out  of 
Orchard's  confession:  "It  is  based  upon  the  confession  of  a  man, 
Orchard,  known  to  be  guilty  of  murder.  This  man  confesses  to  par- 
ticipating in  thirty  murders  or  more,  and  his  evidence  is  to  be  taken  to 
swear  away  the  lives  of  three  men,  honourable,  respected  and  hard- 
working hitherto. 

€<  The  murderer  whose  '  confession '  is  expected  to  hang  three  others, 
tells  some  cock-and-bull  story  about  a  detective  talking  to  him  '  of  his 
mother  and  making  him  confess,'  with  tears  running  down  his  cheeks. 

428 


A    KINGDOM    OF   THE    DOLLAR 

"A  man  who  has  done  the  things  that  this  Orchard  confesses  to 
doing,  that  this  informer  confesses  to  doing,  would  murder  his  own 
mother  for  a  small  reward." 

The  difference  of  attitude  of  the  monopolist  class  toward  organisa- 
tions of  capital  and  organisations  of  labour  is  indicative  of  a  total 
blindness  to  justice,  and  it  presages  grave  trouble  in  the  near  future. 
The  interests  of  labour  and  of  capital  are  identical.  They  are  both, 
as  it  were,  in  the  same  boat,  and  both  should  join  forces  to  fight  their 
common  enemy,  Monopoly.  Instead  of  this,  however,  the  capitalist 
falls  an  easy  prey  to  the  thousand  and  one  pit-falls  by  which  the 
monopolist  foments  discord  between  him  and  the  labourer.  That 
which  is  capital  to-day  was  labour  yesterday,  that  is  to  say,  it  was  in 
process  of  creation  as  wealth.  It  is  ridiculous  to  talk  about  an  "  ir- 
reconcilable conflict"  between  to-day's  labour  and  yesterday's  labour, 
while  ignoring  the  pregnant  fact  that  the  real  conflict  is  between 
those  who  create  wealth  and  those  who  steal  it,  namely,  labour  and 
capital,  on  the  one  side,  as  creators,  and  monopolists  on  the  other,  as 
thieves.  We  cannot  better  close  this  subject  than  by  the  following 
quotation  from  an  address  delivered  by  Eobert  G.  Ingersoll  some 
fifteen  years  or  so  ago,  and  published  in  the  press  of  the  country  at 
that  time :  "  Capital  has  always  claimed,  and  still  claims,  the  right 
to  combine.  Manufacturers  meet  and  determine  prices  even  in  spite 
of  the  great  law  of  supply  and  demand.  Have  the  labourers  the  same 
right  to  consult  and  combine  ?  The  rich  meet  in  the  bank,  club  house 
or  parlour.  Workingmen,  when  they  combine,  gather  in  the  street. 
All  the  organised  forces  of  society  are  against  them.  Capital  has  the 
army  and  navy,  the  legislature,  the  judicial  and  executive  departments. 
When  the  rich  combine  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  '  exchanging  ideas.' 
When  the  poor  combine  it  is  a  '  conspiracy.'  If  they  act  in  concert, 
if  they  really  do  something,  it  is  a  '  mob.'  If  they  defend  themselves 
it  is  treason.  How  is  it  the  rich  can  control  the  departments  of  gov- 
ernment? In  this  country  the  political  power  is  equally  divided 
among  men.  There  are  certainly  more  poor  than  rich.  Why  should 
the  rich  control?  Why  should  not  the  labourers  combine  for  the 
purpose  of  controlling  the  executive,  the  legislative  and  judicial  de- 
partments? Will  they  ever  find  how  powerful  they  are?  A  cry 
comes  from  the  oppressed,  the  hungry,  from  .the  downtrodden,  from 
the  unfortunate,  from  the  despised,  from  men  who  despair  and  from 
women  who  weep.  There  are  times  when  mendicants  become  revolu- 
tionists—  when  a  rag  becomes  a  banner,  under  which  the  noblest 
and  the  bravest  battle  for  right." 


429 


CHAPTER  III 

MUNICIPAL   CONDITIONS 


431 


That  is  the  best  government  which  desires  to  make  the  people  happy, 
and  knows  how  to  make  them  happy. 

Macaulay  —  On  Mitford's  History  of  Greece. 

Our  law  classes  cities  with  women  as  _  having  no  right  to  self-govern- 
ment—  a  fact  which  may  be  regarded  as'  affording  legal  grounds  for  the 
custom  of  calling  a  city  "  she."  .  .  . 

Boston  is  the  city  of  which  I  am  speaking.  A  little  while  ago  she 
wished  to  run  a  wire  from  the  City  Hall  to  the  Old  Court  House,  either 
over  or  under  the  little  back  street  50  or  60  feet  wide  that  lies  between  the 
two  buildings.  The  object  was  to  enable  the  city  to  light  the  Old  Court 
House  from  the  dynamo  in  City  Hall.  A  bill  was  introduced  for  the  pur- 
pose, accompanied  by  petition  of  the  mayor  of  Boston  (House  Bill  No. 
747,  1898),  but  the  electric  companies  did  not  wish  municipalities  to  use 
a  dynamo  in  a  public  building  to  operate  lights  outside  of  the  building, 
and  the  Legislature  refused  to  pass  the  bill,  and  Boston  cannot  run  a 
wire  between  two  of  her  own  buildings  over  or  under  her  own  street. 

A  municipality  has  no  independent  initiative  of  its  own,  and  it  is  the 
only  human  thing  in  America  that  hasn't  got  it.  The  nation  has  a  right 
of  independent  initiative  in  national  affairs,  the  state  in  state  affairs, 
and  the  individual  in  individual  affairs,  but  the  municipality  must  have 
permission  from  the  legislature  for  everything  it  does.  .  .  . 

It  is  bad  enough  to  hold  life  as  a  tenant  at  will,  but  even  that  might 
be  endurable  if  the  city  were  allowed  to  have  the  attributes  of  a  living 
being   while  entrusted   with   existence.     But,   to   have  no  power  of  self 
activity;  to  be  required  to  get  permission  to  move!  that  is  unbearable. 
Prof.  Frank  Parsons  —  The  Bondage  of  Cities. 

"  In  calculating  what  a  man  '  stands  for ' "  continued  the  Colonel,  "  you 
must  consider  his  week-day  occupations  and  not  merely  his  Sabbath-day 
devotions  or  diversions.  You  must  consider  how  he  gets  his  dollars  and 
not  how  he  disburses  his  dimes.  If  he  builds  his  fortune  on  fraud  and 
chicanery,  on  stolen  franchises,  and  padded  balance  sheets,  on  unfair  re- 
bates, and  rotten  lobbies,  it  is  quite  immaterial  whether  his  private  hobby 
be  Sunday-schools  or  draw  poker.  Indeed,  when  he  gets  drunk  and  paints 
the  town  red,  like  an  honest  knave,  we  feel  a  certain  humourous  sym- 
pathy for  him  that  dries  up  entirely  when  we  see  him  on  his  knees  be- 
fore the  deified  egoism  that  he  mistakes  for  God." 

"  But  can't  a  man  be  a  great  promoter  and  exploiter  and  still  be  a  good 
citizen?  "  asked  Barlow. 

"  He  can,"  answered  Colonel  Lumpkin,  "  but  it  isn't  necessary.  We  are 
talking  about  the  essential  functions  of  profit  conveyors,  and  not  about 
accidents  of  taste  or  ornamentation." 

"  The  point  is  this,  Barlow,"  said  Judge  Docket,  interrupting.  "  You 
may  be  too  scrupulous  to  float  my  little  conspiracy  against  the  public  weal, 
but  that  doesn't  close  the  deal.  You  simply  don't  fit  into  this  particular 
pipe-line  —  but  some  other  capitalist  will.  His  morals  and  not  yours 
must,  therefore,  measure  the  ethics  of  the  guild." 

John  M.  Palmer — The  Morals  of  Mammon.    McClure's,  July,  1906. 

The  reason  sometimes  given  for  the  legislative  power  of  strangling  a 
municipality  is  that  it  was  created  by  the  legislature,  and  as  the  breath 
of  life  was  breathed  into  it  by  the  state  authorities  they  have  the  right 
to  withdraw  the  said  breath  at  their  pleasure.  On  similar  grounds  a  par- 
ent would  have  a  right  to  murder  his  child,  and  we  should  go  back  to  the 
Roman  plan  of  placing  the  power  of  life  and  death  in  the  head  of  the 
family.  Moreover,  private  corporations,  as  well  as  public,  are  created  by 
the  legislature  and  if  creation  confers  a  right  of  limitless  modification 


432 


even  to  dissolution  in  the  one  case,  why  not  in  the  other?  Finally,  cities 
and  towns  are  not  created  by  the  legislature.  They  may  exist  and  fre- 
quently have  existed  without  any  legislature,  and  before  there  was  any 
legislature.  Their  existence  gives  them  the  right  of  local  self-government. 
People  living  together  in  the  same  locality  have  a  right  to  associate  them- 
selves for  the  accomplishment  of  common  purposes,  and  to  control  their 
local  affairs  without  dictation  from  distant  cities  and  without  permission 
from  any  legislature. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons  —  The  Bondage  of  the  Cities. 

In  giving  freedom  to  the  slave  we  assure  freedom  to  the  free, —  honour- 
able alike  in  what  we  give  and  what  we  preserve. 

Abraham  Lincoln. 

Where  bastard  Freedom  waves 
Her  fustian  flag  in  mockery  over  slaves. 

Moore. 

You  have  among  you  many  a  purchas'd  slave, 
Which,  like  your  asses  and  your  dogs  and  mules, 
You  use  in  abject  and  in  slavish  parts, 
Because  you  bought  them. 

Merchant  of  Venice. 

The  very  mudsills  of  society  .  .  .  We  call  them  slaves.  .  .  ".  But 
I  will  not  characterise  that  class  at  the  North  with  that  term;  but  you 
have  it.  It  is  there,  it  is  everywhere,  it  is  eternal. 

James  H.  Hammond. 


28  433 


CHAPTER  III 

"Man  is  the  most  wonderful  grafter  of  all  the  works  of  God." 

—  Philistine. 

MUNICIPAL   CONDITIONS 


N"E  of  the  things  which  astonishes  the  Swiss  in  visiting 
America  is  the  amazing  amount  of  fuss  and  feathers 
we  make  over  our  elections,  and  he  is  often  apt  to 
think  —  indeed  many  of  us  make  the  same  mistake 
ourselves  —  that  all  this  bustle  is  indicative  of  a  re- 

markably   keen,   active   and   deep-seated   interest   in 

affairs  political.  He  does  not  know,  how  should  he  —  that  a  good 
99  per  cent,  of  all  this  is  spurious,  the  fanfaronade  of  designing  poli- 
ticians anxious  to  stir  up  a  tumult  upon  the  waves  of  which  they  may 
float  into  office.  We  are  a  strange  lot.  If  a  man  stop  on  the  sidewalk 
and  look  straight  up  into  the  air,  the  next  man  will  do  likewise,  and  so 
on  until  a  crowd  has  gathered.  A  few  well-paid  political  bell-wethers 
are  all  that  is  needed  to  lead  us  political  sheep  into  the  party  shambles. 
With  patriotism  the  story  is  precisely  the  same.  We  shout  and  burn 
much  money  on  the  4th  of  July.  We  wave  flags  and  sing  patriotic 
songs  on  many  occasions.  We  have  a  regular  system  of  so-called 
patriotic  instruction  in  our  public  schools.  In  short,  we  flamboyantly 
parade  and  stamp  the  letter  of  patriotism  upon  all  our  transactions, 
yet  its  spirit  is  as  dead  among  us  as  the  mummy  of  Eameses  I.  In 
our  own  town  of  Arlington,  within  a  stone's  throw  of  ground  which 
drank  itself  sacred  with  patriotic  revolutionary  blood,  we  have  heard 
much  to-do  about  flags,  curfews  and  patriotic  celebrations,  the  echoes 
of  which  eloquent  speeches  had  scarcely  ceased  to  resound  in  our 
town-hall  before  those  fundamental  principles  of  liberty  and  equality, 
for  which  our  forefathers  sacrificed  their  lives,  were  challenged  and 
made  to  run  a  disgraceful  gauntlet  for  their  very  existence.  To  these 
people,  and  they  are  representative  of  a  general  conditton,  patriotism 
is  a  matter  of  powder,  noise,  fustian  and  bunting.  They  laud,  in  their 
eloquent  Fourth  of  July  orations,  those  grand  Americans  who  wrote 
our  charter  of  liberties,  and  gave  us  our  Constitution,  coupling  in  the 
same  breath  in  fulsome  praise  the  names  of  executives  who  have 
trampled  upon  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  distorted  the 
Constitution  until  its  framers  would  scarcely  recognise  it.  We  have 
kept  the  shell  and  thrown  away  the  meat. 

A  great  philosopher  has  asked,  "  Have  we  no  culture,  no  refinement, 
—  but  skill  only  to  live  coarsely  and  serve  the  devil  ?  —  to  acquire  a 
little  worldly  wealth,  or  fame,  or  liberty,  and  make  a  false  show 
with  it,  as  if  we  were  all  husk  and  shell,  with  no  tender  and  living 

434 


MUNICIPAL   CONDITIONS 

kernel  to  us?     Shall  our  institutions  be   like  those  chestnut-burrs 
which  contain  abortive  nuts,  perfect  only  to  prick  the  fingers? 

"  America  is  said  to  be  the  arena  on  which  the  battle  of  freedom  is 
to  be  fought;  but  surely  it  cannot  be  freedom  in  a  merely  political 
sense  that  is  meant.  Even  if  we  grant  that  the  American  has  freed 
himself  from  a  political  tyrant,  he  is  still  the  slave  of  an  economical 
and  moral  tyrant." 

"  The  letter  killeth  but  the  spirit  giveth  life."  We  have  ex- 
changed the  spirit  of  our  forefathers  for  a  petty,  miserly  hunger 
for  the  dollar.  Politics,  so  far  from  being  a  function  of  good 
government,  has  degenerated  into  a  specialised  graft.  Though  we 
have  been  told  again  and  again  that  they  are  best  governed  who 
are  least  governed,  yet  we  multiply  laws,  muddle  our  statutes  and 
make  the  social  machine  a  mechanism  so  complicated  that  it  consumes 
in  friction  a  foot-ton  for  every  foot-pound  of  beneficial  result.  All 
this  needless  threshing  about  naturally  impresses  a  .Swiss  and  leads 
him  to  wonder  if  there  is  some  deeply  hidden  reason,  which  he  is  un- 
able to  comprehend,  why  we  should  use  a  pile-driver  to  break  an  egg- 
shell. Thoreau  said :  "  Those  things  which  now  most  engage  the 
attention  of  men,  as  politics  and  the  daily  routine,  are,  it  is  true, 
vital  functions  of  human  society,  but  should  be  unconsciously  per- 
formed, like  the  corresponding  functions  of  the  physical  body.  They 
are  tVi/ra-human,  a  kind  of  vegetation.  I  sometimes  awake  to  a  half 
consciousness  of  them  going  on  about  me,  as  a  man  may  become  con- 
scious of  some  of  the  processes  of  digestion  in  a  morbid  state  and  so 
have  the  dyspepsia,  as  it  is  called.  It  is  as  if  a  thinker  submitted 
himself  to  be  rasped  by  the  great  gizzard  of  creation.  Politics  is,  as 
it  were,  the  gizzard  of  society,  full  of  grit  and  gravel,  and  the  two 
political  parties  are  its  two  opposite  halves  —  sometimes  split  into 
quarters,  it  may  be,  which  grind  on  each  other.  Not  only  individuals, 
but  States,  have  thus  a  confirmed  dyspepsia,  which  expresses  itself, 
you  can  imagine  by  what  sort  of  eloquence.  Thus  our  life  is  not  alto- 
gether a  forgetting,  but  also,  alas !  to  a  great  extent,  a  remembering 
of  that  which  we  should  never  have  been  conscious  of,  certainly  not  in 
our  waking  hours.  Why  should  we  not  meet,  not  always  as  dyspeptics, 
to  tell  our  bad  dreams,  but  sometimes  as  ewpeptics,  to  congratulate 
each  other  on  the  ever-glorious  morning.  I  do  not  make  an  exorbitant 
demand,  surely." 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  great  philosopher  did  not  believe  in  the 
necessity  of  a  social  earthquake  upon  every  election  day,  yet  we  do 
not  consider  that  he  thought  it  unnecessary  that  men  should  perform 
their  duties  to  society  at  the  polls.  With  prophetic  vision  he  seems 
to  have  seen,  in  imagination,  the  day  when  good  government  shall 
have  become  a  sort  of  social  instinct,  and  shall  be  demanded  and 
secured  as  a  mere  matter  of  course.  Does  this  seem  a  millennial  im- 
possibility? How  many  things,  think  you,  would  all  voters  have  to 
realise  in  order  to  produce  this  result,  supposing  every  man  knew  that 
the  least  governed  are  the  best  governed;  that  all  concentration  in 
government  is  pernicious  and  not  to  be  tolerated;  that  all  representa- 
tion should  be  direct ;  that  nominations  should  be  by  the  people  and 
not  by  machines;  that  candidates  for  nomination  should  be  required 

435 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

to  fully  express  their  views  upon  all  important  issues;  that  any  re- 
calcitrant or  unfaithful  official  should  be  subject  to  immediate  recall; 
that  the  Constitution  was  a  menace  to  justice  and  a  weapon  ideally 
fitted  to  the  hand  of  the  iniquitous;  that  it  should  be  abolished  and 
that  the  will  of  the  people,  properly  expressed,  should  be  the  highest 
law  of  the  land;  that  all  government  flows  from  the  people  and  that 
the  people  should  at  all  times  be  able  to  make  it  flow  this  way  or 
that,  or  stop  its  motion  in  any  particular,  altogether;  that  power 
is  always  corruptive  and  that,  as  Lincoln  said,  no  man  is  great  enough 
to  rule  his  fellow  man;  that  the  idea  of  a  government  of  the  many 
by  an  intelligent  few  is  one  of  the  devil's  best  efforts,  which  would 
quickly  and  inevitably  result  in  a  government  of  the  many  by  the 
intelligent  few,  for  the  intelligent  few,  and  in  spite  of  the  many. 
Were  these  things  realised,  how  long  would  it  take  before  our  political 
activities  were  reduced  to  the  smoothness  of  healthful  subconscious 
functioning?  We  are  deeply  sensible  of  our  aches  and  our  ailments, 
and  this  terrific  political  consciousness  is  after  all  but  an  eloquent 
tribute  to  our  diseased  condition.  In  Switzerland  elections  are  fre- 
quent and  simple,  and  the  Swiss  goes  to  the  polls  as  we  gb  to  the 
post-office.  He  does  not  have  to  make  a  day  of  it,  and,  so  far  as  we 
are  aware,  no  especial  precautions  have  to  be  taken,  as  with  us,  to 
prevent  his  getting  drunk.  Here  great  care  has  to  be  taken  lest  the 
bibulous  celebrate  the  shell-game  just  played  upon  them  in  copious 
libations  poured  out  to  the  god  of  political  chicanery.  It  has  been 
fashionable  of  late  years  in  this  country  to  seek  to  palliate  the  un- 
savoury fact  of  our  political  corruption  by  laying  the  blame  upon  the 
foreign  population.  We  are  told  that  it  is  the  foreigner  who  has 
lowered  our  American  standards  and  poisoned  our  ideals.  This  con- 
fession that  the  American  character  was  too  weak  to  maintain  itself 
in  its  own  home,  surrounded  by  an  environment  of  its  own  making, 
fortified  by  grand  precedents  and  ideals  and  illumined  by  the  en- 
lightened torch  of  advanced  civilisation  against  a  relatively  few  igno- 
rant and  uncultivated  foreigners,  foreigners  without  resources,  strang- 
ers to  our  land,  our  language,  climate,  usages,  manners  and  customs, 
seems  to  them  the  preferable  horn  of  the  dilemma.  To  us  it  is  the 
most  humiliating  form  confession  could  take.  If  these  poor  apolo- 
gists are  right,  we  have  not  only  not  been  able  to  assimilate  our  immi- 
grants, we  have  not  even  swallowed  them,  while  on  the  contrary,  they 
have  swallowed  us.  It  is  with  pleasure,  therefore,  that  we  submit 
facts  showing  the  utter  untenableness  of  this  position.  We  have  de- 
generated, but  our  degeneracy  is  American  not  foreign,  and,  more  than 
this,  if  we  are  to  again  sub-divide,  we  shall  find  its  source  among  the 
so-called  better  class  or  the  presumably  more  American  Americans,  if 
we  were  to  borrow  the  social  prejudices  of  the  aforesaid  apologists. 
The  most  corrupt  area  in  the  United  States  has  the  highest  per  cent. 
of  American  population  to  be  found  in  any  similar  area.  We  refer 
to  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  which  has  47  per  cent,  of  its  population 
native-born  of  native-born  parents,  being  the  most  American  of  our 
greater  cities.  We  shall  see  that  this  city  is,  in  the  language  of  Dr. 
Parkhurst,  "  comfortably  rotten." 

W.  J.  Ghent  says,  in  "  Mass  and  Class/'  that  an  adequate  history 

436 


MUNICIPAL   CONDITIONS 

of  graft  in  the  United  States  "  would  require  a  greater  quantity  of 
print  than  that  contained  in  the  latest  editions  of  the  Encyclopedia 
Bfitannica." 

This  history  he  asserts  "  would  rightly  begin  with  July  4,  1776, — 
not  because  that  date  marked  the  beginning  of  graft,  but  because  it 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  United  States, —  and  it  would  continue 
to  the  last  hour  before  going  to  press."  He  annotates  this  statement 
as  follows :  "  The  captious,  if  they  choose,  may  take  the  alternative 
date,  April  30,  1789." 

In  1902  and  1903  Mr.  Lincoln  Steffens  published  a  series  of  ar- 
ticles pertaining  to  the  corrupt  Conditions  of  several  American  cities. 
Later  Mr.  Steffens  published  the  articles  under  the  title,  "  The  Shame 
of  the  Cities."  The  articles  are  so  ably  written  and  are  so  crowded 
with  appalling  facts  conservatively  stated  that  it  is  hard  to  quote 
from  them,  since  one  scarcely  knows  where  to  stop.  They  should  be 
read  in  extenso  in  order  properly  to  appreciate  the  extent  of  our 
municipal  corruption.  In  the  introduction  to  this  work  Mr.  Steffens 
emphasises  several  points  of  view  which  seem  to  us  quite  as  im- 
portant as  anything  contained  in  the  articles  themselves.  He  says: 
"  The  misgovernment  of  the  American  people  is  misgovernment  by  the 
American  people. 

"When  I  set  out  on  my  travels,  an  honest  New  Yorker  told  me 
honestly  that  I  would  find  that  the  Irish,  the  Catholic  Irish,  were  at 
the  bottom  of  it  all  everywhere.  The  first  city  I  went  to  was  .St. 
Louis,  a  German  city.  The  next  was  Minneapolis,  a  Scandinavian 
city,  with  a  leadership  of  New  Englanders.  Then  came  Pittsburg, 
Scotch  Presbyterian,  and  that  was  what  my  New  York  friend  was. 
'  Ah,  but  they  are  all  foreign  populations,'  I  heard.  The  next  city 
was  Philadelphia,  the  purest  American  community  of  all,  and  the  most 
hopeless.  And  after  that  came  Chicago  and  New  York,  both*  mongrel- 
bred,  but  the  one  a  triumph  of  reform,  the  other  the  best  example  of 
good  government  that  I  had  seen.  The  '  foreign  element '  excuse  is 
one  of  the  hypocritical  lies  that  save  us  from  the  clear  sight  of  our- 
selves. 

"  Another  such  conceit  of  our  egotism  is  that  which  deplores  our 
politics  and  lauds  our  business.  This  is  the  wail  of  the  typical 
American  citizen.  Now,  the  typical  American  citizen  is  the  busi- 
ness man.  The  typical  business  man  is  a  bad  citizen;  he  is  busy. 
If  he  is  a  '  big  business  man '  and  very  busy,  he  does  not  neglect,  he 
is  busy  with  politics,  oh,  very  busy  and  very  businesslike.  I  found 
him  buying  boodlers  in  St.  Louis,  defending  grafters  in  Minneapolis, 
originating  corruption  in  Pittsburg,  sharing  with  bosses  in  Philadel- 
phia, deploring  reform  in  Chicago,  and  beating  good  government  with 
corruption  funds  in  New  York.  He  is  a  self-righteous  fraud,  this 
big  business  man.  He  is  the  chief  source  of  corruption,  and  it  were 
a  boon  if  he  would  neglect  politics.  But  he  is  not  the  business  man 
that  neglects  politics;  that  worthy  is  the  good  citizen,  the  typical 
business  man.  He  too  is  busy,  he  is  the  one  that  has  no  use  and 
therefore  no  time  for  politics.  When  his  neglect  has  permitted  bad 
government  to  go  so  far  that  he  can  be  stirred  to  action,  he  is  un- 
happy, and  he  looks  around  for  a  cure  that  shall  be  quick,  so  that 

437 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

he  may  hurry  back  to  the  shop.  Naturally,  too,  when  he  talks  politics, 
he  talks  shop.  His  patent  remedy  is  quack ;  it  is  business. 

'  Give  us  a  business  man/  he  says,  ('like  me,'  he  means).  'Let 
him  introduce  business  methods  into  politics  and  government;  then 
I  shall  be  left  alone  to  attend  to  my  business.' 

"  There  is  hardly  an  office  from  United  States  Senator  down  to  Al- 
derman in  any  part  of  the  country  to  which  the  business  man  has  not 
been  elected ;  yet  politics  remains  corrupt,  government  pretty  bad,  and 
the  selfish  citizen  has  to  hold  himself  in  readiness  like  the  old  volun- 
teer fireman  to  rush  forth  at  any  hour,  in  any  weather,  to  prevent  the 
fire;  and  he  goes  out  sometimes  and  he  puts  out  the  fire,  (after  the 
damage  is  done),  and  he  goes  back  to  the  shop  sighing  for  the  business 
man  in  politics.  The  business  man  has  failed  in  politics  as  he  has  in 
citizenship.  Why  ? 

"  Because  politics  is  business.  That's  what's  the  matter  with  it. 
That's  what's  the  matter  with  everything, —  art,  literature,  religion, 
journalism,  law,  medicine, —  they're  all  business,  and  all  —  as  you  see 
them.  Make  politics  a  sport,  as  they  do  in  England,  or  a  profession, 
as  they  do  in  Germany,  and  we'll  have  —  well,  something  else  than  we 
have  now, —  if  we  want  it,  which  is  another  question.  But  don't  try 
to  reform  politics  with  the  banker,  the  lawyer,  and  the  dry-goods  mer- 
chant, for  these  are  business  men  and  there  are  two  great  hindrances 
to  their  achievement  of  reform :  one  is  that  they  are  different  from, 
but  no  "better  than,  the  politicians;  the  other  is  that  politics  is  not 
'  their  line.'  .  .-  . 

"  The  politician  is  a  business  man  with  a  specialty.  When  a  busi- 
ness man  of  some  other  line  learns  the  business  of  politics,  he  is  a 
politician,  and  there  is  not  much  reform  left  in  him.  Consider  the 
United  .States  Senate,  and  believe  me. 

"  The  commercial  spirit  is  the  spirit  of  profit,  not  patriotism ;  of 
credit,  not  honour;  of  individual  gain,  not  national  prosperity;  of 
trade  and  dickering,  not  principle.  '  My  business  is  sacred,'  says  the 
business  man  in  his  heart.  '  Whatever  prospers  my  business,  is  good ; 
it  must  be.  Whatever  hinders  it,  is  wrong;  it  must  be.  A  bribe  is 
bad,  that  is,  it  is  a  bad  thing  to  take ;  but  it  is  not  so  bad  to  give  one, 
not  if  it  is  necessary  to  my  business.'  '  Business  is  business '  is  not  a 
political  sentiment,  but  our  politician  has  caught  it.  He  takes  essen- 
tially the  same  view  of  the  bribe,  only  he  saves  his  self-respect  by  piling 
all  his  contempt  upon  the  bribe-giver,  and  he  has  the  great  advantage 
of  candor.  '  It  is  wrong,  maybe,'  he  says,  '  but  if  o,  rich  merchant  can 
afford  to  do  business  with  me  for  the  sake  of  a  convenience  or  to 
increase  his  already  great  wealth,  I  can  afford,  for  the  sake  of  a  liv- 
ing, to  meet  him  half  way.  I  make  no  pretensions  to  virtue,  not  even 
on  Sunday.'  And  as  for  giving  bad  government  or  good,  how  about 
the  merchant  who  gives  bad  goods  or  good  goods,  according  to  the 
demand  ?  " 

Mr.  Steffens  also  considers  in  his  introduction  the  question  of 
whether  or  not  the  people  really  want  good  government,  and  he  calls 
attention  to  the  fact  that  Tammany  says  they  don't.  He  asks  if 
the  people  are  any  better  than  Tammany,  and  raises  the  question  as 
to  whether  or  not  our  corrupt  government  is  not  representative.  He 

438 


MUNICIPAL   CONDITIONS 

contends  that  if  simple  honesty,  courage  and  efficiency  were  practised 
by  the  individual,  it  would  result  in  a  "  revolution  more  radical  and 
terrible  to  existing  institutions,  from  the  Congress  to  the  Church, 
from  the  bank  to  the  ward  organisation,  than  Socialism  or  even  than 
anarchy,"  and  he  goes  on  to  say,  "  No,  the  contemned  methods  of  our 
despised  politics  are  the  master  methods  of  our  braggart  business, 
and  the  corruption  that  shocks  us  in  public  affairs  we  practise  our- 
selves in  our  private  concerns.  There  is  no  essential  difference  be- 
tween the  pull  that  gets  your  wife  into  society  or  a  favourable  review 
for  your  book,  and  that  which  gets  a  heeler  into  office,  a  thief  out  of 
jail,  and  a  rich  man's  son  on  the  board  of  directors  of  a  corporation ; 
none  between  the  corruption  of  a  labour  union,  a  bank,  and  a 
political  machine;  none  between  a  dummy  director  of  a  trust  and 
the  caucus-bound  member  of  a  legislature ;  none  between  a  labour  boss 
like  .Sam  Parks,  a  boss  of  banks  like  -John  D.  Eockefeller,  a  boss  of 
railroads  like  J.  'P.  Morgan,  and  a  political  boss  like  Matthew  S. 
Quay.  The  boss  is  not  a  political,  he  is  an  American  institution,  the 
product  of  a  freed  people  that  have  not  the  spirit  to  be  free. 

"  And  it's  all  a  moral  weakness ;  a  weakness  right  where  we  think  we 
are  strongest.  Oh,  we  are  good  —  on  Sunday,  and  we  are  '  fearfully 
patriotic '  on  the  Fourth  of  July.  But  the  bribe  we  pay  to  the  janitor 
to  prefer  our  interests  to  the  landlord's,  is  the  little  brother  of  the 
bribe  passed  to  the  alderman  to  sell  a  city  street,  and  the  father  of 
the  air-brake  stock  assigned  to  the  president  of  a  railroad  to  have  this 
life-saving  invention  adopted  on  his  road.  And  as  for  graft,  railroad 
passes,  saloon  and  bawdy-house  blackmail,  and  watered  stock,  all  these 
belong  to  the  same  family.  We  are  pathetically  proud  of  our  demo- 
cratic institutions  and  our  republican  form  of  government,  of  our 
grand  Constitution  and  our  just  laws.  We  are  a  free  and  sovereign 
people,  we  govern  ourselves  and  the  government  is  ours.  But  that  is 
the  point.  We  are  responsible,  not  our  leaders,  since  we  follow  them. 
We  let  them  divert  our  loyalty  from  the  United  States  to  some 
*  party ' ;  we  let  them  boss  the  party  and  turn  our  municipal  democra- 
cies into  autocracies  and  our  republican  nation  into  a  plutocracy.  We 
cheat  our  government  and  we  let  our  leaders  loot  it,  and  we  let  them 
wheedle  and  bribe  our  sovereignty  from  us.  True,  they  pass  for  us 
strict  laws,  but  we  are  content  to  let  them  pass  also  bad  laws,  giving 
away  public  property  in  exchange ;  and  our  good,  and  often  impossible, 
laws  we  allow  to  be  used  for  oppression  and  blackmail.  And  what 
can  we  say?  We  break  our  own  laws  and  rob  our  own  government, 
the  lady  at  the  custom-house,  the  lyncher  with  his  rope,  and  the  cap- 
tain of  industry  with  his  bribe  and  his  rebate.  The  spirit  of  graft 
and  of  lawlessness  is  the  American  spirit." 

Mr.  Steffens  calls  attention  to  the  strong  "hush-up"  tendency 
which  is  so  much  in  evidence  in  certain  quarters.  He  says :  "  Who 
says  'Hush,'  and  'What's  the  use?'  and  'All's  well/  when  all  is 
rotten?  It  is  the  grafter;  the  coward,  too,  but  the  grafter  inspires 
the  coward.  The  doctrine  of  '  addition,  division,  and  silence '  is  the 
doctrine  of  graft.  '  Don't  hurt  the  party,'  '  Spare  the  fair  fame  of 
the  city,'  are  boodle  yells.  The  Fourth  of  July  oration  is  the  '  front ' 
of  graft  There  is  no  patriotism  in  it,  but  treason.  It  is  part  of 

439 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  game.  The  grafters  call  for  cheers  for  the  flag,  '  prosperity,'  and 
'  the  party,'  just  as  a  highwayman  commands  '  hands  up,'  and  while 
we  are  waving  and  shouting,  they  float  the  flag  from  the  nation  to  the 
party,  turn  both  into  graft  factories,  and  prosperity  into  a  speculative 
boom  to  make  'weak  hands/  as  the  Wall  Street  phrase  has  it,  hold 
the  watered  stock  while  the  strong  hands  keep  the  property.  '  Blame 
us,  blame  anybody,  but  praise  the  people/  this,  the  politician^  advice, 
is  not  the  counsel  of  respect  for  the  people,  but  of  contempt.  By  just 
such  palavering  as  courtiers  play  upon  the  degenerate  intellects  of 
weak  kings,  the  bosses,  political,  financial,  and  industrial,  are  be- 
fuddling and  befooling  our  sovereign  American  citizenship;  and  — 
likewise  —  they  are  corrupting  it. 

"And  it  is  corruptible,  this  citizenship.  'I  know  what  Parks  is 
doing/  said  a  New  York  union  workman,  '  but  what  do  I  care.  He 
has  raised  rily  wages.  Let  him  have  his  graft ! '  And  the  Phila- 
delphia merchant  says  the  same  thing:  'The  party  leaders  may  be 
getting  more  than  they  should  out  of  the  city,  but  that  doesn't  hurt 
me.  It  may  raise  taxes  a  little,  but  I  can  stand  that.  The  party 
keeps  up  the  protective  tariff.  If  that  were  cut  down,  my  business 
would  be  ruined.  So  long  as  the  party  stands  pat  on  that,  I  stand 
pat  on  the  party/ 

"  The  people  are  not  innocent.  That  is  the  only  '  news '  in  all  the 
journalism  of  these  articles,  and  no  doubt  that  was  not  new  to  many 
observers.  It  was  to  me.  When  I  set  out  to  describe  the  corrupt 
systems  of  certain  typical  cities,  I  meant  to  show  simply  how  the 
people  were  deceived  and  betrayed.  But  in  the  very  first  study  —  St. 
Louis  —  the  startling  truth  lay  bare  that  corruption  was  not  merely 
political ;  it  was  financial,  commercial,  social ;  the  ramifications  of 
boodle  were  so  complex,  various,  and  far-reaching,  that  one  mind  could 
hardly  grasp  them,  and  not  even  Joseph  W.  Folk,  the  tireless  prose- 
cutor, could  follow  them  all." 

This  is  a  most  important  assertion.  It  is  a  humiliating  confes- 
sion that  our  corruption,  instead  of  being  confined  to  politics,  is  far 
more  wide  spread,  undermining  as  it  does  our  finances,  our  commerce, 
and  even  society  itself  —  a  humiliating  confession,  yet  it  must  be 
made,  since  it  is  true  in  every  respect.  This  condition  of  affairs 
seems  to  be  the  full  fruitage  of  what  showed  colour  in  the  bud  many 
years  ago;  even  in  Emerson's  day  affairs  were  so  bad  that  the  great 
optimist  stigmatised  them  in  no  uncertain  terms.  What  would  he 
say  were  he  to  write  of  present  conditions?  In  his  "Man  the  Re- 
former" he  says:  "It  cannot  be  wondered  at,  that  this  general 
inquest  into  abuses  should  arise  in  the  bosom  of  society,  when  one 
considers  the  practical  impediments  that  stand  in  the  way  of  virtuous 
young  men.  The  young  man,  on  entering  life,  finds  the  way  to  lucra- 
tive employments  blocked  with  abuses.  The  ways  of  trade  are  grown 
selfish  to  the  borders  of  theft,  and  supple  to  the  borders  (if  not  beyond 
the  borders)  of  fraud.  The  employments  of  commerce  are  not  in- 
trinsically unfit  for  a  man,  or  less  genial  to  his  faculties,  but  these  are 
now  in  their  general  course  so  vitiated  by  derelictions  and  abuses  at 
which  all  connive,  that  it  requires  more  vigour  and  resources  than 

440 


MUNICIPAL   CONDITIONS 

can  be  expected  of  every  young  man,  to  right  himself  in  them ;  he  is 
lost  in  them ;  he  cannot  move  hand  or  foot  in  them. 

"  Has  he  genius  and  virtue  ?  the  less  does  he  find  them  fit  for  him 
to  grow  in,  and  if  he  would  thrive  in  them,  he  must  sacrifice  all  the 
brilliant  dreams  of  boyhood  and  youth  as  dreams ;  he  must  forget  the 
prayers  of  his  childhood ;  and  must  take  on  him  the  harness  of  routine 
and  obsequiousness.  If  not  so  minded,  nothing  is  left  him  but  to 
begin  the  world  anew,  as  he  does  who  puts  the  spade  into  the  ground 
for  food. 

"  We  are  all  implicated,  of  course,  in  this  charge ;  it  is  only  necessary 
to  ask  a  few  questions  as  to  the  progress  of  the  articles  of  commerce 
from  the  fields  where  they  grew,  to  our  houses,  to  become  aware  that 
we  eat  and  drink  and  wear  perjury  and  fraud  in  a  hundred  commod- 
ities." .  .  . 

"  I  leave  for  those  who  have  the  knowledge  the  part  of  sifting  the 
oaths  of  our  custom-houses;  I  will  not  inquire  into  the  oppression 
of  the  sailors;  I  will  not  pry  into  the  usages  of  our  retail  trade.  I 
content  myself  with  the  fact,  that  the  general  system  of  our  trade 
(apart  from  the  blacker  traits,  which,  I  hope,  are  exceptions  de- 
nounced and  unshared  by  all  reputable  men)  is  a  system  of  selfishness; 
is  not  dictated  by  the  high  sentiments  of  human  nature;  is  not 
measured  by  the  exact  law  of  reciprocity ;  much  less  by  the  sentiments 
of  love  and  heroism,  but  is  a  system  of  distrust,  of  concealment,  of 
superior  keenness,  not  of  giving  but  of  taking  advantage."  .  .  . 

"  I  do  not  charge  the  merchant  or  the  manufacturer.  The  sins  of 
our  trade  belong  to  no  class,  to  no  individual.  One  plucks,  one  dis- 
tributes, one  eats.  Everybody  partakes,  everybody  confesses  —  with 
cap  and  knee  volunteers  his  confession,  yet  none  feels  himself  ac- 
countable. He  did  not  create  the  abuse;  he  cannot  alter  it.  What 
is  he  ?  an  obscure  private  person  who  must  get  hfs  bread.  That  is  the 
vice  —  that  no  one  feels  himself  called  to  act  for  man,  but  only  as  a 
fraction  of  man.  It  happens  therefore  that  all  such  ingenuous  souls 
as  feel  within  themselves  the  irrepressible  strivings  of  a  noble  aim, 
who  by  the  law  of  their  nature  must  act  simply,  find  these  ways  of 
trade  unfit  for  them,  and  they  come  forth  from-  it.  Such  cases  are 
becoming  more  numerous  every  year. 

"  But  by  coming  out  of  trade  you  have  not  cleared  yourself.  The 
trail  of  the  serpent  reaches  into  all  the  lucrative  professions  and  prac- 
tices of  man.  Each  has  its  own  wrongs.  Each  finds  a  tender  and 
very  intelligent  conscience  a  disqualification  for  success.  Each  re* 
quires  of  the  practitioner  a  certain  shutting  of  the  eyes,  a  certain 
dapperness  and  compliance,  an  acceptance  of  customs,  a  sequestration 
from  the  sentiments  of  generosity  and  love,  a  compromise  of  private 
opinion  and  integrity.  Nay,  the  evil  custom  reaches  into  the  whole 
institution  of  property,  until  our  laws  which  establish  and  protect  it 
seem  not  to  be  the  issue  of  love  and  reaso*n,  but  of  selfishness.". 


441 


CHAPPTER  IV 

THE    FATHER    OF    GRAFT— THE    BUSINESS 

MAN 


443 


Dividend  Checks  Don't  Record  all  the  Facts. 

When  you  receive  your  quarterly  check  from  the  Consolidated  Traction 
Company,  it  is  so  clean  and  crisp,  and  so  prettily  engraved  that  you  never 
think  of  the  iniquities  it  stands  for.  It  does  not  bear  an  itemised  state- 
ment of  your  share  in  the  profits  of  corrupting  the  government  of  your 
native  city.  It  does  not  specify  the  amount  of  your  investment  in  the 
dishonour  of  aldermen  and  legislators.  It  does  not  remind  you  of  your 
responsibility  for  the  fanciful  document  that  the  company  swears  to  as  its 
balance  sheet.  It  does  not  bring  to  your  mind  the  misery  and  filth  of  the 
crowded  slums  that  must  continue  to  exist  because  your  dividend  re- 
quires the  perpetuation  of  five-cent  fares.  It  does  not  te"ll  you  of  the  il- 
literate gamins  who  are  crowded  out  of  school  because  your  directors  have 
understated  to  the  Tax  Commissioners  by  just  as  much  as  they  have  over- 
stated to  the  Railroad  Commissioners.  These,  and  many  other  essential 
factors  of  maximum  profit  are  considerately  kept  from  your  delicate  sensi- 
bility; and  so,  when  your  check  is  cashed,  you  can  indulge  your  benevolent 
instincts  by  making  a  little  contribution  for  the  conversion  of  the  Sene- 
gambians,  and  another  to  provide  hymn-books  for  the  dear  little  Hotten- 
tots. 

John  M.  Palmer  —  The  Morals  of  Mammon.    McClure's,  July,  1906. 

Cities  have  no  independent  initiative  of  their  own.  They  belong  to  the 
dependent  and  defective  classes.  .  .  .  They  have  as  a  rule  no  recog- 
nised right  to  choose  their  own  officers.  .  .  .  They  have  as  a  rule  no 
recognised  right  to  control  and  manage  their  own  property.  .  .  .  They 
have  no  recognised  right  to  continued  existence  —  no  recognised  right  to 
life,  liberty,  or  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  .  .  .  Neither  a  franchise 
grant,  nor  the  charter  as  a  whole,  is  regarded  as  a  contract,  or  within  the 
protection  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons  —  The  Bondage  of  the  Cities. 

The  City  for  the  People,  not  for  the  politicians  and  monopolists.  The 
bondage  of  cities  to  legislatures,  councils  and  corporations  must  cease; 
the  people  must  own  their  government.  Private  monopoly  in  government 
and  in  public  utilities  must  give  place  to  public  ownership,  and  our  cities 
must  be  managed,  not  in  the  interest  of  any  individual  or  class  but  in  the 
interest  of  the  whole  people. 

Prof.  Frank  Parsons  —  The  City  for  the  People. 


444 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    FATHER    OF    GRAFT— THE    BUSINESS 

MAN 


HE  grave  remarks  of  Emerson  just  quoted  are  most 
pregnant  with  meaning.  The  social  system  under 
which  we  live  is  a  system  devised  by  selfishness,  main- 
tained by  selfish  activities,  and  tending  ever  to  become 
more  and  more  selfish.  To  this  pernicious  system, 

rather  than  to  any  inherent  badness  in  the  individuals 

suffering  under  it,  is  due  practically  all  of  the  long  retinue  of  ills 
with  which  we  are  afflicted. 

In  "  Free  America/'  by  Bolton  Hall,  we  find  the  following  note- 
worthy passages:  "  One  of  the  most  curious  of  delusions  is  the  be- 
lief that  widespread  and  deep-rooted  evils  can  be  cured  by  trifling 
remedies.  Thus,  for  the  ills  arising  from  political  corruption  and 
misgovernment  by  organisations  formed  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
political  offices,  we  find  it  gravely  suggested  as  a  remedy  that  we 
should  '  elect  good  men  to  office/  Apart  from  the  absurdity  of  di- 
viding men  into  the  good  and  the  bad,  this  plan  for  abolishing  effects 
without  touching  causes  is  ridiculous.  'Political  corruption  is  not,  as 
some  moralists  seem  to  believe,  the  result  of  men's  sinful  nature,  nor 
is  it  due  to  unscrupulous  'machines.'  It  has  its  origin  in  the  con- 
ditions which  keep  large  numbers  of  people  in  involuntary  idle- 
ness; which  every  year  force  ten  thousand  business  men  into  bank- 
ruptcy; which  make  a  struggle  for  a  bare  subsistence  the  lot  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  country;  and  which  create  large 
classes  ready  to  ally  themselves  for  gain  with  adventurers  who  trade 
as  professional  politicians.  Having  its  roots  thus  deep  in  the  rotten 
soil  of  ignorance  and  violation  of  economic  laws,  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
the  efforts  of  '  Good  Government  Clubs,'  '  Municipal  Reform  Leagues/ 
and  similar  organisations  of  well-meaning  citizens  must  fail  to 
accomplish  the  ends  for  which  they  are  working.  So  long  as  law- 
created  conditions  prevent  the  masses  from  acquiring  intelligence 
or  using  their  intelligence  for  useful  purposes,  so  long  will  it  be 
impossible  to  have  clean  politics. 

"  A  number  of  well-meaning  persons  think  that  the  corruption  of 
politics  can  be  cured  by  what  is  called  'civil-service  reform/  Their 
chief  representative  is  the  '  New  York  Evening  Post/  a  journal  which, 
like  most  of  our  prominent  dailies,  is  owned  by  vested  interests, 
but  demands  good  government  and  honesty  in  public  affairs.  The 
'  Post '  declaims  against  the  '  hungry  horde  of  office  seekers/  who 
seek  employment  as  the  reward  of  their  political  service,  but  has 
not  a  word  to  say  against  the  system  which  forces  men  to  struggle 
for  the  small  salaries  Q|  most  Government  positions.  Prating  of 

445 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

official  honesty  while  upholding  gigantic  exactions  under  legal  forms 
is  saving  at  the  spigot  to  waste  at  the  bung. 

"  That  government  officials  should  be  selected  solely  on  the  ground 
of  fitness,  everyone  will  admit.  But  no  change  in  the  method  of 
appointing  such  officials  can  give  us  '  pure  politics '  so  long  as  there 
are  a  hundred  men  looking  for  each  office.  » 

"  Senator  Ingalls  was  right.  '  The  purification  of  politics  is  an 
iridescent  dream '  under  the  present  economic  system.  Patchwork 
tinkering  with  ballot  reform,  proportional  representation,  or  any 
other  proposed  scheme  of  government  can  do  little  toward  real  relief 
from  the  tyranny  of  the  boss  or  the  corruption  of  the  party  ma- 
chine. No  patent  idea  of  non-partisanship  in  municipal  elections,  or 
of  '  good  citizens  acting  together '  in  state  and  national  elections 
can  vote  knowledge  out  of  ignorance,  or  honesty  into  men  forced  by 
the  hope  of  sorely  needed  employment  to  support  politics  which  they 
know  to  be  dishonest. 

"  Akin  to  the  plans  for  political  reform  is  the  belief  that  if  we  can 
only  prevent  bribery  at  elections  we  shall  insure  a  free  and  unbiased 
expression  of  the  public  will.  So  we  have  laws  imposing  severe 
penalties  on  any  one  who  directly  or  indirectly  gives  or  receives  any 
consideration  for  votes.  Of  course  these  laws  are  violated,  but  even 
though  they  were  strictly  enforced  they  would  only  change  the  form 
of  bribery  from  cash  to  some  promised  benefit.  Thus  we  find  a  great 
political  party  making  a  direct  appeal  for  support  on  the  ground  that 
if  successful  the  burden  of  national  taxation  will  be  increased  in  order 
to  benefit  the  workers  employed  in  certain  industries,  while  vigourous 
work  in  each  campaign  is  prompted  by  the  knowledge  that  success 
would  mean  the  appointment  of  the  workers  to  office.  This  is  no  less 
a  bribe  because  it  is  a  general  offer  of  public  funds  in  aid  of  certain 
private  persons,  yet  the  moralists  who  are  shocked  at  the  payment  by 
John  Jones  of  $3  for  William  Smith's  vote,  have  little  or  nothing  to 
say  about  the  corrupting  of  voters  by  wholesale. 

"  A  few  years  ago  there  was  a  general  demand  for  '  ballot  reform ' 
or  a  change  in  the  method  of  casting  ballots  for  government  officers. 
Much  was  claimed  for  the  '  Australian '  voting  system  as  a  means 
of  promoting  the  election  of  honest  and  independent  candidates. 
But  although  '  ballot  reform '  has  been  adopted  in  thirty  or  more 
states  we  find  to-day  that  the  party  machine  is  nearly  as  strong  as 
ever,  and  is  able  to  thrust  its  nominees  on  the  public  as  it  did  under 
the  old  system.  And  this  must  continue  while  politics,  or  the  busi- 
ness of  electing  lawmakers,  affords  an  opportunity  for  money-making 
to  men  who  cannot  get  a  living  by  honest  industry. 

"  Honesty  is  a  good  thing  in  politics,  as  well  as  in  private  busi- 
ness. We  should  have  business  methods  in  all  public  affairs.  The 
rule  of  corrupt  political  machines  should  be  thrown  off.  The  will 
of  the  people,  and  not  of  a  self-constituted  boss,  should  prevail.  But 
to  try  to  secure  these  desirable  ends  in  political  life,  while  main- 
taining a  system  which  invites  and  encourages  the  opposite  condi- 
tions, is  nonsense."  .  .  . 

"  Make  the  masses  of  the  voters  prosperous  and  independent  of  the 
few  offices  to  be  doled  out  to  political  partisans,  and  abolish  the 

446 


THE    FATHER   OF    GRAFT 

power  of  legislatures  to  confer  special  privileges,  and  there  will  soon 
be  an  end  of  the  evils  which  the  'good'  reformers  are  trying  to 
cure  with  bread-pills  and  sugar-and-water  draughts. 

"  If  the  '  Good  Government '  advocates  really  wish  to  succeed,  let 
them  help  to  abolish  the  causes  of  involuntary  idleness  and  poverty. 
That  done,  they  will  find  that  the  symptoms  of  social  disease  which 
they  take  to  be  the  disease  itself,  will  quickly  disappear. 

"As  a  means  of  getting  what  we  want  we  should  of  course  have 
popular  election  of  Senators,  and  we  will  get  it.  Something  has 
been  accomplished  and  much  is  to  be  hoped  for  as  effective  methods 
of  expressing  our  will  from  the  Initiative  and  Referendum,  and  more 
from  Proportional  Eepresentation. 

"  Until  we  get  these,  the  '  Winnetka  plan/  first  tried  at  the  home 
of  the  late  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  in  Illinois,  works  well  and  immediately. 
It  consists  simply  in  requiring  from  each  legislative  candidate  before 
voting  for  him  at  election,  a  written  pledge  to  introduce  or  sup- 
port one  resolution  in  his  own  assembly  of  lawmakers.  This  reso- 
lution provides  that  upon  the  written  request  of  five  per  cent,  of  the 
voters  any  proposed  law  shall  be  put  to  popular  vote  before  it  goes 
into  operation.  So  far,  for  plain  reasons,  such  pledges  have  been 
kept. 

"  These  reforms,  known  as  '  Direct  Legislation/  are  vigourously 
pushed,  more  owing  to  Mr.  Eltweed  Pomeroy,  of  Newark,  New  Jer- 
sey, than  to  any  other  one  man  in  the  United  States. 

"  Mr.  Pomeroy  will  gladly  send  information  as  to  plans  and  prog- 
ress, so  that  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  enlarge  on  this  splendid  move- 
ment, which  is  one  of  the  most  encouraging  signs  of  popular  awaken- 
ing." 

In  his  introduction  *  Mr.  Steffens,  after  considering  conditions  in 
several  cities,  speaks  of  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love,  as  follows: 
"  But  it  was  not  till  I  got  to  Philadelphia  that  the  possibilities  of 
popular  corruption  were  worked  out  to  the  limit  of  humiliating  con- 
fession. That  was  the  place  for  such  a  study.  There  is  nothing 
like  it  in  the  country,  except,  possibly,  in  Cincinnati.  Philadelphia 
certainly  is  not  merely  corrupt,  but  corrupted,  and  this  was  made 
clear.  Philadelphia  was  charged  up  to  —  the  American  citizen. 

"  It  was  impossible  in  the  space  of  a  magazine  article  to  cover  in 
any  one  city  all  the  phases  of  municipal  government,  so  I  chose 
cities  that  typified  most  strikingly  some  particular  phase  or  phases. 
Thus  as  St.  Louis  exemplified  boodle;  Minneapolis,  police  graft; 
Pittsburg,  a  political  and  industrial  machine;  and  Philadelphia,  gen- 
eral civic  corruption;  so  Chicago  was  an  illustration  of  reform,  and 
New  York  of  good  government.  All  these  things  occur  in  most  of 
these  places.  There  are,  and  long  have  been,  reformers  in  St.  Louis, 
and  there  is  to-day  police  graft  there.  Minneapolis  has  had  boodling 
and  council  reform,  and  boodling  is  breaking  out  there  again.  Pitts- 
burg  has  general  corruption,  and  Philadelphia  a  very  perfect  po- 
litical machine.  Chicago  has  police  graft  and  a  low  order  of  ad- 
ministrative and  general  corruption  which  permeates  business,  labour, 

*  See  "  The  Shame  of  the  Cities." 

447 


and  society  generally.  As  for  New  York,  the  metropolis  might 
exemplify  almost  anything  that  occurs  anywhere  in  American  cities, 
but  no  city  has  had  for  many  years  such  a  good  administration  as 
was  that  of  Mayor  Seth  Low." 

Calling  attention  to  the  conservatism  of  the  article,  Mr.  Steffens 
states  that  every  one  of  the  articles  was  an  understatement,  especially 
where  the  conditions  were  bad,  and  he  cites  in  proof  of  this  that 
those  who  are  well-informed  in  the  matters  treated  express  sur- 
prise that  he  reported  so  little.  One  St.  Louis  newspaper,  he  says, 
stated  that  "  The  facts  were  thrown  at  me  and  I  fell  down  over 
them."  Continuing,  he  says,  "  There  was  truth  in  these  flings.  I 
cut  twenty  thousand  words  out  of  the  Philadelphia  article  and  yet 
I  had  not  written  half  my  facts.  I  know  a  man  who  is  making  a 
history  of  the  corrupt  construction  of  the  Philadelphia  City  Hall,  in 
three  volumes,  and  he  grieves  because  he  lacks  space.  You  can't 
put  all  the  known  incidents  of  the  corruption  of  an  American  city 
into  a  book."  .  .  . 

"  After  '  The  Shame  of  Minneapolis/  and  '  The  Shamelessness 
of  St.  Louis/  not  only  did  citizens  of  these  cities  approve,  but  citizens 
of  other  cities,  individuals,  groups,  and  organisations,  sent  in  invita- 
tions, hundreds  of  them,  '  to  come  and  show  us  up ;  we're  worse  than 
they  are/'' 

Mr.  Steffens  calls  attention  to  a  most  important  fact  when  he 
states,  "The  great  truth  I  tried  to  make  plain  was  that  which  Mr. 
Folk  insists  so  constantly  upon:  that  bribery  is  no  ordinary  felony, 
but  treason,  that  the  '  corruption  which  breaks  out  here  and  there 
and  now  and  then '  is  not  an  occasional  offence,  but  a  common  prac- 
tice, and  that  the  effect  of  it  is  literally  to  change  the  form  of  our 
government  from  one  that  is  representative  of  the  people  to  an  oli- 
garchy, representative  of  special  interests.  Some  politicians  have 
seen  that  this  is  so,  and  it  bothers  them.  I  think  I  prize  more  highly 
than  any  other  of  my  experiences  the  half-dozen  times  when  graft- 
ing politicians  I  had  'roasted/  as  they  put  it,  called  on  me  after- 
wards to  say,  in  the  words  of  one  who  spoke  with  a  wonderful 
solemnity : 

'  You  are  right.  I  never  thought  of  it  that  way,  but  it's  right. 
I  don't  know  whether  you  can  do  anything,  but  you're  right,  dead 
right.  And  I'm  all  wrong.  We're  all,  all  wrong.  I  don't  see  how 
we  can  stop  it  now;  I  don't  see  how  I  can  change.  I  can't,  I  guess. 
No,  I  can't,  not  now.  But,  say,  I  may  be  able  to  help  you,  and  I 
will  if  I  can.  You  can  have  anything  I've  got.' '' 

.Space  will  not  permit  of  doing  anything  like  full  justice  to  the 
facts  unearthed  by  this  patient  and  conscientious  journalist,  and  we 
must  content  ourselves  with  but  a  few  citations.  In  the  article  en- 
titled "  Tweed  Days  in  St.  Louis  "  we  find  this :  "  The  corruption 
of  St.  Louis  came  from  the  top.  The  best  citizens  —  the  merchants 
and  big  financiers  —  used  to  rule  the  town,  and  they  ruled  it  well. 
They  set  out  to  outstrip  Chicago.  The  commercial  and  industrial 
war  between  these  two  cities  was  at  one  time  a  picturesque  and 
dramatic  spectacle  such  as  is  witnessed  only  in  our  country.  Busi- 
ness mea  were  not  mere  merchants  and  the  politicians  were  not  mere 

448 


THE    FATHER   OF   GRAFT 

grafters;  the  two  kinds  of  citizens  got  together  and  wielded  the 
power  of  banks,  railroads,  factories,  the  prestige  of  the  city,  and 
the  spirit  of  its  citizens  to  gain  business  and  population.  And  it  was 
a  close  race.  Chicago,  having  the  start,  always  led,  but  St.  Louis 
had  pluck,  intelligence,  and  tremendous  energy.  It  pressed  Chicago 
hard.  It  excelled  in  a  sense  of  civic  beauty  and  good  government; 
and  there  are  those  who  think  yet  it  might  have  won.  But  a  change 
occurred.  Public  spirit  became  private  spirit,  public  enterprise  be- 
came private  greed." 

In  this  article  we  find  a  description,  by  one  of  Mr.  Folk's  grand 
juries,  of  the  House  of  Delegates;  from  it  we  extract  the  following: 
"  Our  investigation,  covering  more  or  less  fully  a  period  of  ten  years, 
shows  that,  with  few  exceptions,  no  ordinance  has  been  passed  wherein 
valuable  privileges  or  franchises  are  granted  until  those  interested 
have  paid  the  legislators  the  money  demanded  for  action  in  the  par- 
ticular case.  Combines  in  both  branches  of  the  Municipal  Assem- 
bly are  formed  by  members  sufficient  in  number  to  control  legisla- 
tion. To  one  member  of  this  combine  is  delegated  the  authority  to 
act  for  the  combine,  and  to  receive  and  to  distribute  to  each  member 
the  money  agreed  upon  as  the  price  of  his  vote  in  support  of,  or  oppo- 
sition to,  a  pending  measure.  So  long  has  this  practice  existed  that 
such  members  have  come  to  regard  the  receipt  of  money  for  action 
on  pending  measures  as  a  legitimate  perquisite  of  a  legislator." 

Commenting  on  this  Mr.  Steffens  says:  "In  order  to  insure  a 
regular  and  indisputable  revenue,  the  combine  of  each  house  drew 
up  a  schedule  of  bribery  prices  for  all  possible  sorts  of  grants,  just 
such  a  list  as  a  commercial  traveller  takes  out  on  the  road  with  him. 
There  was  a  price  for  a  grain  elevator,  a  price  for  a  short  switch; 
side  tracks  were  charged  for  by  the  linear  foot,  but  at  rates  which 
varied  according  to  the  nature  of  the  ground  taken;  a  street  im- 
provement cost  so  much;  wharf  space  was  classified  and  precisely 
rated.  As  there  was  a  scale  for  favourable  legislation,  so  there  was 
one  for  defeating  bills.  It  made  a  difference  in  the  price  if  there 
was  opposition,  and  it  made  a  difference  whether  the  privilege  asked 
was  legitimate  or  not.  But  nothing  was  passed  free  of  charge.  Many 
of  the  legislators  were  saloon-keepers  —  it  was  in  St.  Louis  that  a 
practical  joker  nearly  emptied  the  House  of  Delegates  by  tipping  a 
boy  to  rush  into  a  session  and  call  out,  "Mister,  your  saloon  is  on 
fire/ —  but  even  the  saloon-keepers  of  a  neighbourhood  had  to  pay 
to  keep  in  their  inconvenient  locality  a  market  which  public  interest 
would  have  moved."  .  .  . 

"A  member  of  the  House  of  Delegates  admitted  to  the  Grand 
Jury  that  his  dividends  from  the  combine  netted  $25,000  in  one  year; 
a  Councilman  stated  that  he  was  paid  $50,000  for  his  vote  on  a  single 
measure. 

"  Bribery  was  a  joke.  A  newspaper  reporter  overheard  this  conver- 
sation one  evening  in  the  corridor  of  the  City  Hall:: 

'  Ah  there,  my  boodler ! '  said  Mr.  Delegate. 

*  Stay  there,  my  grafter ! '  replied  Mr.  Councilman.  '  Can  you 
lend  me  a  hundred  for  a  day  or  two.?' 

2»  449 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

'  Not  at  present.  But  I  can  spare  it  if  the  Z  —  bill  goes  through 
to-night.  Meet  me  at  F — 's  later/ 

'  All  right,  my  jailbird;  I'll  be  there/  "     .     .     . 

"  Pitiful  ?  Yes,  but  typical.  Other  cities  are  to-day  in  the  same 
condition  as  St.  Louis  before  Mr.  Folk  was  invited  in  to  see  its  rot- 
tenness. Chicago  is  cleaning  itself  up  just  now,  so  is  Minneapolis, 
and  Pittsburg  recently  had  a  bribery  scandal ;  Boston  is  at  peace, 
Cincinnati  and  St.  Paul  are  satisfied,  while  Philadelphia  is  happy 
with  the  worst  government  in  the  world.  As  for  the  small  towns 
and  the  villages,  many  of  these  are  busy  as  bees  at  the  loot."  .  .  . 

"  In  all  cities,  the  better  classes  —  the  business  men  —  are  the 
sources  of  corruption;  but  they  are  so  rarely  pursued  and  caught 
that  we  do  not  fully  realise  whence  the  trouble  comes.  Thus  most 
cities  blame  the  politicians  and  the  ignorant  and  vicious  poor. 

"  Mr.  Folk  has  shown  St.  Louis  that  its  bankers,  brokers,  corpora- 
tion officers, —  its  business  men  —  are  the  sources  of  evil,  so  that  from 
the  start  it  will  know  the  municipal  problem  in  its  true  light." 

Coming  now  to  the  article,  "  Philadelphia :  Corrupt  and  Con- 
tented,"—  we  are  obliged  to  forgo  citations  from  the  other  articles  — 
Mr.  Steffens  says :  "  Philadelphia  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  our  cities 
and  treasures  for  us  scenes  and  relics  of  some  of  the  noblest  tradi- 
tions of  '  our  fair  land/  Yet  I  was  told  how  once,  '  for  a  joke/  a 
party  of  boodlers  counted  out  the  '  divvy '  of  their  graft  in  unison 
with  the  ancient  chime  of  Independence  Hall. 

"'Philadelphia  is  representative.  This  very  'joke,'  told,  as  it  was, 
with  a  laugh,  is  typical.  All  our  municipal  governments  are  more 
or  less  bad,  and  all  our  people  are  optimists.  Philadelphia  is  sim- 
ply the  most  corrupt  and  the  most  contented.  Minneapolis  has 
cleaned  up,  Pittsburg  has  tried  to,  New  York  fights  every  other  elec- 
tion, Chicago  fights  all  the  time.  Even  St.  Louis  has  begun  to  stir 
(since  the  elections  are  over),  and  at  the  worst  was  only  shameless. 
Philadelphia  is  proud;  good  people  there  defend  corruption  and 
boast  of  their  machine.  My  college  professor,  with  his  philosophic 
view  of  'rake-offs/  is  one  Philadelphia  type.  Another  is  the  man, 
who,  driven  to  bay  with  his  local  pride,  says:  'At  least  you  must 
admit  that  our  machine  is  the  best  you  have  ever  seen/ 

"  Disgraceful  ?  Other  cities  say  so.  But  I  say  that  if  Philadelphia 
is  a  disgrace,  it  is  a  disgrace  not  to  itself  alone,  nor  to  Pennsylvania, 
but  to  the  United  States  and  to  American  character."  .  .  . 

"  The  Philadelphia  machine  isn't  the  best.  It  isn't  sound,  and  I 
doubt  if  it  would  stand  in  New  York  or  Chicago.  The  enduring 
strength  of  the  typical  American  political  machine  is  that  it  is  a 
natural  growth  —  a  sucker,  but  deep-rooted  in  the  people.  The  New 
Yorkers  vote  for  Tammany  Hall.  The  Philadelphians  do  not  vote; 
they  are  disfranchised,  and  their  disfranchisement  is  one  anchor  of 
the  foundation  of  the  Philadelphia  organisation. 

"  This  is  no  figure  of  speech.  The  honest  citizens  of  Philadelphia 
have  no  more  rights  at  the  polls  than  the  negroes  down  South.  Nor 
do  they  fight  very  hard  for  this  basic  privilege.  You  can  arouse 
their  Republican  ire  by  talking  about  the  black  Republican  votes  lost 
in  the  Southern  States  by  white  Democratic  intimidation,  but  if  you 

450 


THE    FATHER   OF   GRAFT 

remind  the  average  Philadelphia!!  that  he  is  in  the  same  position,  he 
will  look  startled,  then  say,  '  That's  so,  that's  literally  true,  only  I 
never  thought  of  it  in  just  that  way/  And  it  is  literally  true. 

"  The  machine  controls  the  whole  process  of  voting,  and  practises, 
fraud  at  every  stage.     The  assessor's  list  is  the  voting  list,  and  the 
assessor  is  the  machine's  man.     *  The  assessor  of  a  division  kept  a 
disorderly  house ;  he  padded  his  lists  with  fraudulent  names  registered 
from  his  house;  two  of  these  names  were  used  by  election  officers. 
.     .     .     The  constable  of  the  division  kept  a  disreputable  house;  a 
policeman  was  assessed  as  living  there.     ,     .     .     The  election  was 
held  in  the  disorderly   house  maintained  by  the   assessor.     .     .     . 
The  man  named  as  judge  had  a  criminal  charge  for  a  life  offence 
pending  against  him.     .     .     .     Two  hundred  and  fifty-two  votes  were 
returned  in  a  division  that  had  less  than  one  hundred  legal  votes 
within  its  boundaries/     These  extracts  from  a  report  of  the  Munici- 
pal League  suggest  the  election  methods.     The  assessor  pads  the  list 
with  the  names  of  dead  dogs,  children,  and  .non-existent  persons. 
One  newspaper  printed  the  picture  of  a  dog,  another  that  of  a  little 
four-year-old  negro  boy,  down  on  such  a  list.     A  ring  orator  in  a 
speech  resenting  sneers  at  his  ward  as  '  low  down '  reminded  his 
hearers  that  that  was  the  ward  of  Independence  Hall,  and,  naming 
over  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  he  closed  his  highest 
flight  of  eloquence  with  the  statement  that  '  these  men,  the  fathers 
of  American  liberty,  voted  down  here  once.     And/  he  added,  with 
a  catching  grin,  '  they  vote  here  yet/     Eudolph  Blankenburg,  a  per- 
sistent fighter  for  the  right  and  the  use  of  the  right  to  vote  (and, 
by  the  way,  an  immigrant),  sent  out  just  before  one  election  a  regis- 
tered letter  to  each  voter  on  the  rolls  of  a  certain  selected  division. 
Sixty-three  per  cent,  were  returned  marked  *  not  at/  *  removed/  *  de- 
ceased/ etc.     From  one  four-story  house  where  forty-four  voters  were 
addressed,  eighteen  letters  came  back  undelivered;  from  another  of 
forty-eight  voters,  came  back  forty-one  letters;  from  another  sixty- 
one  out  of  sixty-two;  from  another,  forty-four  out  of  forty-seven. 
Six  houses  in  one  division  were  assessed  at  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
two  voters,  more  than  the  votes  cast  in  the  previous  election  in  any 
one  of  two  hundred  entire  divisions." 

Continuing  Mr.  Steffens  shows  how  the  few  who  may  attempt  to 
vote  are  intimidated.  Repeating  is  done  boldly.  The  fraudulent 
voting  usually  proceeds  without  violence;  there  usually  being  more 
jesting  than  fighting.  The  reader  is  told,  however,  that  the  police 
are  there  to  use  violence  if  necessary,  and  it  is  related  how  several 
citizens  told  Mr.  Steffens  that  they  had  seen  the  police  "help  to 
beat  citizens  or  election  officers  who  were  trying  to  do  their  duty,  then 
arrest  the  victim." 

Mr.  .Steffens  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Clinton  Eogers 
Woodruff,  the  executive  Council  of  the  Municipal  League,  has  pub- 
lished a  booklet  of  such  cases.  Describing  further  the  election 
frauds  the  author  says,  "  A  friend  of  mine  told  me  he  was  on  the 
lists  in  the  three  wards  in  which  he  had  successively  dwelt.  He  votes 
personally  in  none,  but  the  leader  of  his  present  ward  tells  him  how 
he  has  been  voted.  Mr.  J.  C.  Reynolds,  the  proprietor  of  the  St. 

451 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

James  Hotel,  went  to  the  polls  at  eleven  o'clock  last  election  day, 
only  to  be  told  that  he  had  been  voted.  He  asked  how  many  others 
from  his  house  had  voted.  An  election  officer  took  up  a  list,  checked 
off  twelve  names,  two  down  twice,  and  handed  it  to  him.  When 
Mr.  Eeynolds  got  home  he  learned  that  one  of  these  had  voted,  the 
others  had  been  voted. .  Another  man  said  he  rarely  attempted  to 
vote,  but  when  he  did,  the  officers  let  him,  even  though  his  name  had 
already  been  voted  on;  and  then  the  negro  repeaters  would  ask  if 
his  *  brother  was  coming  'round  to-day/  They  were  going  to  vote 
him,  as  they  vote  all  good-natured  citizens  who  stay  away.  'When 
this  kind  of  man  turns  out/  said  a  leader  to  me,  *  we  simply  have  two 
repeaters  extra  —  one  to  balance  him  and  one  more  to  the  good.'  If 
necessary,  after  all  this,  the  machine  counts  the  vote  'right,'  and 
there  is  little  use  appealing  to  the  courts,  since  they  have  held,  except 
in  one  case,  that  the  ballot  box  is  secret  and  cannot  be  opened.  The 
only  legal  remedy  lies  in  the  purging  of  the  assessor's  lists,  and  when 
the  Municipal  League  had  this  done  in  1899,  they  reported  that  there 
was  '  wholesale  voting  on  the  very  names  stricken  off.' '' 

.Speaking  of  the  then  State  boss,  the  late  Matthew  S.  Quay,  Mr. 
Steffens  says :  "  Quay  has  made  a  specialty  all  his  life  of  reformers, 
and  he  and  his  local  bosses  have  won  over  so  many  that  the  list 
of  former  reformers  is  very,  very  long.  Martin  drove  down  his  roots 
through  race  and  religion,  too.  Philadelphia  was  one  of  the  hot- 
beds of  '  knownothingism.'  Martin  recognised  the  Catholic,  and  the 
Irish-Irish,  and  so  drew  off  into  the  Eepublican  party  the  great  nat- 
ural supply  of  the  Democrats;  and  his  successors  have  given  high 
places  to  representative  Jews.  '  Surely  this  isn't  corruption ! '  No, 
and  neither  is  that  corruption  which  makes  the  heads  of  great  edu- 
cational and  charity  institutions  'go  along,'  as  they  say  in  Penn- 
sylvania, in  order  to  get  appropriations  for  their  institutions  from 
the  State  and  land  from  the  city.  They  know  what  is  going  on,  but 
they  do  not  join  reform  movements.  The  provost  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  declined  to  join  in  a  revolt  because,  he  said,  it 
might  impair  his  usefulness  to  the  University.  And  so  it  is  with 
others,  and  with  clergymen  who  have  favourite  charities;  with  Sab- 
bath associations  and  City  Beautiful  clubs;  with  Jawyers  who  want 
briefs;  with  real  estate  dealers  who  like  to  know  in  advance  about 
public  improvements,  and  real  estate  owners  who  appreciate  light 
assessments;  with  shopkeepers  who  don't  want  to  be  bothered  with 
strict  inspections. 

"  If  there  is  no  other  hold  for  the  ring  on  a  man  there  always  is 
the  protective  tariff.  '  I  don't  care,'  said  a  manufacturer.  '  What  if 
they  do  plunder  and  rob  us,  it  can't  hurt  me  unless  they  raise  the 
tax  rates,  and  even  that  won't  ruin  me.  Our  party  keeps  up  the 
tariff.  If  they  should  reduce  that,  my  business  would  be  ruined."' 

That  the  corruption  in  Philadelphia  was  not  confined  to  adults  or 
to  members  of  the  male  sex  will  be  seen  from  the  following :  "  The 
other  '  instances  of  brazen  abuse  of  power '  were  the  increase  of  pro- 
tected vice  —  the  importation  from  New  York  of  the  'white  slavery 
system  of  prostitution,'  the  growth  of  '  speak-easies,'  and  the  spread 
of  gambling  and  of  policy-playing  until  it  took  in  the  school  chil- 

'  452 


THE    FATHER   OF   GRAFT 

dren  This  last  the  'North  American'  exposed,  but  in  vain  till  it 
named  police  officers  who  had  refused  when  asked  to  interfere.  Then 
a  judge  summoned  the  editors  and  reporters  of  the  paper,  the  mayor 
Director  English,  school  children,  and  police  officers  to  appear  before 
him.  The  mayor's  personal  attorney  spoke  for  the  police  during  the 
inquiry,  and  it  looked  black  for  the  newspaper  till  the  children  began 
to  tell  their  stories.  When  the  hearing  was  over  the  judge  said : 

<  The  evidence  shows  conclusively  that  our  public  school  system  in 
this  city  is  in  danger  of  being  corrupted  at  its  fountain ;  that  in  one 
of  the  schools  over  a  hundred  and  fifty  children  were  buyers  of  policy, 
as  were  also  a  large  number  of  scholars  in  other  schools.  It  was  first 
discovered  about  eighteen  months  ago,  and  for  about  one  year  has 
been  in  full  operation/  The  police  officers  were  not  punished,  how- 
ever." 

As  might  be  expected,  even  the  educational  system  was  honey- 
combed. It  was  discovered  that  not  only  did  successful  applicants 
for  teachers  have  to  have  a  pull,  but  that  they  were  regularly  assessed 
an  appreciable  portion  of  their  salary.  This  was  carried  on  in  the 
most  unblushing  manner.  As  pertinent  to  this  subject  we  quote  as 
follows :  'e  That  corruption  had  reached  the  public  schools  and  was 
spreading  rapidly  through  the  system,  was  discovered  by  the  ex- 
posure and  conviction  of  three  school  directors  of  the  twenty-eighth 
ward.  It  was  known  before  that  teachers  and  principals,  like-  any 
other  office  holders,  had  to  have  a  '  pull '  and  pay  assessments  for 
election  expenses.  '  Voluntary  contributions '  was  the  term  used,  but 
over  the  notices  in  blue  pencil  was  written  '  2  per  cent,'  and  teachers 
who  asked  directors  and  ward  bosses  what  to  do,  were  advised  that 
they  wpuld  '  better  pay.'  Those  that  sent  less  than  the  amount  sug- 
gested, got  receipts :  '  check  received ;  shall  we  hold  for  balance  or 
enter  on  account  ? '  But  the  exposure  in  the  twenty-eighth  ward 
brought  it  home  to  the  parents  of  the  children  that  the  teachers 
were  not  chosen  for  fitness,  but  for  political  reasons,  and  that  the 
political  reasons  had  become  cash. 

"  Miss  Eena  A.  Haydock  testified  as  follows :  '  I  went  to  see  Mr. 
Travis,  who  was  a  friend  of  mine,  in  reference  to  getting  a  teacher's 
certificate.  He  advised  me  to  see  all  of  the  directors,  especially  Mr. 
Brown.  They  told  me  that  it  would  be  necessary  for  me  to  pay  $120 
to  get  the  place.  They  told  me  of  one  girl  who  had  offered  $250,  and 
her  application  had  been  rejected.  That  was  before  they  broached 
the  subject  of  money  to  me.  I  said  that  I  didn't  have  $120  to  pay, 
and  they  replied  that  it  was  customary  for  teachers  to  pay  $40  a 
month  out  of  their  first  three  months'  salary.  The  salary  was  $47. 
They  told  me  they  didn't  want  the  money  for  themselves,  but  it  was 
necessary  to  buy  the  other  faction.  Finally  I  agreed  to  the  proposi- 
tion, and  they  told  me  that  I  must  be  careful  not  to  mention  it  to 
anybody  or  it  would  injure  my  reputation.  I  went  with  my  brother 
to  pay  the  money  to  Mr.  Johnson.  He  held  out  a  hat,  and  when 
my  brother  handed  the  money  to  him  he  took  it  behind  the  hat.' " 

All  readers  of  the  public  press  are  familiar  with  the  John  Wana- 
maker  franchise  episode,  in  which  Mayor  Ashbridge,  of  Philadelphia, 
signed  charters  for  franchises  which  lost  the  city  of  Philadelphia 

453 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

$2,500,000  —  signed  them  after  Mr.  Wanamaker  had  sent  him  an 
offer  of  $2,500,000  for  the  franchises  to  be  given  away  and  had  de- 
posited $250,000  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith.  The  Mayor  threw  Mr. 
Wanamaker's  communication  into  the  street  unread  and  signed  the 
ordinances.  As  is  usual  in  corrupt  areas  efforts  were  made  to  muzzle 
the  press  and  prevent  boodling  exposures  which  might  exasperate  the 
people.  Of  this  Mr.  Steffens  says :  "  There  is  no  check  upon  this 
machine  excepting  the  chance  of  a  mistake,  the  imminent  fear  of 
treachery,  and  the  remote  danger  of  revolt.  To  meet  this  last,  the 
machine,  as  a  State  organisation,  has  set  about  throttling  public  criti- 
cism. Ashbridge  found  that  blackmail  was  ineffective.  Durham, 
Quay,  and  Governor  Pennypacker  have  passed  a  libel  law  which  meant 
to  muzzle  the  press.  The  Governor  was  actuated  apparently  only  by 
his  sufferings  from  cartoons  and  comments  during  his  campaign ;  the 
Philadelphia  ring  has  boodling  plans  ahead  which  exposure  might 
make  exasperating  to  the  people.  The  Philadelphia  '  Press/  the  lead- 
ing Eepublican  organ  in  the  .State,  puts  it  right :  '  The  Governor 
wanted  it  (the  law)  in  the  hope  of  escaping  from  the  unescapable 
cartoon.  The  gang  wanted  it  in  hope  of  muzzling  the  opposition  to 
jobs.  .  .  .  The  act  is  distinctly  designed  to  gag  the  press  in  the 
interest  of  the  plunderers  and  against  the  interest  of  the  people.'  * 

In  "  The  City  the  Hope  of  Democracy,"  Mr.  Frederic  C.  Howe 
says:  "We  may  safeguard  our  communities  by  reform  associa- 
tions, by  the  adoption  of  improved  charters,  by  the  abolition  of  the 
spoils  system  and  the  like;  we  may  develop  civic  morality  to  a  high 
level,  we  still  have  the  'twentieth  man/  the  man  wno  is  not  bound 
by  our  organisations,  the  man  who  will  not  accept  the  new  standards 
of  conduct,  but  who  will  secure  control  of  the  party,  dictate  its  nomi- 
nations, bribe  a  city  council,  and,  if  necessary,  the  state  legislature 
as  well,  in  order  to  secure  a  franchise. 

"  Does  this  seem  an  overdrawn  picture  —  too  narrow  an  explanation 
of  the  evil  of  city  administration  ?  Then  read  the  tale  of  municipal 
corruption  portrayed  by  J.  Lincoln  Steffens  in  '  The  Shame  of  the 
Cities/  It  is  true,  Mr.  Steffens  does  not  limit  the  indictment  to 
the  privileged  corporations.  He  lays  the  offence  at  the  door  of  '  busi- 
ness/ But  it  is  business,  plus  franchises  and  privileges,  that  has 
overturned  our  cities  and  brought  shame  to  their  citizens.  For 
wealth  without  privilege  does  not  organise  to  control  parties,  pri- 
maries, or  conventions.  The  retail  dealer,  wholesale  dealer,  or  manu- 
facturer is  not  found  in  the  council  chamber.  His  offence  is  one 
of  indifference.  He  probably  cannot  name  the  alderman  from  his 
ward.  To  him  politics  is  a  nuisance.  He  wants  nothing  from  the 
city,  for  his  business  requires  no  favours.  It  depends  upon  his  own 
energy,  thrift,  and  enterprise.  Chicago,  e  Half  Free  and  Fighting 
On/  as  Mr.  Steffens  says,  is  not  fighting  business.  Her  Municipal 
Voters'  League  was  not  called  into  being  as  a  vigilance  committee 
to  protect  the  city  from  ordinary  wealth.  During  the  past  ten  years, 
Chicago  has  been  like  a  beleaguered  camp,  not  for  protection  from 
without,  but  for  protection  from  some  of  her  own  citizens.  The 
contest  within  the  city  has  been  like  that  of  the  Guelphs  and  Ghibel- 
lines  of  Florence  and  the  mediaeval  Italian  cities.  And  to-day  in 

454 


THE   FATHER  OF   GRAFT 

Chicago,  there  is  a  powerful  class  who  say :  '  Oh,  damn  reform ;  it 
hurts  our  business/  It  is  the  $75,000,000  of  franchises  that  is  hurt 
by  reform.  '  Anarchy/  privilege  calls  it,  or  '  socialism/  But  again, 
it  was  not  business  that  was  hurt,  it  was  graft.  It  was  graft  born 
of  railway  and  gas  franchises  that  turned  Chicago  over  to  the  '  grey 
wolves'  of  the  Council.  It  was  such  graft  that  made  the  office  of 
alderman  worth  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

"  In  1896,  the  Council  granted  away  six  franchises  of  great  value, 
despite  the  protests  of  the  public.  Some  of  these  grants  were  made 
to  a  dummy  who  represented  the  Council  combine.  Some  were  used 
as  ' strikes'  on  the  existing  companies.  The  city  got  nothing  from 
any  of  them.  Ultimately,  the  Council  was  syndicated.  The  po- 
litical machinery  of  the  city  was  reduced  to  a  System.  But  the 
System  did  not  stop  there.  It  could  not,  even  if  it  would.  It  ran 
into  the  state.  It  organised  both  the  Republican  and  the  Democratic 
parties.  It  nominated  and  elected  not  only  the  members  of  the 
Council,  the  mayor,  and  the  tax  assessors,  it  entered  state  politics  as 
well."  .  .  . 

"Across  the  State  of  Illinois  lies  St.  Louis.  This  city  has  been 
bound,  gagged,  and  reduced  to  submission  for  so  many  years  that 
the  people  hardly  comprehend  free  government.  They  scarce  remem- 
ber the  meaning  of  democracy.  They  are  like  castaways  on  a  Pacific 
isle,  who  forget  their  mother-tongue  from  disuse.  So  St.  Louis  had 
ceased  to  expect,  ceased  almost  to  believe  in  public  honesty.  And 
when  Joseph  W.  Folk,  as  Circuit  Attorney,  began  his  indictments, 
the  people  stood  dazed,  unheeding,  and  without  understanding  the 
language  which  he  used.  The  boodlers  and  the  business  men  asked 
one  another :  *  What  does  he  want ;  what  is  his  price  ? '  They 
treated  the  city  as  a  mastiff  might  his  kennel.  It  was  their  domain, 
they  had  owned  it  for  so  long.  So  felt  the  English  Stuarts  towards 
Hampden.  So  the  French  Bourbons  toward  the  Third  Estate.  Folk 
was  an  anachronism  in  Missouri.  He  is  so  still  to  a  large  portion 
of  St.  Louis.  He  excites  the  curiosity  of  the  System  as  well  as  its 
anger  and  chagrin. 

"  Here,  as  in  Chicago,  the  fight  has  not  been  against  business  wealth, 
against  property  as  such.  The  fight  that  has  taken  the  lid  off  the 
city  has  shown  that  it  was  the  franchises  for  street-railways,  contracts 
for  electric  lighting  and  the  like  that  led  to  the  syndicating  of  Boss 
Butler,  the  millionaire  blacksmith.  Through  him  the  System  con- 
trolled the  election  machinery,  reduced  the  police  to  a  Hessian  brig- 
ade, and  organised  the  entire  city  administration  for  private  graft. 
It  was  to  secure  a  street-railway  franchise  that  $125,000  was  de- 
posited in  one  of  the  trust  companies  of  the  city  under  an  agree- 
ment that  it  was  to  be  delivered  to  the  Council  combine  when  a  fran- 
chise had  been  granted.  It  was  another  street-railway  franchise, 
secured  at  a  cost  to  the  promoter  of  $250,000  in  bribes,  that  was 
afterwards  sold  to  a  New  York  syndicate  for  $1,250,000.  In  neither 
of  these  instances  did  the  city  receive  anything.  It  was  franchise 
legislation  that  led  the  street-railways  to  the  state  capital,  where 
they  organised  the  Legislature  and  paid  $250,000  to  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people,  for  privileges  that  the  railways  did  not  possess, 

455 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

and  could  not  secure  from  the  city.  It  was  for  a  lighting  contract 
with  the  city  of  St.  Louis  that  $47,500  was  distributed  by  Boss 
Butler  to  the  members  of  the  Council  combine,  under  the  very  eyes 
of  indignant  citizens,  who  sat  in  the  Council  gallery,  ignorant  of 
what  was  going  on. 

"  Who  were  the  beneficiaries  of  these  privileges ;  who  have  since  de- 
fended Butler  and  the  indicted  public  officials?  It  was  the  rich  and 
influential  citizens  of  St.  Louis.  It  was  they  whom  Butler  repre- 
sented. It  was  they  who  had  organised  the  Democratic  party,  and 
through  Butler  dictated  its  nominations  even  for  the  Bench,  and 
controlled  the  administration  of  justice  for  the  protection  of  their 
friends  and  representatives.  It  was  these  men  who  opposed  Folk. 
It  was  these  men  who  trampled  under  foot  the  election  laws,  filled  the 
booths  with  repeaters,  and  openly  counted  out  the  properly  elected 
representatives  of  the  people  who  were  hostile  to  their  designs." 

Later  on,  in  his  chapter  on  "  The  Source  of  Corruption,"  Mr.  Howe 
says :  "  Everywhere  the  cause  is  the  same.  It  is  privilege,  not 
wealth,  franchises,  not  business,  the  few,  not  the  many,  that  have 
overthrown  our  cities  within  the  past  few  years.  There  is  scarcely 
a  large  city  of  the  country  in  which  the  public-service  corporations 
do  not  control  or  constantly  seek  to  control  the  government.  In 
many  instances  the  Council  is  theirs,  prior  even  to  election.  Through 
an  alliance  with  the  party,  the  corporations  dictate  aldermanic  nomi- 
nations. They  supply  candidates  with  funds,  and  place  the  machin- 
ery of  the  party  at  their  disposal.  Once  elected,  the  alderman  is 
controlled  by  friendship,  favour,  bribery,  or  the  party  caucus.  The 
latter  is  used  on  the  honest  official,  who  would  hotly  resent  direct 
bribery.  In  fact,  as  employed  in  city,  state,  and  national  affairs,  the 
caucus  is  used  quite  as  often  to  compel  obedience  to  some  corrupt 
proposition  as  for  any  other  purpose.  If  this  proves  ineffectual,  the 
official  is  ostracised  from  the  party  councils,  is  charged  with  a  be- 
trayal of  party  principles,  and  is  treated  as  a  pariah.  In  this  way  he 
is  excluded  from  nomination  on  the  party  ticket."  .  .  . 

"  On  a  larger  scale,  party  machinery  is  used  for  similar  purposes 
in  the  state.  Party  control  is  usually  concentrated  in  one,  or  at  most, 
in  two  hands.  This  control  is  gradually  being  centred  in  the  United 
States  .Senate.  It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  see  the  organisation, 
but  only  the  party  boss.  And  through  this  '  fence '  men  are  nomi- 
nated for  the  Bench  and  for  the  higher  state  offices  with  a  knowledge 
approaching  certainty  as  to  what  they  will  do  under  a  given  set  of 
circumstances.  Many,  possibly  most  of  them,  are  free  from  cor- 
ruption through  direct  bribery  or  dishonesty,  but  through  previous 
contact,  pecuniary  or  political  obligations,  their  attitude  can  be  fore- 
cast with  precision." 

In  his  excellent  work,  "  The  Bondage  of  the  Cities,"  Prof.  Frank 
Parsons  calls  attention  to  the  ridiculous  interference  to  which  the 
state  legislatures  subject  the  cities.  He  says :  "  In  the  Minnesota 
statutes  of  the  last  session  (1897)  I  find: 

'  Cities  are  authorised  to  compromise  and  settle  claims. 

Empowered  to  repair  market  houses  and  city  property. 

Authorised  to  issue  bonds  for  water  works,  hospitals,  etc, 

456 


THE    FATHER   OF   GRAFT 

Time  for  payment  of  local  improvement  assessments  extended. 

Empowered  to  prevent  fights,  disorderly  conduct,  etc. 

Empowered  to  change  abandoned  cemeteries  into  parks. 

Empowered  to  take  bequests  in  trust  for  public  libraries. 

Cities  over  50,000  authorised  to  buy  any  water  plant  or  combined 
water  and  light  plant  in  operation  in  such  city. 

Fire  limits  may  be  prescribed  by  Councils,  etc.,  etc.' 

"  Think  of  it !  A  city  has  to  have  legislative  permission  to  com- 
promise and  settle  a  claim,  to  repair  its  own  property,  to  change  its 
own  cemetery  into  a  park,  buy  a  water  or  light  plant,  or  take  a  be- 
quest for  a  public  library !  No  individual  of  age  and  apparent  dis- 
cretion, nor  any  association  of  individuals  whatever,  except  a  munici- 
pality, would  think  of  asking  permission  to  repair  its  own  property  — 
but  a  city  or  town  —  well,  it  would  ask  permission  to  sneeze  if  it 
needed  to  perform  that  operation;  it  can't  even  stop  a  fight  legally 
till  the  legislature  says  it  may." 

Showing  how  we  are  deprived  of  our  natural  rights  at  the  be- 
hest of  corporations,  Mr.  Parsons  says :  "  One  of  the  strongest  illus- 
trations of  the  severe  State  paternalism  to  which  our  cities  are  subject 
is  the  fact  that  a  city  of  half  a  million  people  cannot  connect  two 
of  its  own  public  buildings  with  an  electric  wire,  the  city  being  un^ 
able  to  obtain  legislative  permission  against  the  opposition  of  the 
electric  companies.  Boston  is  the  city  of  which  I  am  speaking. :  A 
little  while  ago  she  wished  to  run  a  wire  from  the  City  Hall  to  the 
Old  Court  House,  either  over  or  under  the  little  back  street  50  or  60 
feet  wide  that  lies  between  the  two  buildings.  The  object  was  to 
enable  the  city  to  light  the  Old  Court  House  from  the  dynamo  in 
City  Hall.  A  bill  was  introduced  for  the  purpose,  accompanied  by 
petition  of  the  mayor  of  Boston  (House  Bill  No.  747,  1898),  but  the 
electric  companies  did  not  wish  municipalities  to  use  a  dynamo  in  a 
public  building  to  operate  lights  outside  of  the  building,  and  the 
Legislature  refused  to  pass  the  bill,  and  Boston  cannot  run  a  wire 
between  two  of  her  own  buildings  over  or  under  her  own  street. 

"  A  municipality  has  no  independent  initiative  of  its  own,  and  it 
is  the  only  human  thing  in  America  that  hasn't  got  it.  The  nation 
has  a  right  of  independent  initiative  in  national  affairs,  the  state  in 
state  affairs,  and  the  individual  in  individual  affairs,  but  the  munici- 
pality must  have  permission  from  the  legislature  for  everything  it 
does."  Which  last  remark  he  annotates  as  follows :  "  It  is  bad 
enough  to  hold  life  as  a  tenant  at  will,  but  even  that  might  be  en- 
durable if  the  city  were  allowed  to  have  the  attributes  of  a  living 
being  while  entrusted  with  existence.  But,  to  have  no  power  of  self 
activity;  to  be  required  to  get  permission  to  move!  —  that  is  unbear- 
able." 

A  most  impressive  instance  of  corruption  resulting  from  corpora- 
tion influence  is  instanced  in  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Russell's  "  The 
Greatest  Trust  in  the  World,"  beginning  in  "Everybody's  Maga- 
zine "  for  February,  1905.  In  the  August,  1905,  instalment  of  this 
series  Mr.  Russell  uncovers  the  most  unblushing  thefts  practised  upon 
the  Chicago  water  department  by  the  Beef  Trust  plutocrats.  Thefts 
so  atrocious  in  their  conception  and  so  brazenly  defiant  of  law  and 

457 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

public  opinion  in  their  execution  that  a  few  years  ago  they  would 
have  seemed  simply  incredible.  To-day,  however,  the  American  peo- 
ple are  awaking,  if  slowly,  yet  surely,  to  a  realisation  of  the  un- 
pleasant fact  that  there  is  absolutely  no  barrier  which  honesty, 
patriotism,  religion,  public  opinion  or  common  decency  of  any  kind 
can  raise  which  will  withstand,  for  an  hour,  the  onslaughts  of  our 
latter-day  organised  greed.  Mr.  Russell  says :  "  The  water  depart- 
ment of  the  Chicago  city  government  customarily  issues  every  sum- 
mer a  series  of  frantic  warnings  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  great  South 
Side,  telling  them  that  they  must  be  careful  and  abstemious  about 
the  use  of  the  city  water  because  there  is  very  little  of  it.  What! 
With  all  Lake  Michigan  at  their  doors?  Yes,  all  Lake  Michigan  is 
at  their  doors;  and  yet  of  the  precious  stuff  these  people  must  use 
none  to  sprinkle  lawns  nor  to  lay  the  dust,  and  even  with  these  re- 
strictions, and  all  possible  care,  dwellers  in  upper  tenements  may 
sometimes  have  not  enough  water  wherewith  to  wash  dishes  nor  their 
own  hands.  Parts  of  the  South  Side  are  densely  populated.  Some- 
times the  great  southwest  wind  blows  for  days  up  from  the  black, 
baking  prairies,  the  withering  simoom  of  the  West,  and  in  the  swelter- 
ing heat  water  is  as  necessary  as  air,  and  in  the  upper  tenement 
ovens  women  toil  breathless  up  and  down  stairs  with  pitchers  to  get 
a  few  drops  of  the  hoarded  thing  that  lies  in  inexhaustible  supply 
in  the  cool  lake  almost  in  their  sight. 

<c>Butwhy?  Because  the  packing-houses  steal  the  water.  They  steal 
it  summer  and  winter,  spring  and  fall,  but  in  the  summer  the  general 
consumption  is  the  greatest,  and  then  the  results  of  the  stealing  be- 
come apparent,  and  women  toil  with  the  pitchers. 

"  Steal  —  harsh  word,  is  it  not  ?  And  you  think  I  should  not  use  it 
here,  do  you  not?  But  observe:  The  thieving  is  perfectly  well 
known  and  has  been  for  years.  The  packing-houses  must  needs  use 
vast  quantities  of  water,  especially  in  summer.  Some  floors  must  be 
kept  constantly  flooded  with  running  water;  many  streams  must 
always  be  playing  where  the  slaughtering  goes  on.  Water  is  a  great 
matter  in  Packingtown.  Now  in  Chicago  the  city  owns  and  operates 
the  water  supply.  Large  users  of  water  are  supplied  through  metres 
and  pay  according  to  the  amount  they  consume.  For  a  long  time  the 
small  sums  paid  for  water  by  the  packing-houses  had  aroused  annual 
comment.  The  initiated,  to  be  sure,  understood  well  enough  why 
the  payments  were  so  small,  but  the  general  public  is  not  usually  in 
the  initiated  class.  In  1900  the  uninformed  public  broke  out  into 
such  general  clamour  about  the  obvious  leakage  that  the  city  authori- 
ties (somewhat  belatedly,  one  would  think)  began  an  investigation. 
Men  with  pick-axes  and  spades  uncovered  the  public  mains  about 
Packingtown.  Before  long  they  had  discovered  that  every  consid- 
erable packing-house  had  secret  connections  with  the  water  supply. 
There  were  pipes  of  various  sizes,  three  inch  and  four  inch,  six  inch 
and  eight  inch,  each  leading  from  the  city's  conduits  to  the  works  of 
some  packing-company.  In  some  cases  tunnels  had  been  driven  un- 
der the  streets  to  the  mains,  and  taps  inserted.  In  one  case  the  mains 
themselves  had  been  diverted  from  the  highway  through  the  works, 
and  on  these  city-owned  pipes  one  firm  had  planted  three  great  pumps, 

458 


THE    FATHER   OF   GRAFT 

busily  engaged  in  drawing  water.     And  for  all  this  supply  thus  sur- 
reptitiously obtained  the  packers  paid  not  a  cent. 

''  The  facts  about  these  discoveries  were  incontrovertible.  The  men 
with  the  pickaxes  laid  the  illegal  connexions  bare  to  the  day-light; 
anybody  might  go  and  see  them.  .Seven  secret  pipes  were  discovered 
leading  into  the  Swift  plant;  practically  every  packing-house  was 
shown  to  have  like  connexions.  A  twelve-inch  pipe  ran  the  entire 
length  of  Packingtown;  and  was  illegally  tapped  wherever  water  was 
needed.  In  some  places,  as  the  work  progressed,  fresh  excavations 
were  found,  and  secret  pipes  that  had  been  hurriedly  broken  off  and 
removed.  Former  employes  of  the  packers  told  how  the  connexions 
had  been  made  at  night  and  by  gangs  of  men  instructed  to  silence. 
First  and  last,  probably  fifty  illegal  connexions  were  found.  One  of 
them  was  an  engine  with  two  valves,  one  labelled  « City  Water '  and 
the  other  '  Cistern  Water/  and  the  '  City  Water '  connexion  was  an 
eight-inch  pipe  through  which  the  water  was  stolen.  In  one  packing- 
house the  city  authorities  broke  off  and  sealed  up  its  illegal  conduit, 
and  instantly  on  the  metre  the  registration  of  paid  water  jumped  from 
5,000  cubic  feet  to  34,000  cubic  feet  a  day." 

Mr.  Russell  then  goes  on  to  show  how  the  public  indignation  de- 
manded that  someone  should  be  punished  for  these  outrages.  The 
worst  offenders  were  the  larger  houses.  What  did  they  do?  They 
simply  pushed  a  straw  dummy  between  themselves  and  public  indig- 
nation, to  act  as  a  buffer  or  cushion  to  deaden  the  impact  thereof. 
Apropos  of  this  condition  Mr.  Kussell  says:  "But  the  public  de- 
manded some  action  about  the  water  thefts;  some  one  must  be  pun- 
ished. (  Certainly/  shouted  the  State  Attorney's  office,  virtuously  ex- 
cited, '  some  one  must  be  punished ! '  Presently  it  produced  the 
horrible  villain  and  with  loud  acclaim  and  much  smug  satisfaction 
led  him  to  the  altars  of  sacrifice.  And  who  was  he?  One  Harry 
H.  Boore,  a  mild,  inoffensive  gentleman,  manager  of  the  Continental 
Packing  Company.  Now  the  Continental  Packing  Company,  a  small 
independent  concern,  was  at  that  time  hanging  by  three  fingers  to 
the  gunwale  of  existence;  a  good  smart  rap  at  any  time  would  have 
knocked  it  off  into  the  Trust  maw,  where,  by  the  way,  it  now  reposes. 
The  amount  of  water  that  this  concern  had  stolen  was  small,  and  of 
the  thieving  Mr.  Boore  probably  knew  as  little  as  any  other  executive 
in  Packingtown.  Nevertheless  he  was  haled  along,  indicted,  tried, 
and  on  February  18,  1901,  he  was  convicted  of  stealing  $14.96  worth 
of  water !  And  in  this  august  and  terrible  manner  did  Justice  shake 
her  sword  and  vindicate  herself  in  Cook  County.  This  was  the  be- 
ginning; also  the  end.  Mr.  Boore,  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  say, 
did  not  go  to  the  bridewell.  On  July  10  another  court  granted  him 
a  new  trial.  Whereupon  his  indictment,  with  the  indictments  of 
four  others  as  obscure  as  he,  was  allowed  to  glide  conveniently  into 
the  Saragossa  Sea  of  forgotten  things,  whence  it  has  never  returned. 
"  And  how  about  the  big  thieves,  the  companies  with  the  eight-inch 
pipes  and  the  companies  with  the  pumps?  Good  sir,  or  madam,  do 
not  distress  yourself  about  these;  they  went  their  placid  way  un- 
harmed. The  illegal  pipes  remained  as  before;  also  the  pumps,  in 
cood  working  order.  The  diverted  city  mains  were  not  restored  to 

459 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

their  proper  positions;  the  fraudulent  connexions  continued  to  per- 
form their  usual  functions,  the  thieving  taps  were  not  discontinued; 
summer  after  summer  the  Water  Department  repeats  its  frantic 
warnings,  and  tests  recently  made  with  a  pitometer  showed  that  the 
water  stealings  in  Packingtown  amount  to  one  billion  gallons  a  year. 

"  Strange  ?  Not  in  the  least.  Any  other  condition  would  be  strange. 
The  great  packing-houses  are,  and  always  have  been,  independent  of 
and  superior  to  law.  If  they  were  amenable  to  law,  could  they  con- 
tinue to  dose  products  of  theirs  with  preservative  chemicals  injurious 
to  health  ?  How  are  they  able  to  dodge  the  statutes  governing  under- 
billing  and  inspection?  How  do  they  avoid  paying  the  State  of 
New  York  the  millions  they  owe  it  for  butterine  penalties?  How 
did  they  manage  to  emerge  unharmed  from  the  terrible  '  embalmed 
bee.f '  revelations  of  the  Spanish  war  ?  How  did  they  escape  prose- 
cution when  more  American  soldiers  fell  before  their  deadly  beef  than 
were  hit  by  all  the  Spanish  guns?  How  did  they  control  the  gov- 
ernment on  that  occasion?  How  have  they  controlled  it  so  often 
since?  The  Standard  Oil  is,  of  course,  a  very  efficient  Trust.  But 
you  have  not  known  even  the  Standard  Oil  Company  to  exercise  a 
power  like  to  this.  The  Standard  Oil  Company  usually  conforms 
to  at  least  a  semblance  of  law ;  it  has  never  openly  defied  injunctions, 
trampled  on  statutes  and  dictated  to  national,  state,  and  city  govern- 
ments. 

"  We  have  laws  to  secure  for  us  pure  food ;  we  have  laws  for  the  in- 
spection of  meat  products.  In  Packingtown  these  laws  are  a  jest. 
Every  year  there  thousands  of  cows  that  never  should  be  slaughtered 
are  cut  up  for  food.  Go  there  as  a  visitor,  and  neatly  uniformed 
attendants  escort  you  through  a  corner  of  the  works  where  butchers 
in  immaculate  attire  perform  for  the  delectation  of  the  'grand  stand, 
and  believing  you  have  seen  slaughtering,  you  marvel  at  the  exceeding 
neatness  and  cleanness  of  everything.  You  have  seen  a  show,  you 
have  been  at  a  play.  The  real  work  is  done  where  no  outsider  can 
see  it;  attempt  at  any  point  to  wander  from  the  beaten  path  and  see 
how  swiftly  you  will  be  driven  back.  Policemen  and  watchmen  guard 
every  avenue.  You  shall  see  nothing  but  what  the  company  is  will- 
ing to  show  you,  the  play  actors  with  their  white  aprons,  the  girls  in 
neat  dress/* 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  following  passage  which  Mr.  Kussell 
publishes  under  the  heading,  "  Possible  Cures  for  a  Huge  Evil." 
"  What  is  the  remedy  ?  What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it  ? 

"  There  is  no  remedy  unless  we  are  willing  to  look  upon  the  issue 
as  essentially  as  issue  of  morals  and  not  of  business.  We  shall  have 
to  come  to  a  state  of  mind  in  which  we  oppose  such  a  combination  as 
this,  not  because  it  compels  us  to  lose  dollars,  but  because  it  is  funda- 
mentally and  eternally  wrong,  because  it  means  high  treason  to  the 
Republic  and  all  the  Republic  stands  for.  Until  we  are  willing  to 
admit  that  what  is  involved  here  is  a  principle  vital  to  human  liberty 
and  progress,  and  until  we  are  willing  to  make  sacrifices  for  that 
principle  and  to  stand  for  it  through  any  chance  of  personal  loss,  we 
do  but  waste  time  to  cry  out  against  any  trust.  Opposition  based 
upon  balance-sheets  is  mere  foolery." 

460 


THE    FATHER   OF   GRAFT 

The  direful  effect  of  municipal  corruption  is  too  patent  on  every 
hand  long  to  escape  attention,  but  the  general  chaos  which  obtains  in 
municipal  activities  with  its  unbearable  burden  of  wastefulness  is 
more  apt  to  be  overlooked. 

We  have  seen  in  days  gone  by  a  Boston  thoroughfare  torn  up  by  a 
Gas  Company  one  week  to  the  great  inconvenience  of  the  public,  and 
then,  almost  as  soon  as  it  was  repaved,  it  was  again  torn  up  in  the 
interests  of  some  other  public  utility.  This  lack  of  esprit  de  corps 
is  a  fair  illustration  of  the  general  chaos  which  pervades  all  our 
municipal  systems,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree.  Those  which  are 
efficiently  organised  do  not  feel  the  blight  so  severely  as  their  less 
fortunate  fellows,  but  they  all  feel  it  a  vast  deal  more  than  is  pleas- 
ant. This  chaos,  like  most  of  our  other  evils,  results  from  a  false 
major  premise. 

It  has  been  said  that  England  lost  her  liberties  through  a  chain 
of  right  reasoning  from  wrong  premises,  and  it  is  a  similar  menace 
which  at  the  present  moment  confronts  America.  It  is  a  much  easier 
thing  and  requires  much  less  ability  to  draw  conclusions  from  ac- 
cepted premises  than  to  establish  correct  premises  ourselves,  since 
the  latter  requires  but  the  proper  adjustment  of  the  conclusions  to 
the  premises,  while  the  former  demands  the  adjustment  of  the 
premises  with  each  and  every  other  fact  in  the  universe.  By  reason 
of  this  fact  only  the  broad,  generalising  intellects,  with  mental  hori- 
zons which  ocean-like  wash  the  shores  of  the  farthest  stars,  can  safely 
be  trusted  to  lay  down  those  primal  postulates  from  which  the 
human  race  is  to  draw  the  conclusions  which  make  up  its  conduct  of 
life.  If  now,  while  the  good  Homer  nods,  they  give  forth  as  a  major 
premise  something  which,  however  plausible  it  may  seem,  will  not 
stand  the  test  of  time,  a  hardship  inestimable,  a  misery  incalculable, 
a  chaos  ineffable  is  sure  to  result.  Such  is  our  present  condition, 
the  whole  superstructure  of  our  civilisation  is  built  on  rotten  piles, 
and  it  is  the  object  of  the  Gillette  system  to  make  this  fact  plain, 
and  to  lead  the  human  race  to  a  reconsideration  of  its  long-accepted 
major  premise,  a  major  premise  to  whose  falsity  we  owe  almost  every 
throb  of  anguish  which  the  great  social  heart  of  humanity  has  ever 
felt.  We  believe  that  from  the  Gillette  Syllogism  can  only  flow  har- 
mony, happiness,  universal  brotherhood,  liberty,  justice,  peace  on 
earth  and  goodwill  to  man.* 

*  For  a  brief  description  of  the  Gillette  System  see  Appendix  "  A." 


461 


BOOK  IX 

CHAPTER  I.  INDUSTRIAL  CONCENTRATION 

CHAPTER  II.  SOME   EESULTS   OF   COMMERCIAL   CENTRIPETALISM 

CHAPTER  III.  DEBASEMENT  OF   COMMODITIES 

CHAPTER  IV.  THE  CRY  OF  THE  STOMACH 

CHAPTER  V.  SWINE  AND  SWINE 


463 


Lo!   as  the  wind  is  so  is  mortal  life, 
A  moan,  a  sigh,  a  sob,  a  storm,  a  strife. 

Edwin  Arnold  —  The  Light  of  Asia. 

Life  treads  on  life,  and  heart  on  heart; 
We  press  too  close  in  church  and  mart 
To  keep  a  dream  or  grave  apart. 

E.  B.  Browning  —  A  Vision  of  Poets. 

Anyone  who  is  prosperous  may  by  the  turn  of  fortune's  wheel  become 
most  wretched  before  evening. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus  —  Historia. 

"  Then  the  quest  of  the  maximum  profit  is  not  the  final  aim  of  society 
after  all?"  asked  Comegys. 

"  By  no  means,"  said  Colonel  Lumpkin.  "  It  is  merely  the  law  of  busi- 
ness. Society  has  a  number  of  interests  that  cannot  be  measured  in  com- 
mercial arithmetic.  Indeed,  if  you  come  to  think  of  it,  the  problem  of 
good  government  is  quite  essentially  different  from  the  problem  of  Mam- 
mon. It  is  as  essentially  generous  and  altruistic  as  the  problem  of  Mam- 
mon is  selfish  and  brutal."  .  .  . 

Your  Napoleon  of  finance  may  imagine  that  he  wants  good  government, 
but  as  he  expects  any  particular  government  to  be  amenable  in  so  far 
as  his  little  franchise,  or  land  grant,  or  subsidy,  or  tariff  schedule  is 
concerned,  the  concerted  influence  of  his  class  must  necessarily  be  oblique. 
Good  government  from  his  point  of  view  is  frequently  an  impertinent 
obstacle  to  getting  the  maximum  profit,  and  therefore  political  corruption 
is  an  integral  part  of  his  business  system.  Government  of  interests,  by 
interests,  and  for  interests  is  a  very  different  proposition  from  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people. 

John  M.  Palmer  —  The  Morals  of  Mammon.    McClure's,  July,  1906. 

The  consumer  will  be  forced  to  organise  in  self-defence,  as  labour  and 
capital  have  been. 

Walter  O.  Cooper  —  Fate  of  the  Middle  Classes. 

Labour  and  capital  will  get  together,  just  as  surely  as  co-operation  suc- 
ceeds conflict  in  every  phase  of  human  endeavour. 

Labour  and  capital,  shooting  at  each  other,  hit  the  consumer.  The  con- 
sumer is  on  the  firing  line  without  a  gun. 

Ibid. 

Now  comes  a  new  kind  of  combination  in  which  labour  plays  an  im- 
portant part.  Organised  labour  has  begun  to  league  itself  with  organised 
capital.  This  adds  a  new  factor  to  the  problem  and  contributes  a  new  ele- 
ment of  strength  to  the  institution  which  is  revolutionising  industry. 
The  world  has  concerned  itself  a  great  deal  about  the  abuse  of  power  by 
organised  labour  and  unified  capital,  but  no  one  seems  to  have  lost  any 
sleep  about  the  danger  that  is  sure  to  arise  from  the  well-nigh  irresistible 
power  which  the  union  of  these  organised  classes  will  confer  upon  the 
leader  who  is  powerful  enough  and  wise  enough  to  command  such  an  army 
of  industry. 

Iota. 


464 


CHAPTER  I 
INDUSTRIAL   CONCENTRATION 

A  merger  is  a  larger  body  of  water  connecting  two  large  bodies  of 
water. 

Sat.  Evening  Post. 

The  coffin  trust  has  raised  the  prices  25  per  cent.  The  medical  as- 
sociation is  trying  to  agree  on  a  minimum  birth  fee.  From  the  cradle 
to  the  grave  the  plain  people  pay. 

Ex. 


HE  general  tendency  of  evolution  has  made  itself 
felt  in  commercialdom  by  the  building  of  large  and 
larger  aggregates.  Segregation  and  specialisation 
have  been  followed  by  an  integration  of  which  the 
Trust  is  a  conspicuous  example.  In  "  The  Organi- 

sation  and  Control  of  Industrial  Corporations,"  by 

Mr.  Frank  Edward  Horack,  the  author  says,  under  the  heading, 
"  Beginning  of  the  So-called  '  Trusts ' " :  "  This  crusade  against  rail- 
road combinations  and  the  power  they  wielded  did  much,  no  doubt, 
to  stimulate  the  public  mind  against  ordinary  commercial  combina- 
tions when  they  began  to  make  themselves  manifest.  The  trust 
movement  is  said  to  have  begun  about  1872  with  the  formation  of  the 
anthracite  coal  combination,  but  the  violent  agitation  against  such 
combinations  did  not  begin  until  about  1887  and  1888.  It  has  been 
kept  up  more  or  less  ever  since,  however,  and  has  been  productive  of 
six  investigations  by  legislative  authority,  and  extensive  study  by 
numerous  voluntary  organisations/' 

Despite  all  these  investigations  and  the  fraud,  corruption  and  ex- 
tortion they  have  unearthed  as  well  as  the  legislation  which  has  fol- 
lowed them,  the  Trusts  still  exist  and  flourish.  The  fact  of  the  mat- 
ter seems  to  be  that  the  Trust,  despite  all  its  infamies, —  and  Heaven 
knows  they  are  legion, —  yet  contains  a  vital  principle  which  is  in 
accord  with  nature's  law.  If  this  be  so,  it  behooves  us  to  discover 
what  this  principle  is,  and  to  direct  our  energies,  not  to  an  attempt 
to  abolish  the  trust  itself,  but,  rather,  to  depose  it  from  its  present 
position  of  a  brutal,  riotous  and  slave-driving  master  to  its  proper 
place  of  an  orderly,  kind  and  efficient  servant.  When  through  the 
agency  of  a  trust  competition  is  wiped  out  and  increased  efficiency 
attained  by  converting  commercial  chaos  into  order,  a  great  eco- 
nomical advantage  has  been  secured.  The  immense  cost  of  advertis- 
ing consumes  and  wastes  the  commercial  energy  just  as  clearly  as 
sanding  the  bearings  of  a  dynamo  would  waste  its  driving  energy 
and  reduce  its  efficiency  output.  Are  we  so  foolish  that  we  love 
labour  for  its  own  sake?  Do  we  wish  a  thing  to  be  wasteful  simply 
that  it  may  take  more  labour  to  each  unit  of  output?  If  so,  we  are 
30  465 


on  an  intellectual  parity  with  that  prison  disciplinarian  who,  in  order 
to  impress  the  criminals  in  his  charge  with  the  dignity  of  labour, 
forced  them  to  wheel  a  pile  of  sand  from  one  end  of  the  prison-yard  to 
the  other  on  Monday  and  to  wheel  it  back  again  on  Tuesday.  We 
have,  it  is  true,  our  own  occidental  standards  of  labour,  standards 
which  the  oriental  finds  it  extremely  hard  to  understand. 

The  eastern  nations  find  it  difficult  to  see  why  a  man  should  put 
forth  any  effort  which  is  not  necessary.  We  are  all  familiar  with 
the  story  of  the  Chinaman  who,  when  he  saw  some  Americans 
dancing,  asked  what  they  did  it  for,  if  they  were  paid  for  it,-  and 
why  they  did  not  hire  some  one  else  to  do  it  for  them,  as  they  did 
in  his  country.  Along  the  same  line  is  the  anecdote  told  by  George 
Francis  Train  in  his  "My  Life  in  Many  States  and  in  Foreign 
Lands/'  Mr.  Train  says :  "  I  took  passage  in  the  P.  &  0.  boat, 
the  Erin,  Captain  Jameson,  and  supposed,  of  course,  that  I  should 
have  a  stateroom.  But  I  was  to  meet  with  another  Chinese  sur- 
prise. A  great  Chinese  mandarin,  going  from  Hongkong  to  .Shang- 
hai, had  engaged  the  whole  cabin.  I  was  very  desirous  to  see  this 
great  personage,  and  soon  had  the  opportunity.  It  is  my  practice, 
when  at  sea,  to  take  exercise  by  walking  rapidly  up  and  down  the 
deck,  thus  covering  many  miles  a  day.  I  was  taking  my  daily  exer- 
cise the  day  when  the  mandarin  came  on  board  ship,  and  every  time 
I  passed  the  cabin  I  noticed  that  he  followed  me  with  his  eyes.  And 
so  we  kept  it  up  for  some  time,  I  walking  as  unconcernedly  as  I 
could,  and  the  great  mandarin  watching  my  movements  as  curiously 
as  if  I  were  some  strange  animal. 

"  After  a  while  he  called  the  first  officer,  and  asked  what  I  was  doing. 
'  Walking  up  and  down  the  deck,'  he  was  told.  *  But  why  does  he 
do  it?  Is  he  paid  for  it?'  The  officer  told  him  it  was  for  exercise. 
( What  is  that  ? '  asked  the  Chinese  great  man.  This  was  explained 
to  him,  but  he  could  not  understand  why  any  one  wanted  to  walk 
up  and  down,  and  do  so  much  unnecessary  work.  The  Chinese  are  not 
averse  to  work;  indeed,  they  are  one  of  the  most  industrious  people 
«n  the  face  of  the  earth,  but  they  do  not  do  unnecessary  work,  having, 
I  infer,  to  do  as  much  necessary  work  as  is  good  for  them.  And 
this  great  dignitary  pointed  to  me  with  scorn  and  said :  '  Number 
one  foolo.'  I  hardly  need  explain  that  'number  one/  throughout 
the  far  East,  means  the  superlative  degree. 

"  This  mandarin  was  the  great  Li  Hung  Chang,  who  has  been  sum- 
moned by  his  emperor  to  save  the  country  from  the  terrible  Tai-ping 
rebellion.  He  was  on  his  way  from  Canton  to  Shanghai.  He  there 
called  in  the  splendid  services  of  three  great  foreigners  —  the  French- 
man, Bougevine,  the  American,  Ward,  and  the  Englishman,  '  Chinese ' 
Gordon;  but  it  was  largely  and  chiefly  due  to  the  stubbornness  and 
genius  of  Li  that  the  empire  was  saved  to  the  Manchus,  at  a  cost,  it 
is  estimated,  of  twenty  millions  of  lives." 

When  we  consider  the  matter  closely  we  cannot  but  realise  that 
any  engine  which  creates  wealth  more  economically  than  its  com- 
petitors is,  in  so  far,  a  beneficence.  That  it  does  at  the  same  time 
other  things  which  are  not  only  helpful,  but  heinous,  is  a  sepa- 
rate proposition  to  be  separately  met.  That  the  trust,  as  it  exists 

466 


INDUSTRIAL   CONCENTRATION 

to-day,  is  enabled  after  cheapening  production  and  driving  out  com- 
petition to  practise  an  extortion  limited  only  by  the  amount  of  ex- 
ploitation that  people  can  be  made  to  stand;  that  it  has  the  power 
to  set  its  iron  heel  in  the  sweating  face  of  labour;  that  it  succeeds 
in  subverting  justice;  that  it  buys  judges,  defies  the  law,  bribes  state 
legislatures  and  even  goes  to  the  door  of  the  national  Congress  and 
makes  its  blatant  brags  that  it  can  "  swing  twenty-six  votes  in  the 
Senate,  and  don't  you  forget  it;"  that  it  subsidises  the  press  and 
fills  with  its  tainted  gold  the  ministerial  hand  upon  the  pulpit  Bible; 
that  it  maintains  a  politico-economical  professorship  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  teaching  falsehood  and  digging  pitfalls  for  the  feet 
of  the  unwary;  that  it  has  corrupted  public  morality,  subverted  the 
political  will  of  the  people  and  made  of  the  Declaration  o£  Independ- 
ence and  the  United  States  Constitution  twin  door-mats  whereon  to 
wipe  its  plutocratic  feet :  that  it  has  poisoned  our  food  supply,  selling 
canned  death  to  our  soldiers,  till  more  died  from  this  traffic  of  greed 
than  fell  victims  to  Spanish  bullets;  that  it  enters  the  home  and 
foists  its  venomed  food  in  a  hundred  different  forms  upon  all  its  in- 
mates thrice  a  day;  that  it  has  also  laid  its  slimy,  snake-like,  oc- 
topodoid  tentacles  upon  the  morality  of  the  American  home,  forcing 
thousands  of  women  to  choose  between  paying  its  infamous  social  price 
by  starvation  or  a  life  of  shame ;  in  short,  that  it  seems,  in  its  fright- 
ful inroad  upon  human  society,  to  have  applied  the  malevolence  of  the 
Devil  with  the  omnipotence  of  God ;  that  it  has  done  these  things  is 
indeed  a  terrible  indictment,  an  indictment  which  quite  excuses  the 
average  citizen  in  his  indignant  determination  to  end  the  nuisance 
once  and  for  all,  if  he  can  but  see  a  way  to  accomplish  that  result. 
The  hypocritical  and  high-handed  robbery  of  the  coal  barons  has 
gone  far  toward  setting  that  raw-hide  thing,  known  as  the  American 
patience,  up  to  the  breaking  tension.  The  average  American  resents 
being  treated  as  an  ignorant  ass,  and  the  fact  that  the  coal  barons, 
from  the  sacrosanct  Mr.  Baer  to  the  cheapest  hypocrite  in  his  class, 
have  so  treated  him  again  and  again  is  but  another  evidence  "that 
whom  the  gods  would  destroy  they  first  make  mad."  Slowly  but 
surely  the  people  are  coming  to  learn  that  these  men  are  not  subject  to 
any  of  the  laws  which  govern  them,  and,  what  is  still  more  menacing 
to  plutocratic  greed,  they  are  beginning  to  ask  themselves  why  min- 
ing lands  worth  $30,000  an  acre  should  be  taxed  on  a  pasture-land 
valuation,  say,  of  $3.00  an  acre,  to  the  double  end  that  these  lands 
might  be  held  out  of  use,  the  production  of  coal  restricted  and  prices 
so  forced  up  to  an  extortionate  rate,  on  the  one  hand,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  every  stick  of  timber  in  the  homes  of  the  poor  should  be 
taxed  to  make  up  the  deficit. 

In  the  Appendix  to  his  "  Moonblight  and  Six  Feet  of  Homance," 
Mr.  Dan.  Beard  says  under  the  caption,  "  SOME  FACTS  SHOWING 
How  THE  PEOPLE  ARE  COMPELLED  TO  PAY  EXORBITANT  PRICES  FOR 
COAL  BECAUSE  OF  THE  MONOPOLY  IN  COAL  LANDS  AND  IN  TRANS- 
PORTATION/' "At  a  hearing  before  the  New  York  State  Railroad 
Commission,  (March  14,  1900),  when  the  railroad  syndicate  was  try- 
ing to  prevent  the  proposed  independent  railroad  from  securing  the 
franchise  by  claiming  that  it  was  not  a  public  necessity,  Mr.  Thomas 

467 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

P.  Fowler,  then  president  of  the  New  York,  Ontario  and  Western 
Eailroad,  made  this  startling  admission :  '  Without  some  restriction 
.  .  .  stove  coal  would  be  a  drug  at  two  dollars  a  ton' 

"  This  was  not  an  extravagant  statement.  Anthracite  sold  in  Phila- 
delphia for  only  $8.50  a  ton  when  it  had  to  be  mined  by  hand  and 
hauled  by  horses;  while  now,  with  the  cost  of  production  greatly  re- 
duced by  modern  machinery,  coal  of  the  same  grade  sells  in  Philadel- 
phia for  from  $6  to  $6.50  a  ton.  There  is  enough  coal  in  known 
deposits  to  last  hundreds  of  years;  we  may  thus  see  that  the  high 
price  is  not  due  to  scarcity. 

"  The  haul  to  New  York  is  180  miles  and  the  rate  $1.55  per  ton. 
That  this  rate  is  extortionate  and  rendered  possible  only  by  the 
monopoly  enjoyed  by  the  railroads,  will  not  be  seriously  questioned 
by  any  thoughtful  and  disinterested  person  who  is  cognisant  of  the 
facts  involved.  In  this  connexion  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  corn 
was  hauled  from  Iowa  to  the  seaboard,  in  1898,  for  thirty  cents  a 
ton  per  hundred  miles,  and  that  bituminous  coal  was  for  some  years 
(and  possibly  still  is)  hauled  to  Lake  Erie  from  Pittsburg  and  a 
radius  of  forty  miles  around  that  city  for  ninety  cents  a  ton,  the 
distance  being  from  140  to  180  miles. 

"  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Phillips,  member  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  in  his  supplemental  report  says :  '  Mr.  H.  G.  Brooks, 
an  independent  coal  operator  of  Pennsylvania,  testifies  that  43,000,- 
000  tons  of  anthracite  coal  are  yearly  carried  by  rail  to  market 
at  three-fourths  cents  per  ton  per  mile  in  excess  of  the  rates  charged 
for  carrying  bituminous  coal.  This  is  $322,000  per  mile  of  excess 
charge  for  the  year's  product,  or  $46,762,500  for  the  average  haul  of 
145  miles  to  the  general  market,  or  over  $1  a  ton.  This  overcharge, 
which  is  greater  than  the  interest  on  our  national  debt,  is  made  pos- 
sible by  the  railroad  monopoly  '  community  of  interests/  and  by  the 
limited  area  of  the  hard  coal  supply.  By  discriminating  against  in- 
dependent operators  the  railroads  have  forced  many  of  them  to  sell 
their  properties,  until,  at  the  present  time,  more  than  nine-tenths  of 
the  anthracite  coal  deposits  is  owned,  and  more  than  three-fourths  of 
the  entire  yearly  product  is  mined  by  eight  lines  of  railroad  that  are 
substantially  in  entire  union  of  interests/  " 

In  another  part  of  the  same  Appendix  Mr.  Beard  says :  "  The  con- 
centration of  capital  in  the  hands  of  an  ever-diminishing  number  of 
over-rich  men  has  proceeded  with  rapidly  accelerating  momentum. 
The  increasing  arrogance  and  insolence  in  the  attitude  of  the  enor- 
mously rich  beneficiaries  of  monopoly  in  land  and  in  transporta- 
tion, toward  their  employes,  11,3  consuming  public  and  the  govern- 
ment, has  been  such  as  to  raise  the  question  '  Who  are  the  real  out- 
laws ? '  and  to  call  forth  stron j  protests  and  notes  of  warning  from 
some  of  the  most  eminent  and  conservative  statesmen  and  students 
of  political  problems  and  tendencies." 

Eegarding  this  subject  the  Hon.  Eichard  Olney,  former  United 
States  Attorney-General  and  .Secretary  of  State,  said  in  an  article  in 
a  "  Boston  Herald "  of  October,  1902,  in  reference  to  the  multi- 
millionaire heads  of  the  various  coal  companies :  "  Who  are  they  that 
make  so  extraordinary  an  assumption  and  were  so  insistent  upon  the 

468 


INDUSTRIAL   CONCENTRATION 

suppression  of  lawlessness  in  the  mining  regions?  Why,  the  most 
unblushing  and  persistent  of  lawbreakers.  For  many  years  they  have 
defied  the  law  of  Pennsylvania  which  forbids  common  carriers  en- 
gaging in  the  business  of  mining.  For  years  they  have  discriminated 
between  customers  in  the  freight  charges  on  their  railroads  in  vio- 
lation of  the  Interstate  Commerce  law.  For  many  years  they  have 
unlawfully  monopolised  interstate  commerce  in  violation  of  the  Sher- 
man anti-trust  law.  Indeed,  the  very  best  excuse  and  explanation  of 
their  astonishing  attitude  at  the  Washington  conference  is  that,  hav- 
ing violated  so  many  laws  for  so  long  and  so  many  times,  they  might 
rightfully  think  they  were  wholly  immune  from  either  punishment 
or  reproach/' 

The  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  provides  that  "  No 
incorporated  company  doing  the  business  of  a  common  carrier  shall, 
directly  or  indirectly,  prosecute  or  engage  in  mining  .  .  .  or  in 
any  other  business  than  that  of  common  carriers."  Yet  according 
to  the  report  of  the  Department  of  Labour,  May,  1903,  page  448,  the 
Anthracite  Commission  accepts  the  statement  that  91  per  cent,  of  the 
mines  are  actually  owned  by  the  transportation  companies,  while  5.29 
per  cent,  more  are  controlled  by  them.  Mr.  Beard  says,  in  the  Ap- 
pendix already  referred  to,  "  Just  prior  to  the  completion  of  this  ar- 
rangement, in  1899,  the  Eeading  road  elected  its  president,  Mr.  George 
F.  Baer,  president  of  the  Temple  Iron  Company,  a  small  concern  with 
an  old  charter,  increased  the  capital  stock  of  that  company  from 
$250,000  to  over  $5,000,000,  and  began  the  business  of  owning  coal 
land  and  mining  coal.  This  is  in  direct  violation  of  the  Pennsylvania 
State  Constitution/'  .  .  . 

"The  directors  of  the  Temple  Iron  Company  are  the  presidents 
of  these  railroads:  Philadelphia  and  Eeading;  Central  Kailroad  of 
New  Jersey;  New  York,  Lake  Erie  and  Western  (Erie);  Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna  and  Western;  Lehigh  Valley;  Delaware  and  Hud- 
son Canal  Company;  New  York,  Ontario  and  Western;  Delaware, 
Susquehanna  and  Schuylkill.  Under  the  guise  of  the  Temple  Iron 
Company  these  presidents  hold  monthly  meetings  and  fix  the  price 
of  coal,  and  the  consumer  has  learned  that  this  price  is  limited  only 
by  what  he  can  be  forced  to  pay. 

"  There  are  at  the  present  time  about  150  individual  owners  of 
anthracite  coal  lands.  Of  these  lands  the  railroad  syndicate  owns 
70  per  cent,  and  directly  controls  nearly  20  per  cent,  more,  while 
the  owners  of  the  other  10  per  cent,  are  under  the  thumb  of  the 
syndicate/' 

As  a  typical  example  of  oppression  and  arrogance  on  the  part  of 
"  Christian  men,"  Mr.  Beard  offers  the  following.  The  letter  re- 
ferred to  therein  was  written  by  Mr.  George  Baer  and  may  be  found 
in  full  in  "The  Independent"  (New  York)  for  August  28,  1902. 
"  One  of  the  worst  features  of  this  notorious  '  community  of  inter- 
est' is  the  fact  that  it  has  driven  the  individual  owners  to  acts  of 
lawlessness,  oppression,  and  downright  petty  meanness  of  which  one 
might  hesitate  to  believe  that  any  human  being  would  be  guilty,  if  it 
were  not  that  they  are  spread  upon  the  records  of  the  Anthracite 
Commission. 

469 


"This,  too,  notwithstanding  that  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  coal 
barons  wrote :  *  The  rights  and  interests  of  the  labouring  man  will  be 
protected  and  cared  for,  not  by  the  labour  agitators,  but  by  the 
CHRISTIAN  MEN  to  whom  God  in  His  infinite  wisdom  has  given 
the  control  of  the  property  interests  of  the  country!'  On  May  9, 
1902,  less  than  four  months  before  the  date  of  this  remarkable  let- 
ter, in  answer  to  a  proposition  that  Archbishop  Ireland,  Bishop  Potter 
and  a  third  party  to  be  chosen  by  them  should  act  as  arbitrators, 
this  same  writer  told  Mr.  John  Mitchell  that :  '  Anthracite  mining  is 
a  business,  and  not  a  religious,  sentimental  or  academic  proposi- 
tion. .  .  .  Nor  can  I  call  to  my  aid  as  experts  in  the  mixed 
problem  of  business  and  philanthropy  the  eminent  prelates  you  have 
named ! ' 

"  During  the  recent  coal  strike  it  will  be  remembered  that  one  of 
the  great  coal-mining  firms,  which  are  styled  '  independent '  and  which 
stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  their  fellow-monopolists  in  their 
untenable  position  that  there  was  nothing  to  arbitrate,  demanded 
of  the  President  that  he  send  Federal  troops  to  tneir  aid.  Had  the 
demand  been  granted  one  may  conjecture  what  would  have  been  ex- 
pected of  the  '  boys  in  blue '  by  the  testimony  before  the  Anthracite 
Commission,  in  December,  1902,  which  showed  that  this  same  firm 
kept  a  woman,  widowed  by  a  mine  accident,  and  her  two  boys  work- 
ing thirteen  years  to  pay  up  an  old  rent  bill  of  $396;  that  they 
evicted  an  aged  miner,  who  for  nineteen  years'  work  never  saw  but 
$50  in  money,  in  the  rain,  with  no  possible  shelter  for  eight  miles, 
because  his  son  was  an  officer  in  the  union;  and  that  they  evicted 
another  miner,  half  blind  and  crippled  by  mine  work,  with  his  sick 
wife,  and  her  mother,  aged  101  years,  in  a  storm."  (The  wife  died 
within  a  month  of  the  eviction.)  "In  the  latter  case,  the  sheriff  ap- 
pealed to  the  head  of  the  firm  which  ordered  this  eviction  for  a  little 
more  time  for  the  unhappy  miner,  and  got  the  answer :  *  They  must 
get  out  in  five  minutes/  When,  in  another  instance,  a  collection 
of  some  $180  was  taken  up  by  the  miners  for  a  man  crippled  in  the 
mine,  this  same  firm  held  out  $56  for  a  bill  for  rent  and  groceries. 

"  A  mine  owner  in  the  role  of  a  feudal  baron,  demanding  assistance 
in  putting  down  a  rebellion  of  serfs,  is  a  convincing  illustration  of 
the  reality  of  our  industrial  slavery.  If  Abraham  Lincoln  were  alive 
to-day  he  would  say  of  this  man  as  he  did  of  Mr.  Douglass,  in  Oc- 
tober, 1864 :  '  I  DENY  HIS  RIGHT  TO  GOVEEN  ANY  OTHER  PERSON 
WITHOUT  THAT  PERSON'S  CONSENT/ 

"  But  this  mine  owner  is  not  alone  in  his  arrogance.  President  Oly- 
phant,  forgetful  of  the  statement  of  his  fellow-monopolist  Mr.  Fowler, 
that  only  the  absence  of  competition  made  coal  cost  above  $2  a  ton, 
said  that  '  the  devilishness  of  the  miners  raised  the  price  of  coal  50 
cents  a  ton'  (from  $4),  while  counsel  for  the  Eeading  railroad  said 
that  '  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  people  of  New  York 
have  wrung  the  bowels  out  of  the  coal  region  of  Pennsylvania,  prac- 
tically getting  their  coal  for  nothing  and  whining  like  a  pack  of 
whipped  dogs  when  a  decent  remunerative  price  is  asked  by  the 
miners/  " 

The  treatment  received  by  the  miners  during  the  strikes  which  have 

470 


INDUSTRIAL   CONCENTRATION 

occurred  has  been  of  the  most  brutal  and  un-American  sort.  This 
is  well  illustrated  by  the  following  episode,  which  we  extract  from 
Mr.  Beard's  work.  It  has  a  most  pertinent  bearing  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  whether  or  not  the  United  States  has  forsaken  its  own  great 
ideals,  for  those  of  Russian  despotism.  "In  the  fall  of  that  year 
(1897)  there  was  a  strike  which,  while  only  a  partial  tie-up,  will 
long  be  remembered  for  the  massacre  at  Lattimer,  near  Hazleton, 
September  10,  1897.  One  hundred  and  fifty  unarmed  strikers,  car- 
rying an  American  flag,  on  their  way  to  ask  the  miners  at  Lattimer 
to  strike,  were  halted  by  the  sheriff  and  one  hundred  deputies  armed 
with  Winchesters  furnished  by  the  mine-owners.  The  strikers  soon 
found  that  their  country's  flag  was  no  protection  to  them,  for  when 
they  refused  to  turn  back  they  were  fired  on.  Twenty-one  were 
killed,  of  whom  sixteen  were  shot  in  the  back.  The  sheriff  at  first 
claimed  that  he  had  been  knocked  down,  but  after  telling  several 
stories,  decided  to  deny  having  given  the  order  to  fire.  When  war- 
rants were  issued  for  the  deputies,  the  constable  attempting  to  serve 
them  was  jailed  by  the  soldiers." 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  we  are  fast  adopting  the  militarism 
of  European  despotism;  add  to  this  the  more  recent  Colorado  out- 
rages and  we  may  easily  realise  how  it  happens  that  so  many  thinking 
men  regard  Washington  as  a  sort  of  suburb  to  St.  Petersburg.  Others 
who  fear  the  German  peril  rather  than  its  more  severe  Russian  fel- 
low are  more  and  more  frequently  expressing  their  thought  in  stinging 
bits  of  sarcasm  like  the  following,  which  contains  more  than  a  sem- 
blance of  truth,  from  "  Harper's  Weekly  " :  "  The  discovery  that  the 
Kaiser  is  four  months  older  than  President  Roosevelt  will  come  as  a 
surprise  to  persons  who  thought  they  were  twins."  The  lawlessness 
and  corrupt  practises  of  the  coal  trust  and  its  associate  railroad  com- 
bines are  but  typical  of  the  other  trusts.  We  are  all  too  familiar  with 
the  ship-building  and  steel  trust's  flimflam  games,  as  well  as  with  the 
Standard  Oil's  carnival  of  iniquity,  and  the  Beef  Trust's  gentlemen's 
agreement  among  hogs,  to  need  any  extended  further  enlightenment 
upon  these  topics. 

That  our  legislatures  are  governed  by  and  in  the  interests  of  the 
railroads  and  the  trusts  is  a  fact  of  common  knowledge.  Year  after 
year  railroad  corruption  has  become  more  brazenly  flagrant,  and  year 
after  year  the  service  it  has  rendered  to  the  public  has  become  poorer, 
less  certain  and  convenient  and  more  and  more  hazardous  to  life  and 
limb,  until  to-day  statistics  show  that  a  brakeman  cannot  live  and 
keep  all  his  limbs  more  than  seven  years  upon  the  average, —  and  how 
about  the  patrons  of  the  roads?  The  public  prints  teem  with  acci- 
dents in  which  passengers  are  killed  by  scores.  Here  is  an  example 
from  a  single  issue,  in  fact,  from  a  single  page  of  a  single  issue  of  a 
Boston  paper,  an  example  fairly  typical  of  many  other  similar  re- 
ports of  railroad  fatalities  which  could  be  cited.  We  refer  to  the 
"Boston  American"  of  March  17,  1906,  from  which  we  copy  the 
following  headings :  No.  1.  "3  Dead,  1  Dying.  In  Crash  of  Trains 
on  B.  &  M.  Misunderstood  Order  Cause  of  Wreck  in  New  Hamp- 
shire—  No  Block  Signals."  (This  wreck  occurred  in  what  is  known 
as  Butcher's  Hill  —  cut  near  Lawrence  corner.  The  engines  were 

471 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

reduced  to  scrap  iron,  and  cars  piled  up  and  thrown  down  a  steep 
embankment,  blocking  the  Worcester  and  Nashua  division  of  the 
Boston  and  Maine  road  for  hours.) 

No.  2.  "  Train  ditched :  Score  injured."  (More  than  a  score  of 
persons  were  injured_,  in  the  wreck  of  a  Chicago  train  on  the  Monon 
railroad  which  jumped  the  track  at  Horseshoe  Bend  near  Bedford, 
Indiana.) 

No.  3.  "  Operator's  Sleep  Cost  Lives  of  35.  Trains  Crash  Owing 
to  Neglect  of  Man  who  should  have  given  Engineer  Orders."  (Thir- 
ty-five people  were  either  killed  outright  or  roasted  to  death  as  the 
result  of  the  Utah  &  California  Express  No.  3,  from  Denver  heavily 
laden  and  travelling  40  miles  an  hour,  crashing  into  a  local  passenger 
train).  '  So  hazardous  has  railroad  travel  become  as  the  result  of  the 
inefficiency  which  ever  follows  quick  upon  the  heels  of  moral  degen- 
eracy that  the  Editor  of  "  The  Outlook  "  says  apropos  of  accidents : 
"  It  is  becoming  as  perilous  to  live  in  the  United  .States  as  to  partici- 
pate in  actual  warfare.* 

To  show  how  utterly  unnecessary  is  this  great  loss  of  life,  how,  in 
short,  it  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  general  breaking  down  of  respect 
for  human  life  in  this  country,  we  offer  the  following  comparative 
tables  from  "  Hazell's  Annual "  for  1904. 

KILLED.  INJURED. 

United  Kingdom 1  in  19,975,800  1  in  2,244,472 

United  States   1  in     1,622,267  1  in        78,523 

*  As  we  are  about  to  go  to  press  news  'comes  of  another  fearful  accident 
on  that  travesty  of  transportation  systems  known  as  the  Southern  Rail- 
way. An  accident  of  somewhat  unique  significance,  marking  as  we  are 
told  the  first  instance  in  the  country's  history  where  a  railroad  president 
was  killed  while  travelling  upon  his  own  road.  Commenting  upon  this  ac- 
cident and  the  death  of  Mr.  Samuel  Spencer,  Mr.  Arthur  Warren  says  in 
part  in  the  Boston  Herald  of  Dec.  3,  1906,  "  Among  many  trials  of  an 
active  life,  I  have  been  compelled  to  endure  many  journeys  on  the  South- 
ern Railway.  Never  in  its  trains  for  years  have  I  been  on  time  when 
consigning  my  poor  bones  to  the  mercies  of  the  wondrous  organisation 
which  controls  so  much  of  the  traffic  of  the  South.  But  unpunctuality 
in  the  extreme,  with  hours  of  delay,  is  not  the  only  risk  of  the  traveller 
on  that  '  system '  of  single  tracks.  The  risk  of  life  and  limb,  as  shown 
by  the  record  of  accidents  on  the  Southern  in  the  past  10  years  is  suffi- 
cient to  illustrate  the  charge  I  make  of  recklessness,  of  carelessness,  of  in- 
difference to  the  risk  of  human  life.  Prom  the  point  of  public  convenience 
and  safety,  there  may  be  worse  managed  railways  than  the  Southern  in 
some  parts  of  the  earth,  but  I  have  not  found  them,  though  travelling  in 
many  countries.  The  conditions  that  prevail  on  the  Southern  are  not  pe- 
culiar to  it;  they  are  characteristic  of  most  of  the  mileage  of  American 
railroads  —  they  differ  in  degree,  not  in  kind. 

The  American  public  is  largely  responsible  for  the  railway  accidents 
which  kill  and  maim  more  persons  than  war  slays  and  wounds.  The 
tremendous  slaughter  which  takes  place  annually  on  our  railroads  is  prob- 
ably known  to  everybody  in  the  country.  There  is  hardly  a  day  in  which 
the  press  does  not  record  some  detail  of  it,  and,  every  little  while,  popular 
attention  is  drawn  to  the  fact  that  our  trains  kill  and  maim  more  per- 
sons in  a  year  than  do  the  military  and  naval  battles  of  the  world.  This 
country  is  alone  in  this  fearful  pre-eminence.  But  what  is  done  to 
change  this  sanguinary  reputation?  Nothing.  .  .  .  The  railway  pass 
has  been  one  of  the  preventives  to  railway  improvement.  It  has  silenced 

472 


The  proportion  of  railway  servants  killed  or  injured  to  the  number 
employed  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  United  States  were  as 
follows : 

KILLED.  INJURED. 

United  Kingdom 1  in  10,144  1  in  747 

United  States 1  in       357  1  in    19 

Slason  Thompson  in  "World's  Work"  for  Sept.,  1903,  gives  the 
following  table : 

NUMBER   OF   PASSENGERS    CARRIED  TO    ONE   KILLED. 

United  States  2,153,469 

United  Kingdom   ' 7,420,000 

Germany    9,778,000 

France 4,821,000 

Eussia    1,444,000 

The  following  table  taken  from  the  reports  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  and  published  in  Mr.  Robert  Hunter's  "  Poverty  " 
illustrates  how  terribly  hazardous  is  the  work  of  the  railroad  employe. 

Year                       Employes  Passengers  Other  Persons         Total 

Killed  Injured  Killed  Injured  Killed  InjuredKilled  Injured 

1897   1,693  27,667  222     2,795  4,522  6,269       6,437     36,731 

1898   1,958  31,761  221     2,945  4,680  6,176       6,859     40,882 

1899   2,210  34,923  239     3,442  4,674  6,255       7,123     44,620 

1900   2,550  39,643  249     4,128  5,066  6,549       7,865     50,320 

1901    2,675  41,142  282     4,988  5,498  7,209       8,455     53,339 

1902  2,969  50,524  345     6,683  5,274  7,455       8,588     64,662 

Commenting  on  this  table  Mr.  Hunter  writes,  "  These  figures  are 
frightful.  In  1901  one  out  of  every  399  employes  was  killed  and 
one  out  of  every  26  was  injured.  The  trainmen,  such  as  engineers, 
firemen,  conductors,  etc.,  are  the  greatest  sufferers.  One  was  killed  for 
every  137  employed,  and  one  was  injured  for  every  11  employed.  It 
is  difficult  to  believe  that  such  slaqghter  is  permitted  to  go  on  year 
after  year.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  owners  of  the  railroads  would 
make  the  safety  of  their  workmen  their  first  obligation;  but,  strange 
as  it  is,  they  resist  powerfully  every  attempt  made  to  have  them 
adopt  safety  appliances.  The  energetic  efforts  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  have  been  but  partially  successful  in  compelling 

criticism  in  the  press,  in  the  Legislature  and  at  Washington.  The  pub- 
lic has  been  educated  to  regard  our  methods  of  railroad  operation  as,  if 
not  perfect,  then  the  best  possible  in  an  imperfect  world.  Most  persons 
seem  to  think  that  the  mishaps  which  occur  are  unavoidable,  and  they 
think  so  because  they  are  not  acquainted  with  better  methods  for  avoiding 
them.  .  .  .  The  slaughter  on  our  railways  is  more  wonderful  than 
the  slaughter  in  the  packing-houses  of  Chicago,  and  the  lives  that  are 
lost  seem  to  be  about  as  cheap  as  the  lives  of  the  hogs  and  the  cattle. 
But  government  inspects  the  slaughter  of  the  beasts  and  leaves  the  slaugh- 
ter of  the  men  and  women  to  go  gaily  on  in  the  name  of  progress,  and  for 
the  sake  of  dividends." 

473 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

the  railroads  to  put  on  such  appliances  as  are  necessary  in  order  to 
diminish  the  number  of  accidents  and  fatalities.  Up  to  the  present 
the  Commission  has  not  been  successful  in  compelling  the  railroads 
to  introduce  the  Block  System,  which  would  greatly  diminish  the 
number  killed  and  injured.  The  railroads  consider  this  system  an 
'  unwarranted  luxury/  just  as  a  few  years  ago  they  considered  the 
automatic  coupler  an  *  unwarranted  luxury/  Such  increased  ex- 
penses for  the  safety  of  the  employes  reduce  profits,  and  with  that 
only  in  view  the  railroads  either  forget,  or  have  no  concern  for,  the 
families  whose  bread-winners  are  lost  or  injured  by  this  criminal 
policy  of  preferring  murder  to  decreased  dividends."  .  .  . 

"  Many  railroad  systems  have  resisted  and  violated  the  law  com- 
pelling them  to  put  on  automatic  couplers,  and  they  are  now  fighting 
the  introduction  of  the  Block  System,  both  of  which  improvements 
are  designed  to  prevent  accidents  and  injuries."  .  .  . 

"  In  case  of  accidents,  '  company '  physicians  and  lawyers  hasten 
immediately  to  the  place  of  the  accident,  and,  if  possible,  persuade 
the  workmen  to  sign  contracts  by  which  they  agree,  for  some  small 
immediate  compensation,  to  release  the  company  from  any  further 
liability.  I  have  known  many,  many  cases  where  workmen  have,  for 
a  few  dollars,  signed  away  their  rights  to  sue  when  their  injuries  have 
been  as  serious  as  the  loss  of  a  leg  or  arm.  In  the  seventeen  years 
ending  June  30,  1902,  103,320  persons  were  killed  and  587,028  in- 
jured by  the  railway  industry." 


474 


CHAPTEE  II 


475 


A  power  has  arisen  up  in  the  Government  greater  than  the  people  them- 
selves, consisting  of  many  and  various  and  powerful  interests,  combined 
into  one  mass,  and  held  together  by  the  cohesive  power  of  the  vast  surplus 
in  the  banks. 

John  C.  Calhoun  —  In  the  U.  8.  Senate. 

Hateful  to  me  as  are  the  gates  of  hell, 
Is  he  who,  hiding  one  thing  in  his  heart, 
Utters  another. 

Homer  —  The  Iliad. 

Accident   is  commonly  the   parent  of  disorder. 

Gibbon. 

The  optimist  is  an  accomplice  of  the  grafter. 

The  concentration  of  so  many  branches  of  trade  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
individuals,  so  that  a  small  number  of  very  rich  men  have  been  able  to 
lay  upon  the  masses  a  yoke  little  better  than  slavery. 

Pope  Leo  XIII. 

Think'st  thou   there   are  no   serpents   in   the   world 

But  those  who  slide  along  the  grassy  sod, 

And  sting  the  luckless  foot  that  presses  them? 

There  are  who  in  the  path  of  social  life 

Do  bask  their  spotted  skins  in  Fortune's  sun, 

And  sting  the  soul. 

Joanna  Baillie  —  De   Monfort. 

Stamps  God's  own  name  upon  a  lie  just  made, 
To  turn  a  penny  in  the  way  of  trade. 

Cowper — Table  Talk. 


476 


CHAPTER  II 

SOME  RESULTS  OF  COMMERCIAL 
CENTRIPETALISM 


T  will  be  seen  from  the  tables  presented  in  the  fore- 
going chapter  that  in  this  respect  of  railway  ineffi- 
ciency as  in  many  other  respects  the  United  States 
is  a  close  second  to  Russia.  In  those  countries  where 
human  life  is  of  little  value  railway  accidents  will 
be  frequent  and  their  mortality  high,  while,  con- 
versely, those  countries  which  hold  human  life  dear  will  show  few 
accidents  and  low  mortality.  Our  American  railway  corporations  con- 
sider it  cheaper  to  kill  their  servants  and  their  passengers  than  to 
maintain  a  high  efficiency  of  service.  The  practice,  almost  universal 
with  corporations,  of  making  use  of  employers'  liability  associations 
is  chargeable  for  much  of  the  mortality  among  employes.  Such  asso- 
ciations ought,  in  the  interests  of  public  policy,  to  be  brushed  from 
the  face  of  the  earth.  Were  it  not  for  them  and  ,the  supineness  of 
our  courts  and  legislatures,  safety-coupling  devices,  block-signal  sys- 
tems, automatic  electrical  devices,  and  the  like  means  of  guarding  their 
own  servants  and  the  public  would  become  a  necessity  and  their 
adoption  an  event  of  the  near  future. 

Not  only  are  the  fatalities  second  only  to  those  of  Russia,  but  it 
is  a  most  important  fact  to  note  that  they  have  increased  during  the 
last  few  years  very  much  in  excess  of  the  increase  in  mileage.  On 
June  30,  1897,  the  railway  mileage  in  the  United  States  was  184,- 
428.42,  while  on  the  same  date  in  1904  the  mileage  was  213,904.34. 
This  shows  a  mileage  increase  over  1907  of  29,475.92  miles,  or  an  in- 
crease of  approximately  16  per  cent.  It  will  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing table  of  railroad  accidents  annually  occurring  in  the  United  States 
from  June  30,  1897,  to  June  30,  1904,  that,  while  the  mileage  in- 
crease is  only  16  per  cent.,  the  increase  in  the  number  of  killed  is  more 
than  56  per  cent,  and  in  the  number  of  injured  it  is  more  than  129  per 
cent.  .  Well  may  we  ask  what  the  next  decade  will  show,  when  we  con- 
sider that  in  seven  short  years  the  railway  mortality  has  increased 
more  than  50  per  cent,  in  excess  of  the  mileage  increase,  while  the  in- 
crease of  injured  is  more  than  113  per  cent,  greater  than  said  mileage 
increase.  It  will  not  take  the  mathematically  inclined  long  to  figure 
out  at  what  period,  upon  this  rate  of  increase,  the  railroads  will  be 
decimating  our  population.  The  table  is  as  follows :  — 

Railroad  Accidents  in  the  United  States  from  June  30,  189-7,  to 
June  30,  1904. .. 

477 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 


KILLED. 

1897 6,437 

1898 6,859 

1899  7,123 

1900 7,865 

1901  8,455 

1902 8,588 

1903 9,840 

1904 .' 10,046 


INJURED. 

36,731 
40,882 
44,620 
50,320 
53,339 
64,662 
76,553 
84,155 


In  "Wilshire's  Magazine"  for  January,  1906,  W.  J.  Ghent 
publishes  an  article  entitled  "  Peace  more  Bloody  than  War." 
Eef erring  to  our  Civil  War  as  "the  great  killing/'  a  title 
which  has  frequently  been  conferred  upon  it,  he  shows  that  the  fatali- 
ties in  the  northern  army  during  the  four  years  of  the  Civil  War 
reached  a  total  of  150,224,  this  figure  being  for  deaths  exclusive  from 
disease.  This  shows  a  yearly  average  of  37,556.  Mr.  Ghent  estimates 
the  Confederate  yearly  average  as  24,411,  making  the  total  yearly 
average  for  both  sides  62,122.  These  fatalities  he  points  out  occurred 
in  "  a  struggle  to  the  death,  wherein  every  device,  every  energy  which 
men  can  employ  against  one  another  for  the  destruction  of  life  were 
employed."  In  comparing  these  figures  with  "  the  horrors  of  indus- 
trial militarism,"  Mr.  Ghent  points  out  that  the  killings  on  inter- 
state roads  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1904,  are  reported  as  9,984, 
while  the  woundings  number  78,247.  He  says  that  the  State  roads 
probably  had  975  deaths  and  7,500  woundings,  to  which  should  be 
further  added  the  casualties  of  the  trolley  lines,  approximately  1,340 
killed  and  59,169  wounded.  He  submits  the  following  tables,  com- 
paring these  figures  with  the  losses  on  both  sides  in  the  Battles  of 
Gettysburg,  Chancellorsville  and  Chickamauga. 


LOSSES  IN  THREE  BATTLES.       (both  sides.) 

1863. 

KILLED. 

Gettysburg 5,662 

Chickamauga    > 3,924 

Chancellorsville 3,271 


12,857 

LOSSES   IN   RAILROAD  ACCIDENTS    IN   1904 
*       KILLED. 

Interstate  roads  9,984 

State  roads 975 

Trolley  lines  (Estimated)    1,340 


WOUNDED. 

27,203 
24,362 
18,843 

69,408 


WOUNDED. 

78,247 

7,500 

52,169 


12,299 


137,916 


*For  further  data  upon  this  subject  and  for  some  notable  accidents 
which  have  occurred  since  writing  the  above,  see  Appendix  B. 

478 


COMMERCIAL  CENTRIPETALISM 

Continuing  Mr.  Ghent  states  that  the  factories  probably  destroy 
more  lives  than  the  railroads.  He  considers  the  census  bureau  sta- 
tistics of  factory  casualties  given  in  Bulletin  No.  83  as  ridiculous. 
He  says :  "  Were  the  factories  placed  under  a  Federal  supervision 
law,  and  were  their  owners  compelled  to  report  accidents  to  the 
authorities,  a  vastly  different  condition  would  be  revealed.  For  the 
coal  mines,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  something  like  authentic 
figures.  The  United  States  Geological  Survey  reports  the  casualties 
in  mining  coal  for  the  year  1901  as  1,467  killed  and  3,643  wounded. 
Except  for  the  low  ratio  of  wounded  to  killed,  this  would  make  a 
fair  comparison  with  any  one  of  a  number  of  important  engagements 
during  the  Civil  War.  Pennsylvania  alone  furnished  an  industrial 
Bull  Bun. 

BATTLE  OF  BULL  RUN,  1861. 

KILLED.  WOUNDED. 

Federals 470  1,071 

Confederates 387  1,582 


857  2,653 

PENNSYLVANIA   COAL  MINES,   1901. 

KILLED.  WOUNDED. 

Anthracite 513  1,243 

Bituminous  .                                       .  301  656 


Total 814  1,899 

With  reference  to  this  decreasing  value  of  life  and  also  of  the 
fostering  care  which  courts  bestow  upon  railroads,  we  quote  the  fol- 
lowing from  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege,"  by  Henry  George,  Jr. : 
"  Nothing  seems  so  cheap  as  human  flesh  and  blood  among  the  poor  of 
our  great  cities.  And  now  and  then  comes  a  pronouncement  from 
a  court  of  law  that  emphasises  this.  One  such  was  made  by  William 
G.  Gummere,  Chief  Justice  of  the  .Supreme  Court  of  New  Jersey  — 
New  Jersey,  the  great  trust-incorporating  State.  A  child  had  been 
killed  in  a  street  railroad  accident  in  Jersey  City.  The  parents 
brought  suit  for  $50,000  compensation.  Justice  Gummere  ruled  that 
a  child's  life  is  financially  not  worth  more  than  $1  to  its  parents. 
By  that  ruling  the  jurist  became  popularly  known  as  *  Dollar-a-life 
Gummere/  After  stubborn  fighting  in  the  courts,  and  taking  the 
case  to  the  highest  tribunal  in  the  State,  Justice  Gummere  was  over- 
borne and  $1,000  awarded  the  parents  of  the  dead  child." 

In  an  anonymous  article  entitled  "  An  Appeal  to  our  Millionaires  " 
and  published  in  "  The  North  American  Eeview  "  for  June,  1906, — 
an  article,  by  the  way,  which  has  attracted  wide-spread  attention, — 
the  author  thus  comments  upon  the  carelessness  of  human  life  ex- 
hibited in  some  quarters :  "  One  does  not  wave  a  red  flag  in  the  face 
of  a  bull  unless  he  has  good  reasons  for  wishing  to  inflame  the  bull; 
but,  unfortunately,  our  millionaires,  and  especially  their  idle  and 

479 


degenerate  children,  have  been  flaunting  their  money  in  the  faces  of 
the  poor  as  if  actually  wishing  to  provoke  them  to  that  insensate  rage 
which  is  akin  to  madness,  and  leads  '  to  murder  and  the  breaking  up 
of  laws/  In  the  sweep  of  a  great  current,  it  is  foolish  to  exaggerate 
the  influence  of  a  small  rivulet  which  joins  it,  but  let  us  consider  for 
a  moment  one  matter  of  very  minor  importance,  except  as  showing 
an  apparent  actual  desire  on  the  part  of  the  rich  to  draw  upon  them- 
selves the  hatred  of  the  poor.  The  motor-engine  is  not  only  a  most 
valuable  invention  for  many  purposes,  but  it  offers  those  rich  enough 
to  afford  it  a  very  attractive  mode  of  travel,  and  has  undoubtedly 
not  only  come  to  stay,  bu£  to  increase  rapidly  in  use,  as  it  ought. 
When  cars  are  of  a  size  proportioned  to  the  width  of  the  highway  on 
which  they  run  and  are  propelled  at  moderate  speed,  they  are  used 
without  serious  danger  or  discomfort  to  any  other  person  using  the 
highway  or  living  beside  it.  Nobody  has  ever,  been  hurt  or  seriously 
annoyed  by  an  automobile  of  proportionate  size  going  at  ten  miles 
an  hour.  But  the  rich  prefer  to  buy  immense  cars  which  take  almost 
all  of  a  narrow  street  or  road,  and  to  drive  them  on  all  streets  and 
roads,  narrow  or  wide,  at  such  speed  as  imperils  the  lives  and  limbs 
of  everybody  in  their  path ;  and  merely  for  their  own  selfish  pleasure 
they  afflict  the  poor  and  their  children,  well  or  ill,  in  their  wayside 
homes,  with  offensive  noise  and  clatter  and  more  offensive  odour, 
and  cover  them  with  thick  layers  of  dust,  as  they  do  all  the  travellers 
they  pass ;  and  they  actually  kill  other  people  on  the  highway  if  they 
are  not  able  to  run  fast  enough  to  escape  them, —  and  then  the  great 
car  speeds  away.  '  The  Sun '  of  New  York  reported  the  other  day 
the  killing  of  two  aged  women  and  one  child;  on  another  day  two 
children  were  killed;  on  another  day  one  child  was  killed  and  a 
labouring  man  with  his  dinner-pail  on  his  arm.  The  newspapers  this 
morning  report  the  running  down  of  two  working-men  on  their  way 
to  work  and  a  Catholic  priest  on  his  way  to  church.  Since  New- 
Year's  Day  these  great  cars,  simply  for  the  pleasure  of  their  occu- 
pants, have  killed  more  people  on  the  public  highways  than  were  killed 
in  the  war  with  Spain. 

"  Of  course,  there  is  nothing  novel  in  this  form  of  showing  contempt 
by  the  rich  for  the  rights  of  the  poor  on  the  public  highways.  Here 
is  a  sketch,  by  a  master  hand,  of  a  parallel  scene  in  Paris,  just  before 
France  was  drenched  in  the  blood  of  her  '  wealthy  classes ' : 

'  With  a  wild  rattle  and  clatter  the  carriage  dashed  through  the 
streets  and  swept  round  corners  with  women  screaming  before  it,  and 
men  clutching  each  other  and  clutching  children  out  of  its  way.  At 
last,  swooping  by  a  street  corner,  at  a  fountain,  one  of  its  wheels  came 
to  a  sickening  little  jolt,  and  there  was  a  loud  cry  and  the  horses 
reared  and  plunged.  But  for  this  the  carriage  probably  would  not 
have  stopped,  for  carriages  often  drove  on  and  left  their  wounded  or 
killed  behind  them.  *  What  has  gone  wrong  ? '  asked  the  Marquis, 
calmly  looking  out.  '  A.  child  has  been  killed/  was  the  answer,  and 
he  replied :  '  It  is  extraordinary  to  me  that  you  people  cannot  take 
care  of  yourselves  and  your  children.  One  or  the  other  of  you  is 
forever  in  the  way ! '  and  then  the  Marquis  drove  on  to  his  grand 

480 


.    COMMERCIAL  CENTRIPETALISM 

chateau.  But  in  the  morning  he  was  dead  with  the  knife  of  the  dead 
child's  father  in  his  heart.' 

"  Changing  '  carriage  '  to  e  motor-car,'  how  much  all  this  reads  like 
an  incident  of  to-day, —  except  that  here,  fortunately,  we  are  in  no 
danger  of  the  taking  of  life  for  life." 

The  carelessness  of  human  life  exhibited  by  railroad  corporations 
is  by  no  means  confined  to  that  particular  class  of  corporations.  We 
have  seen  how  the  Beef  Trust  has  ploughed  a  wake  of  death  and 
desolation  which  a  malicious  and  robust  cyclone  would  never  cease 
to  "  blow  "  about,  so  proud  would  it  be  of  its  efficiency.  Those  who 
wish  to  know  where  the  .Standard  Oil  stands  upon  such  matters,  are 
referred  to  Henry  Demorest  Lloyd's  "Wealth  against  Common- 
wealth," to  Miss  Ida  Tarbell's  "  History  of  the  Standard  Oil "  and  to 
Thomas  W.  Lawson's  arraignment  of  the  system  in  his  "  Frenzied 
Finance."  The  menace  of  the  Trusts  is  making  itself  felt  along  a 
hundred  and  one  lines.  These  lying  corporations  make  a  specialty  of 
spreading  falsehood.  Their  corruptive  influence  not  only  enters  the 
Court-room  to  befoul  with  bribery  the  judicial  ermine,  but  it  extends 
to  the  College,  to  the  University,  yea,  even  to  the  Pulpit  itself,  setting 
up  its  false  guide-boards  to  allure  the  unwary  out  of  the  paths  of 
truth  and  rectitude  and  into  the  quagmire  of  trust-made  falsehood,  in 
order  to  poison  the  minds  of  our  youth,  setting  before  their  young  eyes 
the  bestialising  standards  of  greed.  Our  magazines  were  only  recently 
filled  to  the  point  of  nausea  with  Captain-of-Industry  articles  inspired 
by  trustdom,  in  which  commercial  freebooters,  who  should  have  been 
doing  time  in  the  penitentiary,  were  held  up  to  the  laudation  of 
American  Youth  with  the  constantly  implied  advice,  Go  thou  and 
do  likewise.  As  a  sample  of  the  falsehood  which  is  rife,  railway, 
telegraph,  and  telephone  companies  publish  and  circulate  interpreta- 
tions of  the  law  which  are  false  and  which  they  know  to  be  false,  and 
they  do  this  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  those  who  may  have  claims 
against  them.  They  defy  the  law,  and  seem  to  care  no  more  for  a 
legislative  regulation  than  the  Coal  Trust  does  'for  a  constitutional 
provision.  When  the  last  war-tax  was  placed  upon  telegrams  and 
the  like  it  was  decreed  that  the  telegraph  companies  and  not  the  public 
should  bear  this  burden.  Did  they  do  so?  By  no  means.  They 
insisted  that  the  sender  of  the  message  should  pay  26  cents  where 
he  had  formerly  paid  25.  If  he  had  enough  Americanism  left  in 
him  to  object  to  the  outrage,  he  was  told  to  pay  the  extra  cent  under 
protest  and  then  to  sue  for  its  recovery.  As  an  illustration  of  the 
utter  disregard  for  the  truth  evinced  by  corporations,  we  offer  the 
following  table  with  its  unblushing  falsification  of  facts  within  the 
easy  reach  of  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  look.  The  table 
is  taken  from  Mr.  Frank  Parsons'  "  The  Telegraph  Monopoly,"  and 
we  give  in  connexion  with  it  Mr.  Parson's  comments  thereon  as  fol- 
lows :  "  The  private  telegraph  charges  of  America  are  more  than 
double  the  public  telegraph  rates  of  Europe. 

"  The  Western  Union  has  endeavored  to  overcome  the  force  of  this 

tremendous  fact  by  asserting  that  the  rate  is  a  matter  of  distance  and 

that  the  distances   are  greater  here,   and  tables  of   distances   and 

charges  were  presented  to  committees  of  Congress  for  the  purpose  of 

3J  481 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION* 

proving  the  assertion.  Unfortunately  for  the  Western  Union  the 
Wash  burn  Committee  consulted  geographies  and  telegraph  maps  and 
found  that  the  length  of  telegraph  routes  between  the  cities  of  Europe 
were  strangely  minified  in  the  Western  Union  statement,  while  the 
distances  between  American  cities  were  mysteriously  larger  than  those 
Bet  down  in  maps  and  geographies.  Here  are  some  examples: 

TABLE  III. 

TELEGRAPH   DISTANCES. 

WESTERN  UNION  TRUTH 

FROM  LONDON  TO  STATEMENT,  MILES.  IN  MILES. 

Dover 50  82 

Plymouth 190  246 

Paris    200  313 

Eeims 250  400 

Hamburg 380  556 

Munich    , .540  800 

Berlin 560  722 

Prague 600  958 

Madrid 750  1,225 

Rome 850  1,349 

Naples   950  1,510 

St.  Petersburg ^. . . . .  1,160  1,806 

"  Not  one  single  distance  is  correctly  stated.  It  is  necessary  in  nearly 
every  case  to  add  at  least  one-third  and  often  more  than  one-half  of 
the  stated  distance  to  obtain  the  real  distance.  The  sum  of  the 
stated  distances  was  15,724  miles,  and  the  sum  of  the  real  distances 
was  22,578  miles,  or  almost  one-half  more  than  the  Western  Union's 
statement.  To  show  the  falsity  of  statements  about  American  routes 
it  was  not  even  necessary  to  disturb  the  dust  on  the  geography  — 
the  statement  was  its  own  refutation;  for  example,  the  distance  from 
Memphis  to  New  York  was  placed  at  2,000  miles,  while  in  other 
tables  of  the  same  Western  Union  testimony  the  distance  was  said 
to  be  1,000  miles.  So  the  distance  from  New  York  to  Chicago  was 
placed  at  750  miles,  and  to  Galena  at  1,400  miles,  though  Galena  is 
only  185  miles  from  Chicago. —  Substituting  the  true  distances  in  the 
comparison  of  telegraph  charges  in  Europe  and  America,  the  com- 
mittee obtained  very  different  results  from  those  of  the  Western 
Union  statement/' 

The  public  is  quite  familiar  with  the  manner  in  which  the  Beef 
Trust  decreased  the  price  of  cattle  on  the  hoof  at  the  same  time  that 
it  raised  the  price  of  dressed  meats.  "The  gentlemen's  agreement 
among  hogs  "  abolished  all  competition.  It  being  prearranged  that 
all  buyers  should  offer  but  the  one  price,  the  seller  had  to  take  that 
or  nothing.  This  is  a  little  trick  of  the  Trusts.  The  Grain  Trust 
used  the  same  method  of  throttling  competition.  In  his  "  The  Grain 
Trust  Exposed"  Thomas  D.  Worrall  says:  "I  am  not  overstating 
the  facts  when  I  say  there  is  scarcely  a  station  in  Nebraska  where  the 

482 


COMMERCIAL  CENTRIPETALISM 

local  man  has  not  been  forced  to  divide  his  business  with  the  line 
companies,  and  at  every  grain  station  where  there  are  none  but  line 
companies  the  business  is  always  divided  and  the  same  prices  paid  all 
the  time,  except  in  cases  where  one  buyer  was  stronger  than  the  others 
and  got  more  than  his  share.  In  this  case  the  buyer  who  was  ahead 
would  reduce  his  price  y2  cent  or  1  cent  a  bushel  until  his  competitor 
could  buy  enough  to  catch  up. 

"  A.  E.  Gates  for  a  number  of  years  was  confidential  man  for  the 
manager  of  the  Omaha  Elevator  Company.  It  was  his  duty  to  keep 
accurate  account  of  all  purchases  of  grain,  by  his  own,  company  and 
by  competing  companies,  at  all  stations  at  which  the  Omaha  company 
operated,  so  that  he  could  tell  at  a  moment's  notice  how  they  stood 
on  a  division  at  any  particular  station.  Should  their  agent  fall  be- 
hind in  any  considerable  amount  instead  of  punching  him  up  and 
encouraging  him  to  do  better  business  they  would  merely  insist,  under 
the  terms  of  the  agreement,  that  the  other  fellow  grow  lazier  and 
more  inattentive  to  business.  If  this  were  not  enough,  and  farmers 
insisted  on  selling  to  him  anyhow,  the  opposition  agent  who  was  ahead 
must  say  that  his  elevator  was  full,  or  the  machinery  was  broken,  or 
lower  his  bids. 

"  This  scheme  and  plot  against  the  farmers  of  Nebraska  was  worked 
successfully  for  year  after  year.  The  farmers  sometimes  believed 
there  was  competition  over  the  buying  of  their  grain,  and  that  they 
were  selling  in  a  fair  and  open  market,  when  there  was  in  fact  not 
even  the  semblance  of  competition  and  the  whole  play  was  cut  and 
dried  in  advance  to  milk  that  trusting  and  unsuspecting  son  of  toil 
of  every  last  penny  fhat  could  be  gotten  out  of  him.  It  was  under- 
stood, perhaps  I  had  better  mention,  that  no  matter  how  far  behind 
an  agent  got  on  his  '  share '  under  no  circumstances  must  he  pay  more 
than  card  price  to  catch  up ;  it  was  always  the  other  fellow  who  must 
pay  less.  I  have  known,  many  times,  of  cases  where  two  or  even 
more  buyers  would  get  on  a  load  of  grain  and  bid  against  one  an- 
other, apparently,  when  it  had  all  been  arranged  beforehand  just  who 
was  to  buy  the  load  and  at  what  price.  But  the  farmer,  having  sold 
to  the  last  and  highest  bidder  felt  good  all  over  and  laughed  to  him- 
self and  sometimes  told  his  neighbors  for  miles  around  that  the  grain 
buyers  at  his  station  got  to  bucking  on  his  grain  and  raised  the  price 
3  or  4  cents  a  bushel.  All  such  schemes  and  tricks  as  these  were 
sanctioned  by  the  secretary  and  members  of  the  Nebraska  Grain 
Dealers'  Association." 

If  the  Eeader  is  interested  in  the  iniquities  of  the  Grain  Trust  we 
recommend  a  perusal  of  Mr.  Worrall's  exposure. 

Concerning  the  lawlessness  of  the  Beef  Trust  we  offer  the  follow- 
ing, from  a  work  written  "  by  a  practical  butcher,  with  forty  years' 
experience  in  the  cattle  and.  meat  business,  and  many  years  manager 
of  a  cold-storage  beef  house  for  one  of  the  chief  packers  of  the  trust." 
The  work  is  entitled,  "  The  Dark  Side  of  the  Beef  Trust,"  and  in  it 
the  author,  Mr.  Herman  Hirschauer,  says:  "But  it  has  remained 
for  the  American, .  in  his  pursuit  of  gold,  to  ignore  all  laws,  both 
human  and.  divine ;.. to  JgnOre  the  rights  and  privileges  of  his.  neigh- 
oour,  and  even  to  place  in  jeopardy  the  health  and  lives  of  all  peoples 

483 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

in  every  community.  In  no  other  country  in  the  world  could  such  a 
state  of  affairs  exist  as  is  countenanced  in  the  free  Republic  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  as  regards  animal  food.  In  no  other 
country  in  the  world  are  the  lives  of  all  the  citizens  made  subject 
to  the  commerce  of  the  necessary  food  products  as  here  in  the  Land 
of  the  Free.  In  no  other  country  in  the  world  are  the  law-makers 
and  law-making  and  law-interpreting  powers  so  absolutely  mute  in 
the  presence  of  greed  and  gain  as  in  '  My  country,  'tis  of  thee,  sweet 
land  of  liberty/  In  every  other  civilised  country,  in  the  world,  the 
manufacture  or  sale  of  unclean,  impure,  or  adulterated  foods  is  made 
a  crime  by  law,  and  nowhere  on  the  face  of  the  globe  is  it  counte- 
nanced as  it  is  in  America.  The  colossal  Beef  Trust,  founded  on  the 
commerce  of  the  food  of  the  people,  while  it  levies  its  greed  on  the 
necessities  of  life,  yet  places  in  jeopardy  the  lives  of  its  victims  — 
called,  by  courtesy,  customers  or  patrons,  that  it  may  traffic  in  a  food 
supply  which  all  peoples,  from  the  beginning  of  time,  have  con- 
sidered unclean,  unwholesome,  unhealthy,  and  dangerous  to  health  and 
life,  and  turn  into  gold  that  which  has  heretofore  been  cast  upon  the 
dung  heap." 

Regarding  Trusts  in  general  Mr.  H.  C.  Richie  sounds  the  follow- 
ing warning  note  at  the  close  of  his  "  Trusts  versus  The  Public  Wel- 
fare " :  "  Are  our  people  insensible  to  the  dangers  confronting  them 
in  the  creation  of  a  plutocracy  through  the  medium  of  industrial  com- 
binations that  deny  to  individual  firms  and  corporations  the  right  to 
engage  in  the  manufacture  of  such  articles  as  they  produce,  and  that 
limits  production  and  employment  to  the  end  of  increasing  their  earn- 
ings to  swell  the  accumulated  wealth  of  plutocrats?  Is  not  that  ac- 
cumulated wealth  a  menace  to  our  citizens  of  limited  means  who  are 
desirous  of  engaging  in  the  manufacturing  business  but  are  debarred 
because  of  the  certainty  of  their  destruction  by  aggregated  capital? 
Is  it  not  a  menace  to  the  rights  and  well-being  of  the  toilers  of  the 
country?  Is  there  not  danger  in  its  possessors  establishing  a  scale 
of  wages  that  will  impoverish  and  degrade  the  wage-earning  class  ? 

'  111  fares  the  land  to  hastening  Ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay.' 

"  No  writing,  however  great  its  length  and  scope,  conveys  a  more 
forceful  warning  or  puts  so  clearly  the  dangers  confronting  us  by  the 
formation  and  operation  of  the  combinations  now  controlling  the 
manufactures  of  the  country  than  does  the  following  which  is  taken 
from  an  address  delivered  by  Judge  Grosscup,  of  Chicago,  before  the 
students  of  the  University  of  Nebraska,  at  Lincoln,  on  the  trust  ques- 
tion. He  said: 

'  A  widespread  withdrawal  by  the  people  at  large  from  general 
ownership  in  the  properties  of  the  country  cannot  but  be  fraught 
with  the  gravest  danger. 

'  Such  withdrawal  will  diminish,  if  not  destroy,  popular  interest  in 
national  prosperity;  for  from  those  only  who  have  a  stake  in  pros- 
perity can  we  expect  great  interest.  It  will  kill  off  cotnp'etition ;  for 
the  competitor  of  the  trust  must  itself  be  a  trust,  and  there  will' be 

484 


no  independent  field  from  which  to  recruit  the  means  to  create  such 
competition.  It  -will  discourage  still  further  the  wage-earners  in  any 
hope  of  becoming  part  owner,  and  thus  deepen  and  widen  the  existing 
gulf  between  capital  and  labour.  It  will  sap  to  its  foundation  the  real 
strength  of  government;  for  government  must  be  built  on  the  inter- 
ests, as  well  as  the  affections  of  the  people  governed.  An  industrial 
system  subject  to  such  indictment  is  a  rising  menace  to  free  govern- 
ment itself/  " 

We  have  now  to  consider  a  most  important  industrial  effect  of  the 
trusts.  Monopolising,  as  each  one  does,  the  whole  or  a  large  part  of 
its  particular  industry  and  being  hedged  about  by  special  privileges 
which -make  successful  competition  a  practical  impossibility,  they  are 
able  so  to  control  the  labour  market  that  the  employe,  unless  backed 
by  a  powerful  organisation  of  fellow  labourers,  is  absolutely  at  their 
mercy.  We  have  seen  how  the  system  turned  anarchist  in  Colorado 
and  fomented  discord  until  they  made  the  mining  districts  social 
infernos  unworthy  a  place  in  any  community  calling  itself  civilised. 
We  are  now  told  that  America  is  making  place  for  the  mounted  Cos- 
sack, so-called,  to  be  used  for  the  suppression  of  strikes.  Regarding 
this  we  quote  the  following  from  a  Western  paper :  "  It  has  come 
at  last ! 

"Russian  military  methods  introduced  into  the  United  States  to 
keep  the  workingman  in  subjection  and  suppress  any  demonstration  of 
a  desire  for  freedom ! 

"  In  anticipation  of  a  coal  miners'  strike  in  Pennsylvania,  the  state 
authorities  have  provided  mounted  troops  —  a  special  new  military 
force,  called  '  Pennsylvania  Cossacks,'  armed  with  clubs  and  Colts 
revolvers  —  and  stationed  them  in  both  the  bituminous  and  the  anthra- 
cite territories.  Photographs  of  these  mounted  police,  reproduced  in 
the  daily  press,  show  their  uniform  to  closely  resemble  that  of  the 
Russian  Cossack,  the  cap  being  almost  identical. 

"  At  present  these  troops  number  only  200,  but  then  the  force  is  as 
yet  only  on  a  *  peace  footing'  and  can  in  time  of  'war' — that  is, 
in  the  event  of  a  strike  —  immediately  be  increased  sufficiently  to 
serve  the  purposes  of  the  operators  and  at  the  same  time  prove  a 
serious  addition  to  the  burden  under  which  the  Pennsylvania  work- 
man already  is  staggering  with  bended  back."  .  .  . 

"  Just  why  these  American  Cossacks  should  be  equipped  with  clubs 
instead  of  the  regulation  knout  is  not  clear,  unless  it  is  that  the 
knout  is  not  fatal  in  its  effect,  excepting  it  be  persistently  applied, 
whereas  a  striker  may  be  instantly  killed  by  a  skillful  blow  from  a 
heavy  club." 

Considering  the  question  of  labour  unions,  "The  Philistine"  of 
January,  1906,  says:  "There  are  a  million  and  a  half  men  in 
America  paying  dues  in  Labour  Unions. 

"There  are  eight  thousand  paid  Walking  Delegates  or  Business 
Agents,  who  look  to  the  labourers  for  support. 

"A  million  dollars  a  year  is  paid  to  organisers,  the  money  being 
paid  by  the  labourers."  .  .  . 

"HENRY  GEORGE,  one  of  the  sanest  men  that  America  or  any 
other  country  has  ever  produced,  a  workingman,  and  for  many  years 

485 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

a  member  of  a  union,  and  the  Labour  Union  candidate  for  Mayor  of 
New  York  in  1886,  says  in  his  *  Open  Letter  to  Pope  Leo  XIII.' : 
*  While  within  narrow  lines  trades  unionism  promotes  the  idea  of 
the  mutuality  of  interests,  and  often  helps  to  raise  courage  and  further 
political  education,  and  while  it  has  enabled  limited  bodies  of  work- 
ingmen  to  improve  somewhat  their  condition,  and  gain,  as  it  were, 
breathing  space,  yet  it  takes  no  note  of  the  general  causes  that  deter- 
mine the  conditions  of  labour,  and  strives  for  the  elevation  of  only 
a  small  part  of  the  great  body  by  means  that  cannot  help  the  rest. 
Aiming  at  the  restriction  of  competition  —  the  limitation  of  the  right 
to  labour  —  its  methods  are  like  those  of  the  army,  which  even  in  a 
righteous  cause  are  subversive  of  liberty  and  liable  to  abuse,  while 
its  weapon,  the  strike,  is  destructive  in  its  nature,  both  to  combatants 
and  non-combatants.  To  apply  the  principle  of  trade  unions  to  all 
industry,  as  some  dream  of  doing,  would  be  to  enthrall  men  in  a 
caste  system.  Union  methods  are  superficial  in  proposing  forcibly  to 
restrain  overwork  while  utterly  ignoring  its  cause,  and  the  sting  of 
poverty  that  forces  human  beings  to  it." 

Continuing,  Mr.  Hubbard  says,  regarding  the  various  schemes  which 
have  been  used  against  Labour  Unions :  "  The  question  of  how  to 
dilute  the  danger  of  unionism  to  a  point  of  safety  has  been  taken  up 
by  various  men  in  various  ways.  But  the  most  practical  plan,  I  be- 
lieve, that  has  so  far  been  devised,  has  been  worked  out  by  J.  K. 
Turner  of  Cleveland.  At  least  Turner  has  come  closer  to  the  trick 
than  any  one  else  so  far."  .  .  . 

"  Now  Turner,  I  imagine,  is  no  more  unselfish  than  the  rest  of  us. 
He  simply  saw  his  chance  —  an  idea  came  to  him !  It  was  this :  all 
labourers  should  be  capitalists,  and  would  if  they  could. 

"  Turner  turned  capitalist.     Farley  wins  by  force  and  defiance. 

"  Col.  Job,  of  Chicago,  imported  a  cargo  of  big  negroes  and  marched 
them  thru  the  streets  in  a  phalanx,  armed  with  clubs. 

"Pinkerton  supplies  men  with  Winchester  rifles,  flat-nosed  bul- 
lets, and  smokeless  powder. 

"  Turner  wins  by  a  peaceful,  subtle  influence.  He  has  a  thousand 
or  more  strike  breakers ;  none  are  armed ;  none  know  each  other ;  all 
are  union  men ;  all  can  talk  on  their  feet. 

"  They  do  two  things ;  use  their  influence  to  ward  off  strikes,  and 
report  to  headquarters  every  night  as  to  what  is  going  on  in  the  shop. 

"  Their  report  is  sent  to  Turner  at  Cleveland,  not  given  to  the  man 
in  whose  shop  they  work  —  with  him  they  are  strangers.  : 

"  Usually  when  the  question  of  a  strike  is  up  in  a  union,  two  or  three 
hot-headed  men  who  can  talk,  sway  and  stampede  the  rest. 

"  The  many  are  forced  into  a  strike  thru  fear  of  the  charge  of 
cowardice.  If  there  is  a  Turner  man  in  the  union  he  represents  the 
employer's  interests.  In  the  old  way  the  employer's  side  was  never 
presented,  neither  did  he  know  what  was  going  on  in  the  union  which 
was  made  up  of  his  own  workmen.  Now  he  knows  every  day  what 
occurred  the  day  before. 

"  The  old-time  detective  was  a  sleuth  on  the  outside.  The  Turner 
man  is  a  workman  on  the  inside  —  and  always  a  good  one.  This 
man  draws  two  salaries,  one  from  the  shop  where  he  works  and  one 

486 


COMMERCIAL  CENTRIPETALISM 

from  Turner.  In  point  of  intelligence,  the  Turner  man  is  superior 
to  the  average  union  man,  and  often  he  dominates  the  union  councils, 
no  one  present  ever  imagining  who  he  is.  His  card  is  straight,  his 
record  good. 

"  Very  naturally  the  question  comes  up,  '  How  is  any  one  to  know 
whether  a  Turner  man  is  loyal  to  Turner  or  the  Union1? ' 

"  And  the  answer  is,  that  there  are  always  more  than  one  Turner 
man  in  a  place,  and  they  spy  on  each  other.  Then  the  interests  of 
the  Turner  man  demands  that  he  shall  be  true  to  Turner  —  other- 
wise he  loses  his  salary  from  Turner. 

"  How  does  Turner  secure  his  men  ?  The  answer  is  easy.  His  own 
men  are  always  giving  reports  on  the  men  who  sway  unions.  These 
men  can  usually  be  hired.  That  is,  the  strong  workman,  whenever 
he  sees  he  can  make  more  by  working  for  the  'boss/  will  work  for 
the  '  boss '  and  let  the  union  slide. 

"  He  gets  his  regular  wages,  holds  his  job,  and"  receives  his  bonus 
from  Turner  each  month." 

We  trust  the  Eeader  will  not  miss  the  fact  that  this  so-called  best 
scheme  yet  planned  for  meeting  labour  troubles  is  founded  on  decep- 
tion, nourished  in  hypocrisy,  and  bears  its  fruit  in  treason.  In  this 
connexion  we  cannot  refrain  from  hazarding  the  suggestion  that,  if 
modern  commercialism  finds  it  necessary  to  its  own  life  to  use  such 
disreputable  makeshifts,  it  argues  that  there  is  something  wrong  with 
it;  that  it  has  outlived  its  morality  and  probably  its  usefulness  and 
that  the  sooner  it  dies  the  death  the  better  for  all  concerned,  not 
excepting  its  putrid  self. 

As  we  understand  the  Farley  system,  it  consists  in  maintaining  an 
organisation  of  skilled  workers  in  each  industry.  These  workers  are 
normally  distributed  throughout  the  various  shops  of  the  country  — 
that  is,  those  shops  whose  proprietors  are  numbered  among  Farley's 
subscribers.  The  men  are  at  all  times  subject  to  Farley's  orders.  He 
can  take  any  man  from  any  shop  and  send  him  where  he  pleases,  and 
the  employer  cannot  say  him  nay.  Suppose,  now,  a  strike  breaks  out 
in  the  Chicago  furniture  industry.  Farley  immediately  draws  one 
hundred,  two  hundred,  or  whatever  number  may  be  necessary  of  his 
skilled  men  from  the  various  furniture  factories  from  Maine  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  puts  them  into  Chicago  to  fill  the  strikers'  places.  They 
are  skilled  workmen  and  know  their  business  thoroughly.  As  soon 
as  they  have  succeeded  in  breaking  the  strike  they  are  again  redis- 
tributed. Whenever  Farley  sends  a  workman  to  one  of  his  subscrib- 
ing employers,  with  instructions  that  he  be  hired,  he  must  be  given 
work  whether  he  be  needed  or  not,  and  this  assurance  of  employment 
at  good  wage  on  the  part  of  the  labourer  is  sufficient  to  make  him 
anxious  to  become  a  part  of  the  Farley  system.  Another  way  of 
handling  labour  troubles  is  the  Pinkerton  method.  We  have  given 
so  many  illustrations  of  this  particular  kind  of  lawlessness  and  thug- 
gism  that  we  need  make  scarcely  more  than  passing  mention  of  it 
here.  In  brief,  the  favourite  method  is  this :  A  strike  occurs.  The 
strikers  ask  for  arbitration  of  their  differences.  The  employers  "  have 
nothing  to  arbitrate" — this  is  their  chronic  condition.  They  send 
for  the  Pinkertons,  and,  in  the  meantime,  they  call  loudly  for  sol- 

487 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION' 

diers.  Their  preference  is  for  Federal  troops,  and  if  they  can  make 
Washington  believe  the  mails  are  being  hindered  it  is  a  red-letter 
stroke  for  them.  In  passing,  one  cannot  refrain  from  calling  attention 
to  the  somewhat  recent  arrangement  of  transporting  mails  in  trolley 
cars  running  upon  street-railway  systems.  The  intelligent  Keader  will 
not  have  to  be  told  why  this  was  done.  But,  to  return, —  if  Federal 
troops  are  not  to  be  had  they  will  take  any  other  kind  of  troops  they 
can  get.  If  conditions  are  so  peaceable  that  the  employers  dare  not 
raise  the  cry  of  violence,  they  are  obliged  to  await  the  arrival  of  the 
Pinkertons,  confident  that  trouble  will  immediately  follow  their  ad- 
vent. This  is  invariably  the  case  for  two  reasons;  first,  the  quarter- 
ing of  such  thugs  upon  a  community  is  such  an  insult  to  the  American 
principle  that  there  are  usually  some  few  who  permit  their  protests 
to  assume  a  tangible  form,  and,  second,  for  the  reason  that  these 
thugs,  if  they  do  not  find  riotous  conditions,  at  once  set  about  to  make 
them.  If  soldiers  are  used  instead  of  Pinkertons  the  story  is  the 
same.  The  soldier  in  such  a  case  is  a  loafer  and  a  bully.  He  be- 
comes intoxicated  with  his  own  importance  and  the  sense  of  his  su- 
periority which  follows  as  the  result  of  the  brief  authority  with  which 
he  is  clothed.  Those  who  sympathise  with  the  strikers  are  not  apt  to 
take  him  seriously,  on  the  one  hand,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  to  com- 
port themselves  in  a  manner  which  tends  to  increase  his  self-respect. 
As  a  result  trouble  is  bound  to  follow.  We  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
the  strikers  are  never  in  fault,  for  such  would  be  wide  of  the  truth, 
but  we  do  mean  to  say  as  plainly  as  we  know  how,  that  nine  times 
out  of  ten  when  they  are  at  fault  it  is  the  result  of  an  individual, 
unpremeditated,  emotional  outburst,  in  short,  an  ordinary,  everyday 
misdemeanor  or  crime.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  employers 
themselves  are  at  fault,  it  is  more  often  than  not  a  case  of  cold- 
blooded conspiracy,  a  premeditated  and  carefully  carried-out  subver- 
sion of  justice  attained  through  deliberate  incitement  to  riot,  bribery 
of  the  courts  and  gross  misrepresentation  of  facts.  Eeader,  if  you 
think  this  an  overstatement  we  earnestly  ask  you  carefully  to  study 
the  Chicago  strike,  the  various  Pennsylvania  strikes,  the  Cripple  Creek 
outrages  and  last,  but  by  no  means  least,  the  Haywood-Moyer  con- 
spiracy,—  study  them  until  you  recognise  the  extreme  leniency,  the 
ultra-conservatism  of  the  above  indictment. 

With  the  above  strike  conditions  the  Public  is,  or  should  be,  thor- 
oughly conversant,  but  there  is  one  phase  of  the  matter  which  has  re- 
ceived but  scant  attention, —  capital  organised  to  further  its  own  in- 
terests, labour  organised  for  a  like  result.  Between  these  two  oppos- 
ing factions  have  been  many  battles  royal  fought  with  great  cost  alike 
to  the  victor  and  the  vanquished,  and  with  an  immensely  greater  sacri- 
fice on  the  part  of  the  ever-suffering  public.  The  struggle  still  con- 
tinues; in  many  cases  the  outcome  is  of  necessity  beyond  the  power 
of  either  side  to  determine;  only  one  factor  is  invariably  certain, 
namely,  the  public  will  lose.  Whether  employer  or  employed  wins 
out,  the  patient  public  is  severely  punished.  Under  such  conditions 
what  would  we  naturally  expect  from  a  priori  reasoning?  We  should 
expect  that  to  occur  which  already  has  begun  to  occur,  in  this  depart- 
ment of  human  activities,  as  it  has  occurred  time  and  again  through- 

488 


COMMERCIAL  CENTRIPETALISM 

out  history  in  other  departments,  namely,  that  the  combatants  should 
seek  some  means  of  avoiding  the  uncertain  and  expensive  conflict,  a 
means  whereby  they  should  join  forces  and  hunt  their  prey  in  com- 
mon. That  this  has  already  occurred  is  a  matter  of  history.  Again 
and  again  have  employer  and  employed,  both  well  organised,  joined 
their  forces  to  exploit  the  unorganised  consumer.  The  grave  menace 
which  inheres  in  this  ever-growing  recognition  on  the  part  of  labour 
and  employers'  unions,  that,  by  patching  up  their  differences,  joining 
their  forces,  and  presenting  to  the  public  a  solid  and  unwavering  front, 
they  can  both  get  more  for  themselves  out  of  the  public  than  they 
can  out  of  each  other,  can  not  be  exaggerated  in  importance.  In  his 
"Fate  of  the  Middle  Classes,"  Mr.  Walter  G.  Cooper,  Secretary  of 
the  Atlanta  Chamber  of  Commerce,  says:  "As  we  saw  during  the 
anthracite  strike,  the  consumer  is  between  the  upper  and  the  nether 
millstone. 

"  The  larger  concern  is  not  the  fate  of  one  class,  but  the  welfare 
of  all;  nevertheless,  injury  to  one  element  of  the  population  afflicts 
the  whole  community,  and  the  only  way  to  make  sure  of  the  general 
good  is  to  guard  the  interests  of  every  class  with  jealous  care. 

"  This  end  is  best  attained  when  each  class  realises  that  self-protec- 
tion is  the  best  protection,  self-help  the  best  help,  and  self-respect  the 
surest  guaranty  of  the  respect  of  others. 

"  In  nature  everything  but  dead  matter  is  organised,  and  organisa- 
tion is  the  method  which  self-help  and  self-protection  must  adopt. 

"  The  separate  organisation  of  the  different  members  of  society  is 
as  natural  as  the  separate  organisation  of  hand  and  brain.  Producers 
have  their  alignment  and  now  comes  the  consumer. 

"  No  class  has  a  monopoly  of  virtue,  but  each  has  its  critical  period 
and  that  time  has  arrived  for  the  middle  classes."  .  .  . 

"  Labour  and  capital  will  get  together,  just  as  surely  as  co-operation 
succeeds  conflict  in  every  phase  of  human  endeavour. 

"  Labour  and  capital,  shooting  at  each  other,  hit  the  consumer.  The 
consumer  is  on  the  firing  line  without  a  gun." 

Beferring  to  concrete  instances  in  which  Labour  and  Capital  joined 
forces  to  hunt  the  public  in  common,  Mr.  Cooper  says :  "  Now  comes 
a  new  kind  of  combination  in  which  labour  plays  an  important  part. 
Organised  labour  has  begun  to  league  itself  with  organised  capital. 
This  adds  a  new  factor  to  the  problem  and  contributes  a  new  element 
of  strength  to  the  institution  which  is  revolutionising  industry.  The 
world  has  concerned  itself  a  great  deal  about  the  abuse  of  power  by 
organised  labour  and  unified  capital,  but  no  one  seems  to  have  lost 
any  sleep  about  the  danger  that  is  sure  to  arise  from  the  well-nigh 
irresistible  power  which  the  union  of  these  organised  classes  will 
confer  upon  the  leader  who  is  powerful  enough  and  wise  enough  to 
command  such  an  army  of  industry. 

"  Following  is  an  extract  from  a  Chicago  dispatch  to  the  Associated 
Press,  on  June  15,  1905 : 

'John  C.  Driscoll  was  made  to-day  the  chief  witness  before  the 
grand  jury  and  recited  what  he  called  the  history  of  the  dealings  be- 
tween employers  and  union  labour.  Driscoll  told  how  the  coal  team- 
sters and  coal  team  owners  had  made  the  first  joint  trade  agreement, 

489 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

which  provided  that  the  owners  should  employ  only  members  of  the 
coal  teamsters'  union,  and  that  the  members  of  the  union  should  work 
for  no  employer  not  a  member  of  the  coal  team  owners'  association. 
The  effect  of  this  arrangement,  the  witness  declared,  was  to  force 
every  coal  waggon  owner  into  the  coal  team  owners'  association  and 
every  coal  waggon  driver  into  the  teamsters'  union.  The  owners  are 
behind  this  provision  that  barred  union  men  from  working  for  men 
not  members  of  the  association,  prevented  union  drivers  from  driving 
independent  coal  wagons,  and  raised  the  cartage  rates  of  coal  from 
30  to  50  cents  a  ton  for  short  hauls  and  to  as  high  as  $1  a  ton  for 
longer  hauls/ 

"  Similar  alliances  have  been  made  between  employers'  combinations 
and  the  trades  unions  of  New  York,  Chicago,  Detroit,  St.  Louis, 
Denver,  Atlanta  and  other  cities. 

"  The  United  States  Industrial  Commission  reports  a  case  in  which 
the  United  States  Government  was  mulcted  of  a  large  sum  in  the  con- 
struction of  a  public  building  at  Chicago.  Contractors  who  were 
members  of  the  double  combination  of  builders  and  trade  unions  put 
in  bids  for  the  construction  of  the  building  and  the  award  went  to 
the  lowest  bidder.  Apparently  everything  was  regular,  but  subse- 
quent events  made  dissension  in  the  combination  and  one  member 
turned  State's  evidence,  'so  to  speak,  on  the  others.  Evidence  before 
the  commission  showed  that  the  members  of  the  contractors'  combina- 
tion met  in  secret  and  submitted  to  each  other  the  estimates  they  had 
made  on  the  Government  building.  The  man  who  made  the  lowest 
estimate  was  conceded  to  have  won  and  he  was  accorded  the  right  to 
put  in  the  lowest  bid  and  secure  the  contract,  but  was  required  to 
add  twenty  per  cent,  to  his  original  estimate,  and  this  extra  sum  re- 
ceived from  the  Government  was  divided  among  the  other  contractors 
in  the  combination. 

"  An  attempt  to  mulct  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  in  the  same  man- 
ner was  discovered.  The  architect  rejected  the  bids  as  too  high  and 
members  of  the  combination  became  restless  because  they  believed  the 
restrictions  that  bound  them  were  injuring  their  business.  One  mem- 
ber put  in  a  straight  bid.  This  led  to  quarrels,  the  result  of  which 
was  the  discovery  of  the  methods  by  which  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment had  been  held  up. 

"A  curious  story  is  told  of  a  builders'  combination,  said  to  have 
existed  in  another  city,  which  adopted  the  average  price  as  the  one 
entitled  to  secure  the  contract.  Builders  in  the  combination  met 
secretly  and  submitted  their  bids  to  each  other  before  bidding  for 
the  investor.  All  the  estimates  were  added  together  and  the  average 
was  taken.  The  bid  nearest  the  average  was  the  winner  and  the  man 
who  made  it  was  allowed  to  put  in  the  lowest  bid  to  the  investor. 
His  lowest  bid  was  the  average,  plus  20  per  cent,  to  be  divided  among 
the  other  bidders. 

"  Since  the  Industrial  Commission  completed  its  report  New  York 
City  has  suffered  severely  from  a  combination  of  this  kind  in  the 
building  trades.  During  the  year  1904  the  newspapers  of  the  metrop- 
olis printed  a  great  deal  of  evidence  going  to  show  that  the  cost  of 
building  was  arbitrarily  increased  to  a  very  great  extent  by  the  es.- 

490 


COMMERCIAL  CENTRIPETALISM 

elusive  combinations  of  building  contractors  and  trades  unions.  In 
many  cases,  reported  by  the  Industrial  Commission,  the  double  com- 
binations were  soon  broken  up  by  internal  dissensions,  but  new  com- 
binations of  the  same  kind  keep  springing  up.  There  is  something 
persistent  in  this  new  institution,  just  as  there  is  in  the  simpler  form 
'of  combination  among  capitalists,  and  it  will  not  down  at  the  bidding 
of  the  courts.  In  Chicago,  where  Mr.  Driscoll  reports  such  an  ex- 
clusive alliance  between  the  employers  and  unions  of  the  teaming 
interests,  there  is  a  court  decision  little  more  than  a  year  old,  which 
holds  such  combinations  to  be  conspiracies  in  restraint  of  trade  and 
declares  the  guilty  parties  to  be  punishable  also  under  the  criminal 
law. 

"  As  yet  combinations  of  capital  and  labour  are  not  very  numerous, 
but  there  is  every  indication  that  they  will  be.  Nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  organised  labour  and  unified  capital  will  get  to- 
gether. Peace  follows  war  and  cooperation  succeeds  conflict  every- 
where. 

"  There  is  a  general  tendency  to  joint  agreements  between  organised 
labour  and  organised  capital.  It  is  a  little  slow,  but  progress  is 
steady  in  this  direction." 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  the  story  does  not  end  with 
the  employer  and  the  employe.  The  public  has  something  to  say, 
and  just  as  surely  as  the  sun  rises  it  will  be  forced  in  some  way  to 
enter  the  arena  and  to  fight  for  its  very  existence.  It  needs  not  to  be 
said  that,  whatever  way  be  adopted,  if  it  is  to  be  successful,  organisa- 
tion will  be  a  part  of  it.  How  shall  it  be  organised  ?  It  must  be  or- 
ganised not  upon  a  basis  of  defiant  sufficiency,  but  upon  one  of  absolute 
justice;  a  basis  which  gives  to  every  labourer  the  full  product  of  his 
labour  expressed  in  any  commodity  within  the  entire  circle  of  ex- 
change. There  may  be  several  ways  of  bringing  about  this  great 
consummation.  We  cannot  say.  We  can  only  say  that  we  ourselves 
know  of  but  one,  and  that  one  is  known  as  Gillette's  Social  Eedemp- 
tion.* 

*  For  a  brief  description  of  the  Gillette  System  see  Appendix  "  A." 


491 


CHAPTER  III 
DEBASEMENT    OF    COMMODITIES 


TO  THE  PURE  ALL  FOOD  IS  PURE. 

Wallace  Irioin. 

Congressman  Snide  was  the  Gentleman  Jo 
Of  the  National  Pure  Food  Adulterant  Co., 
A  strenuous  patriot,  giving  his  powers 
To  the  health  of  this  glorious  country  of  ours, 

And  many's  the  job  he 

Conspired  in  the  Lobby 
Old  laws  to  make  new  and  new  laws  to  provide  — 

Wood  alcohol  brandy 

And  aniline  candy 

E'er  found  a  warm  friend  in  Congressman  Snide. 
( Said  General  Sneck,  '  His  great  wisdom  and  tact 
Is  shown  in  the  famous  Snide  Substitute  Act.') 

No  business  man  with  a  Food  to  maintain 
E'er  called  on  that  scientist-statesman  in.. vain;. 
With  stocks  and  retainer-fees  bulging  his  coat, 
The  stronger  the  Poison  the  stronger  his  vote. 

For  he  said,  '  What's  the  pleasure 

In  killin'  a  measure 
Because  it  protects  indigestible  grub? 

Why  try  to  defeat  it? 

We  don't  have  to  eat  it  — 
It's  only  the  Public  that's  gittin'  the  nub.' 
(Said  Senator  Grabb,  in  a  manner  polite, 
'  Unless  you  are  wrong  you  are  certainly  right.') 

If  a  chemist  came  out  with  a  statement  to  show 
Gross  fraud  in  the  Pure  Food  Adulterant  Co., 
Then  Congressman  Snide  could  his  chemist  procure 
To  prove  that  his  product  was  '  perfectly  pure.' 
'  For  I  place  great  reliance 

In  subsidised  science,' 
Said  Congressman  Snide,  '  when  it  comes  to  a  pinch; 

When  you  hire  a  Professor 

To  act  as  your  guesser, 

To  the  Pure  any  poison  is  Pure  —  that's  a  cinch! ' 

(Said  Congressman  Coin,  with  a  jerk  of  his  thumb, 

'  Them  facts  what  you  state  is  convincin'  to  some.') 


494 


When  families  died  after  eating  canned  jam, 
Or  hospitals  groaned  with  the  victims  of  ham, 
Then  Congressman  Snide,  being  Graft-on-the-spot, 
Was  there  with  the  Coroner,  likely  as  not, 

To  prove  tonsilitis, 

La  grippe,  meningitis, 
Had  brought  the  poor  victims  to  sudden  demise, 

While  soft  applications 

Of  friendly  donations 

Bought  silent  consent  from  the  willing  and  wise. 
(Said  Senator  Hush,  as  he  counted  the  dead, 
'  There's  nothin'  so  fatal  as  cold-in-the-head.') 

'  For  food-education  has  long  been  my  hobby,' 

Said  Snide  as  the  House  was  convened  —  in  the  Lobby  - 
'  I'll  teach  that  there  Public  the  things  what  they  need 
If  I  murder  'em  all  to  accomplish  the  deed! 
The  heart,  lungs  and  thorax 
Need  brick-dust  and  borax  — 

A  fact  which  perhaps  them  there  organs  don't  know  — 
I'm  killin'  folks  off  at 
A  nominal  profit 

For  me  and  the  Pure  Food  Adulterant  Co.' 
( Said  Congressman  Leech,  '  It's  inspirin  '  to  feel 
That  feller's  onselfish  and  lofty  Ideel!  ') 


495 


CHAPTER  III 
DEBASEMENT   OF    COMMODITIES 


E  live  in  the  beginning  of  the  20th  century,  and, 
although  all  progress  moves  in  cycles  and  history  has 
the  habit  of  repeating  itself,  it  is  doubtful  if  there 
has  ever  been  a  time  when  the  inhabitants  of  this 
planet  have  had  a  better  command  of  wealth-produc- 
ing engines.  If  civilisation  could  be  gaged  by  the 
multitudinous  variety  of  wealth  produced  for  the  gratification  of 
human  needs,  we  might  easily  claim  to  be  the  most  civilised  genera- 
tion thus  far  produced.  We  cannot,  of  course,  equal  the  sculpture 
of  the  Phidian  epoch,  nor  are  our  orators  worthy  to  rank  beside  those 
to  whom  the  ancients  listened.  Our  architecture,  too,  in  many  re- 
spects falls  short  of  the  masterpieces  of  the  ancients.  We  have  no 
poets  to  compare  with  Homer  and  Shakespeare.  The  Moors  of  Spain, 
who  piped  the  perfume  of  flowers  from  the  country  to  the  city  and 
to  whom  the  banquet  was  a  feast  of  reason  and  a  flow  of  soul,  at  which 
wine  was  displaced  by  science,  poetry  and  art,  reached  a  height  of 
refinement  to  which  Christians  have  never  attained,  but  it  has  re- 
mained for  our  age  to  put  the  capital  upon  the  column  of  material 
progress. 

In  his  great  lecture  on.  "  The  Lost  Arts,"  Wendell  Phillips  voices 
more  than  a  hint  that  the  modern  is  rediscovering  many  things  which 
the  ancients  knew  and  forgot,  when  history  was  young  or  even  un- 
born. Be  that  as  it  may,  we  may  certainly  claim  to  have  shown  re- 
markable progress  in  the  manner  of  administering  to  human  needs. 
We  talk  hundreds  of  miles  over  a  wire.  We  flash  intelligence  through 
cables  under  the  sea  thousands  of  miles  with  the  rapidity  of  thought. 
Yes,  more;  we  send  our  messages  thousands  of  miles  through  the  air 
without  wires,  and  we  are  just  discovering  how  to  send  them  through 
the  earth  in  the  same  way.  We  can  record  the  voice  of  a  great  actor 
at  the  same  time  that  we  register  the  movements  accompanying  his 
words.  The  phonograph  is  old,  the  kinetoscope  is  trite,  the  telegra- 
phone  is  an  accomplished  fact.  We  can  travel  a  mile  by  rail  in  32 
seconds.  We  can  go  from  Queenstown  to  New  York  in  less  than 
5%  days.  Aerial  navigation  now  threatens  almost  daily  to  make  all 
these  records  things  of  the  snail-like  past.  Our  Luther  Burbanks, 
by  a  sort  of  practical  Darwinism,  now  creates  new  plant-life,  new 
roots,  nuts,  fruits,  grains,  grasses  and  flowers.  We  have  the  plum-cot, 
an  absolutely  new  fruit,  the  spineless  cactus,  the  thin-shelled  walnut, 
stoneless  plum,  and  a  seedless,  coreless  and  therefore  wormless  apple. 
In  chemistry  we  are  justifying  the  dream  of  the  alchemist,  for  we 
have  learned  to  transmute  the  elements.  We  have  ascertained  that 

496 


DEBASEMENT   OF   COMMODITIES 

Uranium  is  breaking  down  into  Radium,  and  .Radium  into  Helium, 
thus  undergoing'a  degeneration  of  energy.  We  are  discovering  new  ele- 
ments constantly  and  there  is  an  ever-present  feeling  in  the  scientific 
subconsciousness  that  we  are  on  the  verge  of  some  wonderful  and  far- 
reaching  generalisation.  We  have  learned  to  fertilise  by  bacteria, 
and  have  long  known  several  other  important  uses  for  these  minute 
organisims.*  After  many  years  of  hazardous  and  death-dealing  search 
to  discover  the  North  West  Passage,  a  ship  has  recently  sailed  through 
it,  and  we  are  so  cloyed  with  wonders  that  the  scientific  pulse  scarcely 
adds  a  beat  to  its  normal  rhythm.  The  marvels  of  the  X-Ray  have 
ceased  to  stir  us,  and  we  expect  at  any  moment  to  discover  the  precise 
form  of  that  energy  which  we  call  thought.  We  manufacture  count- 
less valuable  articles  out  of  what  were  formerly  waste  products.  Our 
applied  chemistry  has  made  the  coal  man  and  the  doctor  first  cousins, 
for  many  of  our  modern  medicines  are  coal-tar  products,  as  are  also 
some  of  our  finest  dyes.  We  even  reproduce  activities  so  closely  like 
those  of  primitive  life-forms  that  it  is  still  an  open  question  whether 
or  not  these  radiobes  are  less  than  living,  being  certainly  more  than 
crystalline.  In  the  science  of  sociology  we  have  made  but  little  head- 
way and  have  small  cause  to  boast.  The  ghost  of  superstition  has 
been  driven  back  into  the  darkest,  bat-haunted  corners  of  the  human 
intellect.  In  all  this  there  is  no  small  gratification,  but  despite  all 
this,  we  find  ourselves  to-day,  on  the  threshold  of  the  20th  century, 
the  victims  of  infamous  practices  which  would  not  be  tolerated  else- 
where to  a  like  degree  in  any  quarter  of  the  civilised  or  uncivilised 
globe.  As  a  nation  we  are  being  poisoned  three  times  a  day  for  365 
days  each  year  with .  an  extra  one  for  leap  year.  Of  all  classes  of 
victims  there  is  none  which  in  point  of  size  can  compare  for  a  mo- 
ment with  the  purchasing  class.  The  buyer  is  charged  for  one  thing 
and  given  another.  The  price  is  often  exorbitant,  the  quantity  dis- 
honest, the  quality  impure,  often  poisonous. 

In  "  Some  Ethical  Gains  Through  Legislation,"  by  Florence  Kelley, 
general  secretary  of  the  Consumers'  League,  the  author  says  :^  "  It 
would  seem  an  obvious  right  of  the  purchaser  that  the  food  which  he 
buys  at  the  price  asked  should  be  pure  and  clean;  that  the  garment 
purchased  of  an  entirely  reputable  dealer  should  be  free  from  poison- 
ous dyes,  vermin,  and  the  germs  of  disease;  and  that  both  food  and 
garments  should  leave  his  conscience  free  from  participation  in  the 
employment  of  young  children  or  of  sweaters'  victims. 

"Yet  these  seemingly  obvious  rights  were,  perhaps,  never  farther 
from  attainment  than  to-day,  in  the  opening  years  of  the  twentieth 
century.  Adulteration  of  foods  has  never,  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race,  been  carried  on  upon  a  scale  so  vast  as  at  present.  The  sweat- 
ing system  with  its  inevitable  accompaniment  of  filth  and  disease 
conveyed  in  the  product,  persists  and  increases  in  spite  of  sixty  years 
of  effort  of  the  philanthropists  and  the  needle-workers  to  check  it. 

"  The  oldest  recognised  legal  right  of  the  purchaser  is  to  have  his 
goods  as  they  are  represented.  To  sell  goods  under  false  pretences 

*As  we  go  to  press  it  is  reported  that  Sir  William  Crookes  has  suc- 
ceeded in  extracting  nitric  acid  from  the  atmosphere  by  a  process  likely 
to  "  revolutionise  the  nitrate  industry  and  the  world's  food  problem." 
32  497 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

has  long  been  an  offence  punishable  with  more  or  less  severity.  But 
of  late  this  right,  if  it  was  ever  widely  enforceable,  has  become  largely 
illusory.  In  the  vast  complications  of  modern  production  and  distri- 
bution, conditions  have  arisen  such  that  the  individual  purchaser  at 
the  moment  of  buying,  cannot  possibly  ascertain  for  himself  whether 
the  representation  of  the  seller  is  accurate  or  not.  The  rule  caveat 
empior  fails  when  the  purchaser  is  prevented  by  the  nature  of  the 
case  from  exercising  enlightened  care.  Thus  in  the  case  of  adulter- 
ated foods,  or  of  foods  exposed  to  filth  or  disease  in  the  course  of 
preparation,  and  in  the  case  of  garments  sewed  in  tenements,  the  pur- 
chaser is  at  the  mercy  of  the  producer  and  the  distributer,  and  is  de- 
barred from  exercising  care  in  these  respects  at  the  moment  of  pur- 
chasing. 

"  Not  only  may  a  department  store  advertise  with  impunity  in  a 
dozen  daily  newspapers  that  '  all  our  goods  are  made  in  our  own  fac- 
tory/ when  it  neither  owns  nor  controls  a  factory,  but  the  sales-clerks 
may  safely  reiterate  the  assurance  over  the  counter  in  regard  to  an  in- 
dividual garment  which,  in  truth,  was  finished  in  a  tenement  house  by 
a  bed-ridden  consumptive.  The  machinery  for  identification  is  so  im- 
perfect, the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  tracing  a  garment  are  so  many 
and  so  subtle,  that  the  law  has  no  more  terrors  for  a  mendacious 
sales-clerk  than  for  the  reckless  advertising  agent,  or  for  the  business 
office  of  those  daily  papers  which  thrive  upon  the  wholesale  mendacity 
of  retail  commerce/' 

For  a  department  store  to  sell  sweat-shop  goods  as  goods  "  made  in 
our  own  factory  "  would  seem  to  be  a  clear  case  of  obtaining  money 
under  false  pretences,  yet  there  seems  to  be  no  way  by  which  this 
abuse  can  be  corrected  by  law,  the  fact  of  the  matter  being  that  the 
legal  arm  is  growing  more  and  more  difficult  to  mobilise  in  the  public 
defence  and  easier  and  easier  to  use  by  the  privileged  classes  against 
the  people. 

In  another  portion  of  the  excellent  work  just  quoted  we  find  the 
following :  "  Because  the  germs  of  the  deadliest  diseases  are  not  dis- 
cernible by  the  eye,  because  they  have  no  conspicuous  and  offensive 
smell,  a  shopping  public  devoid  of  imagination  remains  easily  unaware 
of  their  presence  on  the  counters  of  reputable  merchants.  In  the 
same  way,  ices  and  sirups  coloured  in  tints  and  shades  unknown  to 
the  fruits  and  flowers  of  nature,  arouse  no  imaginative  wonder.  Peas 
of  brilliant  green  in  January,  corn  taken  as  yellow  from  the  can  in 
March  as  from  the  ear  in  July,  these  impossible  objects  are  credulously 
accepted  by  the  buying  multitude.  Why?  Because  it  prefers  not  to 
know  the  truth. 

"  Because  the  purchasing  public,  on  the  whole,  prefers  at  present  not 
to  know  the  facts,  we  are  all  in  danger  of  eating  aniline  dyes  in  to- 
matoes, jams,  jellies,  candies,  ices,  fruit  sirups,  flavouring  and  colour- 
ing extracts ;  and  salicylic  acid  in  our  canned  peas  and  other  vegetables 
which  we  insist  upon  having  preserved  of  midsummer  hue  at  mid- 
winter. We  wear  more  or  less  arsenic  in  our  print  goods  and  the 
germs  of  tuberculosis  and  of  countless  other  diseases  in  our  outer 
garments. 

"  A  physician  who  visits  among  the  poorest  of  the  poor  in  New  York 

498 


DEBASEMENT   OF   COMMODITIES 

City  recently  found  a  woman  in  the  last  stages  of  consumption,  mak- 
ing, as  she  lay  propped  among  her  pillows,  little  boxes  for  wedding 
cake,  licking  the  edges  to  moisten  the  gum  to  make  it  hold  together. 
The  teacher  of  a  class  of  defective  children  in  the  same  city,  while 
visiting  the  home  of  a  lad  whose  left  arm  and  right  hand  had  been 
amputated  by  reason  of  cancerous  growths,  found  the  father  suffering 
from  tuberculosis,  but  making  a  trivial  addition  to  the  family  income 
by  cracking  walnuts  (for  which  he  was  paid  seven  cents  a  pound  if  no 
kernels  were  broken  and  three  cents  a  pound  if  his  work  was  im- 
perfect). The  father  complained  that  he  lost  much  time  in  fetching 
and  carrying  the  nuts  and  kernels  between  the  store  and  his  home, 
and  could  crack  but  fifteen  pounds  in  three  days. 

"  The  individual  purchaser  would  doubtless  prefer  to  eat  nuts 
cracked  in  a  workroom  not  frequented  by  a  father  afflicted  with  tuber- 
culosis and  little  son  mutilated  by  the  ravages  of  cancer.  The  in- 
dividual has,  however,  at  present  no  method  of  enforcing  this  reason- 
able preference/'  .  .  . 

"  The  privilege  of  remaining  thus  unintelligent  costs  the  shopping 
public  uncounted  thousands  of  lives  and  other  uncounted  thousands  of 
invalids.  But  it  is  a  privilege  dear  to  modern  crowds."  .  .  . 

"  Why  all  these  queer  mendacities  ?  Because  the  purchasing  public 
will  have  it  so !  Because  the  number  is  still  sadly  small  of  those  who 
perceive  the  duty  to  know  their  sources  of  supply  and  assert  their 
right  to  know  them ;  who  are  willing  to  sacrifice  that  deadly  privilege 
of  remaining  ignorant,  which  the  careless  majority  exercise  at  frightful 
cost  of  disease  spread  among  innocent  families,  and  of  poverty,  illness 
and  death  among  the  workers.  The  willingly  ignorant  purchaser 
carries  a  heavy  share  of  the  guilt  of  the  exploiting  manufacturer  and 
the  adulterating  distributer."  .  .  . 

"  Among  all  the  cherished  forms  of  ignorance,  none  is  more  tena- 
cious than  that  of  the  prosperous  purchaser  able  and  willing  to  pay  for 
the  best  that  the  market  affords  and  convinced  that,  whatever  the  sor- 
rows of  purchasers  of  ready-to-wear  goods,  he  is  safe,  because  he  gets 
his  garments  only  of  the  merchant  tailor  and  pays  a  high  price  for 
the  assurance  that  they  are  made  up  under  conditions  which  guard 
him  against  disease,  and  enable  the  merchant  tailor  to  pay  the  working 
tailor  a  fair  price  for  his  labour.  But  this  customer  is  really  no  better 
off  than  the  well-instructed  club  woman  making  her  ineffectual  search 
for  righteously  made  ready-to-wear  goods  for  her  boys.  For  example, 
as  factory  inspector  of  Illinois,  the  writer  was  one  day  in  search  of  a 
cigarmaker  who  was  said  to  have  smallpox  in  his  family,  during  the 
terrible  epidemic  of  1894.  Quite  by  accident  a  tailor  was  discovered 
newly  moved  into  the  suspected  house,  and  not  yet  registered  with  the 
department  or  with  the  local  board  of  health.  In  this  tailor's  shop, 
which  was  his  dwelling,  there  was  a  case  of  smallpox.  In  the  same 
shop  there  was,  also,  a  very  good  overcoat,  such  as  gentlemen  were 
paying  from  sixty  to  seventy  dollars  for  in  that  year.  In  the  collar 
was  a  hang-up  'strap  bearing  the  name  of  a  merchant  tailor  m 
Helena  Montana.  Now,  that  merchant  tailor  had  had,  in  his  store 
window  in  Helena,  excellent  samples  of  cloth  from  which  the  customer 
had  ordered  his  coat.  The  Helena  tailor  had  taken  the  necessary 

499 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

measurements  and  had  telegraphed  them,  together  with  the  sample- 
number  of  the  cloth,  to  the  wholesale  house  in  Chicago,  of  which  he 
was  an  agent.  The  wholesaler  had  had  the  coat  cut  and  had  sent  it 
to  the  kitchen-tailor  in  whose  sickroom  in  an  infected  house  in  Chicago 
it  was  fortunately  discovered.  But  for  the  happy  accident  of  the 
finding  of  the  tailor  during  a  search  for  an  entirely  different  person, 
the  purchaser  in  Helena,  Montana,  would  surely  have  bought  smallpox 
germs  in  his  expensive  coat." 

To  such  an  extent  is  adulteration  carried  on  in  the  United  .States 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  purchase  any  commodities  with  the 
certainty  that  they  are  absolutely  pure.  Apropos  of  this  subject,  from 
the  "  New  York  Tribune  "  of  April  24,  1904,  we  quote  the  following: 
"  Fraud  has  been  detected  officially  in  more  than  3,000  samples  of 
food  and  articles  for  general  physical  use.  French  sardines,  caught 
off  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  Maine,  and  canned  salmon  with  apologies  to 
the  sword  fish,  Eussian  '  sturgeon  caviare '  collected  in  Delaware  Bay 
and  pure  imported  Lucca  oil  from  the  cotton  fields  of  Georgia,  etc., 
etc. 

"  Out  of  68  butter  samples  recently  examined  44  were  impure. 
More  than  $17,000,000  is  annually  extracted  from  poor  people's  pock- 
ets by  the  oleomargarine  swindle. 

"  Out  of  24  coffee  berry  samples  —  16  were  impure. 

"  Out  of  92  candy  samples  examined  by  Board  of  Health  18  were 
coloured  by  deadly  lead  chromate.  Out  of  41  cayenne  pepper  40  were 
bogus,  of  68  samples  of  molasses,  33  cases  contained  tin,  mustard  46  — 
26  adulterated, —  out  of  a  total  of  1,468,  542  were  impure. 

"  In  drugs  too  this  prevails.  The  recent  substitution  on  a  very  large 
scale  of  acetanilid,  a  dangerous  drug,  for  phenacetin,  which  is  prac- 
tically harmless  was  perpetrated  despite  the  fact  that  an  overdose  of 
acetanilid  means  death. 

"  More  than  90  per  cent,  of  the  local  meat  markets  were  using 
freezem,  preservaline  or  iceine  as  well  as  Bull  Meat  Flour.  The 
amount  of  borax  or  boracic  acid  employed  varied,  but  in  Hamburg 
steak  would  range  from  twenty  grains  to  forty-five  per  pound,  while 
the  medical  dose  is  from  nine  to  five  grains/' 

"  The  World's  Work  "  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  we  con- 
sume annually  $100,000,000  of  fraudulently  prepared  food.  How  far 
this  falls  short  of  the  facts  the  Eeader  will  be  able  to  estimate  for 
himself  after  perusing  this  chapter.  We  content  ourselves,  at  present, 
with  the  statement  that  a  single  trust  is  probably  accountable  for  a 
very  large  per  cent,  of  that  sum. 

In  "  Food  Materials  and  their  Adulterations,"  by  Ellen  H.  Bich- 
ards,  the  author  mentioned  the  following  foods  among  those  which 
are  frequently  adulterated. 

Baking  'Powder  Cream  of  Tartar  Tea 

Butter  Honey  Vinegar 

Cayenne  Pepper  Mustard  Flour 

Cheese  Pepper  Milk 

Cocoa  Spices 

Coffee  Sugar 

500 


DEBASEMENT   OF   COMMODITIES 

The  author  calls  attention  to  the  frequency  with  which  sulphuric 
and  muriatic  and  in  some  cases  nitric  acid  is  used  in  vinegar.  She 
points  out  in  the  case  of  sugar  that  marble  dust,  sand,  glucose  and 
ultramarine  are  often  found,  the  last  substance  being  left  in  from  the 
process  of  manufacture.  She  states  that  English  analysts  pronounce 
much  of  our  American  honey  entirely  artificial,  the  comb  being  made 
of  parafine  and  filled  with  glucose  sirup.  In  the  case  of  flour  she 
states  that  chalk  or  gypsum,  alum  and  copper  sulphate  are  sometimes 
used  as  adulterants,  though  she  believes  the  cheapness  of  wheat  pre- 
vents their  extensive  use  in  this  country.  She  quotes  the  following: 
r'The  dust  drawn  from  the  air,,  with  the  sweeping  from  the  boxes 
and  shafts,  is  saved  and  used  in  the  inferior  grades  of  flour/' 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Geo.  T.  Angell,  President  of  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals,  waged  an  active 
campaign  against  food  adulteration.  In  his  "Autobiographical 
Sketches  and  Personal  Eecollections  "  he  says :  "  During  some  time 
past,  my  attention  had  been  called  to  the  large  increase  of  crimes 
against  public  health  in  poisonous  and  dangerously  adulterated  articles 
of  food,  drink,  groceries,  drugs,  medicines,  poisonous  articles  of  orna- 
ment and  of  clothing,  arsenical  papers  and  wall-papers,  all  of  which 
seemed  to  be  sold  in  Massachusetts  without  hindrance." 

Eef  erring  to  his  work  against  adulteration,  Mr.  Angell  says :  "  I 
had  been  gathering,  as  before  appears,  a  vast  amount  of  evidence  of 
poisonous  and  dangerous  adulterations.  I  had  enough  to  fill  a  large 
volume;  and  I  was  determined  to  put  the  most  important  before  the 
public,  through  the  press,  as  widely  as  possible.  I  knew  that  I  should 
attack  large  amounts  of  capital,  and  probably  incur  misrepresentation 
and  abuse.  Nevertheless,  I  thought  it  a  duty. 

"  THE  WAR  ON  ADULTERATION." 

"  So  I  prepared,  with  great  care,  a  paper  entitled  '  Public  Health 
Associations/  in  which  I  condensed  the  most  startling  facts  I  had 
been  able  to  gather.  It  was  in  the  highest  degree  sensational.  I  in- 
tended it  should  be.  I  wanted  to  bring  on  a  war  of  discussion,  which 
should  wake  the  nation.  Yet  I  was  careful  to  state  only  what  I  could 
prove,  for  I  had  little  doubt  I  should  be  called  upon  to  do  it. 

"  I  stated  that  more  than  three  hundred  ignorant  and  uneducated 
persons  were  practising  medicine  in  Boston;  that  probably  half  the 
vinegar  sold  in  our  cities  was  rank  poison;  that  peppers  and  mustard 
were  adulterated  with  lead;  that  a  large  portion  of  our  pickles  were 
more  or  less  poisonous ;  also  many  of  our  flavouring-oils,  sirups,  jellies, 
and  preserved  fruits;  that  cocoa  and  chocolate  were  adulterated  with 
mineral  substances,  and  coffee-berries  had  been  moulded  out  of  chiccory 
and  other  substances ;  that  several  mills  in  New  England  were  grinding 
white  stone  into  fine  powder  of  three  grades,  called  soda,  sugar,  and 
Hour;  that  thousands  of  barrels  of  terra-alba  were  sold  in  our  cities 
every  year,  to  be  mixed  with  confectionary  and  other  sugar  products, 
also  with  baking-powders,  which  in  many  cases  contained  also  alum; 
that  it  was  estimated  by  a  medical  commission  of  the  Board  of  Health 
of  Boston,  that  over  a  million  and  a  half  gallons  of  water,  liable  to 

501 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

come  from  most  impure  and  dangerous  sources,  were  sold  in  our  city 
every  year,  mixed  with  milk,  for  which  nearly  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  money  was  annually  paid;  that  infant  mortality  was  about 
four  times  as  great  in  Boston  as  in  the  country,  and  that  I  had  reason 
to  believe  that  thousands  of  gallons  of  so-called  milk,  sold  in  Boston, 
did  not  contain  one  drop  of  the  genuine  article.  I  stated  the  enor- 
mous amounts  of  oleomargarine  butter  and  cheese  liable  to  come  from 
the  filthiest  fats  of  diseased  animals,  and  never  subjected  to  heat 
sufficient  to  kill  living  organisms  they  might  contain.  I  showed  the 
enormous  adulterations  of  wines,  liquors,  drugs,  and  medicines,  so 
that  physicians  could  not,  in  many  cases,  know  the  strength  of  their 
prescriptions.  I  gave  evidence  of  poisonous  qualities  of  tin  cans 
and  other  tin-ware ;  also  of  vast  amounts  of  arsenic  and  other  poisons 
used  in  articles  of  clothing,  ornament,  and  use,  particularly  in  coloured 
papers  and  wall-papers,  of  which  about  thirty-three  per  cent,  of  a 
wide  variety  of  colours  had  been  found  poisonous ;  and  I  devoted  con- 
siderable space  to  showing  that  sugars,  sirups,  and  molasses  were  dan- 
gerously adulterated. 

"  The  remedy  was  public  health  associations,  composed  of  influential 
citizens,  supported  by  voluntary  contributions,  and  employing  chem- 
ists, microscopists,  and  officers  that  could  not  be  bribed." 

Mr.  Angell  relates  how  he  read  his  paper  before  The  American 
Social  Science  Association  at  the  School  of  Technology,  how  it  was 
published  in  most  of  our  daily  papers  and  circulated  widely  all  over 
the  country.  This  done,  he  says  he  waited  calmly  for  the  storm  which 
he  knew  would  soon  break.  After  nine  days  there  came  a  reply  from 
a  Boston  chemist,  who  was  also  milk-inspector  of  a  Massachusetts  city. 
Concerning  this  episode  Mr.  Angell  continues :  "  He  asserted  that 
not  over  five  per  cent,  and  he  thought  not  over  three  per  cent,  of  the 
milk  of  Boston,  was  adulterated.  (Within  a  few  weeks  after,  it  was 
proved  that  he  himself  was  selling  receipts  to  milkmen  to  aid  them 
in  adulterating,  and  he  resigned  his  position  as  milk^inspector.)  He 
thought  there  was  less  adulteration  of  food  and  medicines  than  ever 
before;  that  the  existing  laws  were  ample, —  no  adulteration  of  teas 
in  this  country;  coffee  too  cheap  to  adulterate,  sugar  too  cheap  to 
adulterate  with  terra-alba.  If  a  buyer  didn't  know  that  he  was  eating 
oleomargarine,  then  it  was  good  enough  for  him.  Less  adulterations 
of  wines  and  liquors  than  ever  before;  adulterations  decreasing  every 
year.  He  didn't  know  of  any  such  article  as  artificial  milk  (subse- 
quently he  admitted  that  he  knew  it  was  used  in  Paris  during  the 
German  siege,  and  that  he  had  manufactured  it  in  his  own  office),  etc. 

"  Another  chemist  opened  his  batteries  by  declaring  that  there  were 
no  adulterated  sugars  in  this  country,  etc.  And  the  State  liquor-in- 
spector declared  that  the  wines  and  liquors  he  had  been  called  upon  to 
analyse  contained  'very  little  worse  than  water';  which  statement 
resulted,  curiously  enough,  in  the  introduction  of  a  bill  in  the  Legis- 
lature to  abolish  the  office,  inasmucl  as  it  was  not  worth  while  for 
the  State  to  pay  twenty-five  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  analysing  what 
was  'no  worse  than  water'  The  bill  did  not  pass;  but  the  salary 
was  reduced,  if  I  remember  rightly,  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars. 

502 


DEBASEMENT   OF   COMMODITIES 

"  TEN  DAYS  IN  '  BOSTON  HERALD.'  " 

"  The  battle  was  on  for  which  I  had  been  two  years  preparing.  I 
called  upon  the  leading  editor  of  the  '  Herald,'  and  told  him  that  I 
was  at  his  service;  and  for  ten  days,  through  the  columns  of  the 
'  Herald/  with  a  daily  circulation  of  considerably  over  a  hundred 
thousand,  I  put  in  the  evidence. 

"  The  first  day,  I  $took  milk  and  diseased  meats ;  the  second,  sugars 
and  candies;  the  third,  tea  and  coffee;  the  fourth,  oleomargarine  and 
tinware;  the  fifth,  vinegar,  pickles,  baking-powders,  mustard,  cocoa, 
cloves,  cinnamon,  ginger,  soothing-sirups;  the  sixth  and  seventh,  poi- 
sonous wall-papers,  snowing,  among  other  things,  that  the  Michigan 
State  Board  of  Health  had  prepared  a  book,  entitled  '  Shadows  from 
the  Watts  of  Death,'  containing  seventy-five  representative  samples  of 
these  poisonous  papers  of  various  colours,  and  had  caused  a  copy  to  be 
placed  in  every  important  public  library  of  the  State  as  a  warning 
to  the  people;  eighth,  glucose,  liquors,  drugs,  cosmetics,  poisonous 
toys,  cards,  and  other  poisonous  papers;  ninth,  lead  and  arsenic  in 
dress-goods,  and  a  great  variety  of  articles  of  dress,  ornament,  and 
common  use;  and,  tenth,  a  large  amount  of  general  evidence,  and  a 
plea  for  public-health  associations  and  organisations  to  remedy  this 
great  evil." 

In  the  "  Monthly  Bulletin  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Massa- 
chusetts "  for  March,  1906,  will  be  found  the  February  and  March 
monthly  reports  on  inspection  of  food  and  drugs.  From  the  February 
table  we  extract  the  following  interesting  facts:  Of  250  samples  of 
milk  tested  173  were  found  adulterated  or  otherwise  varying  from  the 
legal  standard,  77  only  were  of  good  quality.  Of  14  samples  of 
Hamburg  steak  4  violated  the  legal  standard.  Of  48  samples  of 
sausages  12  violated  the  legal  standard.  Of  14  samples  of  beer  and 
ale  6  violated  the  legal  standard.  Of  37  samples  of  drugs  12  violated 
the  legal  standard. 

In  the  March  table  out  of  14  samples  of  cream  6  violated  the  stand- 
ard. Out  of  281  samples  of  milk  164  violated  the  standard  and  only 
117  were  good.  Of  8  samples  of  catsup  and  table  sauces  7  were  illegal 
and  only  1  good.  Of  15  samples  of  ale  6  were  illegal.  Of  8  samples 
of  pickles  2  were  illegal.  During  the  month  of  February  31  convic- 
tions were  secured  for  selling  adulterated  food  and  drugs.  In  March 
the  number  was  42.  Of  10  samples  of  "  Evaporated  Cream  "  tested  in 
February  every  one  was  found  to  vary  from  the  legal  standard,  not 
being  cream  at  all  but  simply  ordinary  milk.  Yankee  Brand  Damson 
Preserves  were  reported  under  results  of  analysis  as  follows,  "  Large 
admixture  of  apple  stock,  coloured  with  coal-tar  dye  and  preserved 
with  benzoic  acid."  The  same  brand  of  Currant  Jelly,  "  Largely 
apple  stock  coloured  with  coal-tar  dye."  Jackson's  Standard  Extract 
of  Lemon,  ".05  per  cent,  lemon  oil."  One  two-thousandth  part  lemon 
oil!  Several  samples  of  ale  preserved  with  salicylic  acid.  One 
sample  of  cream  "preserved  with  formaldehyde.  One  sample  olive 
oil  "  consisted  entirely  of  cottonseed  oil." 

The  "  Boston  'Press  "  of  May  15,  1906,  contains  a  reference  to  a 
crusade  to  be  waged  by  the  State  Board  of  Health  against  the  paraf- 

503 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

fine  used  in  candy,  an  article  which  the  Health  officials  say  they  have 
always  met  with  vigourous  measures.  Dr.  Harrington  is  quoted  as 
saying,  "  Paraffine  is  one  of  the  things,  above  all  other  adulterations, 
that  we  aim  to  prohibit."  It  would  seem  from  this  that  the  Board 
of  Health  do  not  share  the  opinion  of  many  laymen  that  paraffine  is 
a  harmless  substance. 

Sausages  are  frequently  adulterated  with  potato-flour.  They  are 
treated  with  chemicals  to  remove  the  taints  of  the  meat  and  to  keep 
them  from  staleness,  and  they  are  dipped  in  a  chemical  bath  to  give 
them  the  proper  smoky  flavour.  Eeferring  to  this  use  of  potato-flour, 
a  recent  writer  says,  "  Why,  quite  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  in  for- 
eign countries  that  are  civilised,  it  was  made  a  crime  to  use  potato- 
flour  in  the  adulteration  of  human  food.  And  thousands  of  tons  are 
imported  to  this  country  and  used  in  the  manufacture  of  all  kinds 
of  sausages  —  a  penal  offence  in  every  country  save  the  United  States 
of  America!  The  sole  value  of  the  potato  as  food  is  the  starch  it 
contains,  and  this  is  removed  in  the  countries  of  the  old  world.  If 
there  be  any  alcohol  it  is  extracted,  and  the  absolutely  valueless  waste 
or  refuse  is  shipped  to  the  United  States.  The  foreigner  who  comes 
to  this  country  knows  the  rigour  of  the  law  in  his  own  land,  and  feels 
safe  in  the  use  of  foods  at  home.  '  Here  he  finds  what  purports  to 
be  animal  food  products  resembling  in  external  appearance  the  kinds 
he  has  always  eaten,  but  they  are  manufactured  of  unclean  meats, 
adulterated  with  potato-flour  that  is  devoid  of  nourishment,  while  the 
smoky  flavour  is  created  by  a  chemical  bath.  There  is  nothing  genu- 
ine about  the  sausages  except  the  gut  casings  in  which  they  are  stuffed, 
and  even  these  may  be  the  intestines  of  an  unclean  animal/* 

Regarding  the  adulteration  of  whisky,  we  quote  the  following  from 
the  "  London  Lancet  "  of  February  18,  1905 ;  "  The  Adulteration  of 
Whisky."  "  Dr.  H.  W.  Wiley,  chief  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Chemistry,  has  recently  stated  that  he  believes  at  least  85  per  cent,  of 
the  whisky  sold  over  the  bars  in  the  United  States  is  not  '  straight ' 
whisky.  He  states  that  it  is  a  compound,  made  of  neutral  spirit,  or 
alcohol,  artificially  coloured,  often  flavoured  with  artificial  essences 
and  sometimes  mixed  with  more  or  less  'straight'  whisky  to  give 
flavour.  The  remarks  of  Dr.  Wiley  on  the  adulteration  of  food  and 
whisky  have  given  rise  to  much  heart-searching  and  the  liquor  dealers 
have  been  endeavouring  to  minimise  as  far  as  possible  the  effect  of 
his  statements.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  adulteration  is 
conducted  on  a  wholesale  scale  in  the  United  States  and  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  the  Federal  and  States  Governments  may  take  cognisance 
of  the  matter  and  endeavour  to  check  the  evil  by  means  of  legislation." 

We  might  multiply  instances  to  an  indefinite  extent  to  show  the 
deleterious  materials  which  find  their  way,  not  only  into  food,  but 
into  numerous  other  articles  which  are  sold  to  the  innocent  purchaser 
for  good  money,  and  this  is  not  only  true  of  domestic  goods  but  also 
of  foreign  articles.  For  example,  Mr.  Robert  H.  Sherard  states  in 
his  "The  White  Slaves  of  England,"  that  large  quantities  of  pig- 
manure  are  annually  used  by  the  Leeds  tailoring-firms  for  sizing  their 
cloth. 

Lack  of  space  precludes  our  referring  to  but  one  or  two  of  the 

504 


DEBASEMENT   OF    COMMODITIES 

more  flagrant  abuses  along  these  lines.  In  no  department  of  food  do 
there  lurk  so  many  deadly  dangers  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  products 
of  our  large  packing-houses.  A  great  deal  has  recently  been  written 
upon  these  subjects  by  the  "  London  Lancet/'  Upton  Sinclair,  Charles 
Edward  Russell,  Herman  Hirschauer,  William  K.  Jaques,  M.  D., 
Thomas  H.  McKee,  Caroline  Hedger,  M.D.,  and  others.  The  things 
brought  to  light  by  these  writers  are  almost  impossible  of  belief,  but  it 
must  be  admitted,  however  much  the  confession  shame  us,  that  the 
substantiation  which  quickly  followed  a  denial  of  these  statements 
was  complete  and  unanswerable  and,  if  possible,  more  damnatory  than 
the  original  statements  themselves. 

Mr.  Hirschauer  is  "  A  practical  butcher,  with  forty  years  experience 
in  the  cattle  and  meat  business,  and  many  years  manager  of  a  cold- 
storage  beef  house  for  one  of  the  chief  packers  of  the  Trust."  In  his 
"  The  Dark  Side  of  the  Beef  Trust "  he  says :  "  Before  the  days  of 
the  Beef  Trust,  or  the  days  of  the  yellow  car,  or  the  days  of  the 
packing-house,  or  even  the  days  of  the  centralisation  of  the  slaughter- 
ing of  cattle  or  animals  to  be  used  by  the  human  family  as  food,  the 
local  butcher  kille'd  and  prepared  the  meats  sold  on  his  premises,  and 
his  patrons  were  reasonably  assured  that  the  products  placed  on  sale 
were  at  the  very  least  cut  from  stock  in  good  health  when  killed.  Old, 
crippled,  and  distempered  animals  were  killed  and  buried  on  the  farm 
or  ranch  or  in  the  timber,  anywhere  away  from  human  beings,  and 
there  was  never  a  thought  of  sending  them  to  the  market.  The  old 
Scriptural  injunction,  '  Whatsoever  is  sold  in  the  shambles,  that  eat/ 
was  upon  the  community  at  large,  and  woe  to  that  butcher  or  dealer 
who  even  handled  unclean  meats.  The  great  English  premier,  when 
asked  what  to  his  mind  was  the  most  convincing  argument  that  the 
Bible  was  really  all  that  was  claimed  for  it,  replied,  *  The  Jew/  As 
it  was  in  the  beginning,  so  through  the  long  years  of  the  ages  down  to 
the  present,  the  Jew  has  observed  the  laws,  at  least  concerning  the 
kosher  meat ;  and  to  this  day  the  Jew  who  believes  that  there  is  a  God 
in  Israel  will  not  eat  unclean  meat,  or  meat  that  has  not  passed  the 
inspection  of  a  chosen  man  who  closely  watches  all  the  processes  of 
killing  and  preparing  for  sale.  I  have  assisted  in  the  killing  of  nine 
beeves  before  one  was  found  that  would  pass  the  critical  inspection  of 
the  Jewish  rabbi  chosen  for  the  purpose  of  guarding  against  unclean 
meat.  What  became  of  the  first  eight?  They  were  turned  over  to 
the  Gentile  butchers  and  dealers,  and  it  is  but  fair  to  say  that  their 
carcasses  were  not  an  entire  dead  loss.  It  was  to  guard  against  dangers 
from  unhealthy  or  distempered  animals  being  used  for  food,  through 
the  lack  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  masses  of  the  people,  that 
inspection  was  first  made."  .  .  . 

"  And  the  pure-food  laws,  and  laws  prohibiting  the  adulteration  of 
foods,  do  not  seem  to  apply  to  the  giant  in  control  of  our  animal  foods ; 
no  more  do  the  laws  in  regard  to  commerce,  or  interstate  commerce, 
or  the  secret  combinations  to  systematically  rob  the  people  by  destroy- 
ing competition.  It  has  become  to  be  an  admitted  fact  that  there  are 
laws  for  the  poor  and  laws  for  the  rich;  that  the  laws  for  the  poor 
must  be  enforced  for  the  better  protection  of  society;  and  that  the 
laws  for  the  rich  are  not  meant  to  be  enforced,  but  that  the  common 

505 


GILLETTE'S  .SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

people  may  be  the  more  easily  blinded  while  the  bandit  of  the  trust  is 
collecting  the  levy. 

"  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  treat  of  the  Beef  Trust  as 
pertaining  to  its  organisation,  its  control  of  the  representatives  in 
Congress  or  State  Legislatures,  its  connexion  with  the  railroads  and 
other  common  carriers,  its  silencing  competition,  or  any  of  the  features 
that  come  along  at  the  head  of  the  procession  in  the  grand  parade ;  or, 
when  an  investigation  is  ordered  by  Congress  or  State  Legislature,  to 
follow  the  band  in  the  tour  of  inspection  through  the  model  offices, 
and  perfect  cold-storage  rooms  filled  with  great  sides  of  choice  beef 
bearing  the  tag  of  inspection  by  Government  officials;  but  rather  to 
warn  the  people  as  to  the  dangers  lurking  in  the  food  which  the  Beef 
Trust  says  we  must  eat  or  starve.  It  is  to  give  the  people  the  courage 
and  strength  to  accept  the  warning,  and  point  the  way  to  a  solution 
of  the  problem  that  means  the  ruin  of  the  people  unless  the  people 
rise  in  their  might  and  tear  away  the  barriers  being  erected  against 
their  health  and  happiness.  It  is  rather  to  '  take  off  the  lid '  and  let 
the  people  see  what  goes  into  the  ready-to-eat  foods  in  tins  and 
sausages  of  every  variety,  as  well  as  the  character  of  some  of  the  meats 
that  are  paraded  as  dressed  beef  and  carcass  meats,  and  the  various 
products  of  all  animals  purchased  and  slaughtered  by  the  Beef  Trust 
in  its  great  packing-houses.  It  is  to  educate  the  masses,  the  common 
people,  the  people  who  make  up  the  strata  of  every  community,  and 
by  brawn  and  muscle  produce  the  wealth  of  the  country  by  daily  toil, 
as  to  the  aims  and  purposes  of  the  Beef  Trust,  and  the  means  and 
measures  resorted  to  by  the  Beef  Trust  to  force  the  people  to  consume 
its  products  or  none." 

Beferring  to  the  results  of  trust  economy,  the  author  says :  "  And 
in  the  practise  of  economy  by  centralisation  there  has  come  into  being 
what  is  called  the  '  Canner/  an  animal  which  is  now  made  over  into 
one  of  the  chief  products  of  the  great  packing-houses  of  the  Beef 
Trust.  In  the  days  when  the  cattle  were  killed  in  the  communities 
where  the  meats  were  sold,  the  '  Canner '  was  unknown.  The  old, 
crippled,  and  distempered  cattle  were  killed  and  buried  in  out-of-the- 
way  places.  And  the  health  of  the  community  was  never  put  in  jeop- 
ardy by  the  sale  of  either  unclean  or  unpalatable  meats,  and  death, 
diseases  and  disorders  directly  traceable  to  putrefied  meats  were  com- 
paratively unknown.  These  low-grade  cattle  are  picked  up  in  every 
community,  and  either  shipped  direct  to  packing-houses  or  sold 
through  the  stock-yards ;  and  the  records  of  the  stock-yards  show  that 
the  packing-houses  buy  them  in  the  yards,  and  those  shipped  direct 
to  the  packing-houses  do  not  appear  in  the  records  of  the  stock-yards. 
The  Beef  Trust  buys  the  '  Canners/  but  the  products  of  the  '  Canners ' 
are  not  advertised  under  that  head.  The  Beef  Trust  buys  all  sorts  of 
domestic  animals  —  cattle,  sheep,  and  hogs,  and  no  questions  are 
asked  about  the  health  or  condition  of  any  one  animal.  And  the 
value  of  the  meats  and  of  the  manufactured  products  of  the  packing- 
houses of  Chicago  alone  for  the  year  1904  is  given  in  the  '  Year  Book ' 
of  the  live  stock  business  as:  Hogs  and  mutton,  ninety-nine  million 
dollars;  beef,  eighty-six  million  dollars;  butterine,  two  million  dol- 
lars ;  sausages,  ten  million  dollars ;  glue  and  fertilisers,  eight  million 

506 


DEBASEMENT   OF   COMMODITIES 

three  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars;  soap,  eleven  million 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars." 

Mr.  Hirschauer  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  animal  kingdom 
is  very  like  the  human  family  as  regards  health  and  disease.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  of  course,  the  human  family  is  itself  a  part  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  and  the  brute  and  the  human  are  closely  allied  in  all 
matters  pertaining  to  physical  well-being.  Speaking  of  the  change 
in  conditions  as  the  result  of  social  progress,  he  says :  "  As  our  civili- 
sation advanced,  man  cared  for  the  domesticated  animals,  and  when 
they  were  overcome  by  illness  or  disease,  learned  to  give  remedies  and 
attention  that  often  alleviated  suffering  and  effected  cures.  Now, 
under  the  modern  civilisation,  the  Beef  Trust  says:  Send  your  old, 
unclean,  crippled,  or  injured  animals  to  us  —  we  will  *  cure '  them, 
and  return  to  you  in  any  of  the  choice  products  of  the  great  packing- 
houses you  may  choose,  either  prime  tenderloins,  gilt-edged  corned 
beef,  dried  beef,  canned  meats,  butterine,  mince-meat,  extract  of  beef, 
fertiliser,  or  any  of  the  hundred  and  one  preparations  we  make,  and 
only  we  can  make,  that  we  may  elect  to  send  you,  at  our  price. 

"  As  there  are  strong,  healthy  men  and  women  and  children,  so  there 
are  strong  and  healthy  neat  cattle  and  other  domestic  animals ;  and  as 
there  are  weaklings  and  diseased  and  disordered  humans,  so  there 
are  domestic  animals  that  are  born  and  reared  subject  to  all  afflictions 
of  their  kind.  And  statistics  show  that  to  the  ills  of  the  human  family 
have  been  added  many  that  are  directly  traceable  to  contact  with  do- 
mestic animals  and  the  eating  of  animal  food.  During  the  late  Span- 
ish-American war,  quite  as  many  American  volunteers  died  from  eat- 
ing putrefied  meats  put  up  by  the  great  packing-houses  as  were  killed 
by  Spanish  bullets,  and  the  disorders  and  diseases  occasioned  by  eating 
embalmed  beef  and  unclean  meats  filled  more  beds  in  the  hospitals 
than  the  fevers  of  the  tropics."  .  .  . 

"  A  farmer  has  a  bull  that  has  become  unfit  for  breeding  on  ac- 
count of  injury,  age,  or  failure  of  service;  or  an  ox  that  has  been 
worked  until  his  usefulness  is  over ;  or  a  cow  that  from  some  distemper 
or  disorder  has  cast  her  calf  and  does  not  readily  regain  her  health ;  or 
a  cow  that,  owing  to  distemper  or  infirmity,  can  not  produce  her  keep 
from  milk  or  is  unprofitable  as  a  breeder ;  or  a  cow  that  from  some 
injury  or  disorder  taints  her  milk  so  that  it  can  not  be  mixed  with 
the  milk  of  the  herd ;  or  any  neat  animal  that  owing  to  cancers,  con- 
sumption, or  internal  disorders  can  not  assimilate  food  and  becomes 
poor  and  scrawny  and  feverish,  or  from  age  or  infirmity  can  not  chew 
the  cud,  or  has  a  lumpy  jaw,  or  sores  on  the  back  caused  by  fevers  or 
disorders,  or  caked  or  running  sores  on  the  udder.  It  would  be  hard 
work,  and  it  is  very  likely  anybody  but  a  practical  expert  would  fail, 
to  find  any  of  this  class  upon  the  hook  or  block  classed  as  prime.  But 
they  all  find  their  way  to  the  market.  The  local  buyer  will  take  any- 
thing that  can  walk,  'and  if  the  animal  is  too  feeble  to  walk,  and  the 
owner  will  haul  it  to  the  railroad  and  make  delivery  alive,  the  buyer 
will  offer  some  price." 

Eeferring  to  what  are  called  "  Canners  a  word  which  designates 
cattle  too  diseased  or  of  too  low  grade  to  be  sold  for  use  upon,  the 
block  he  says :  "  This  class  of  cattle,  the  '  Canners/  are  not  the  cattle 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

that  are  paraded  on  the  avenues;  they  are  not  the  animals  that  are 
entered  in  the  live  stock  exhibitions  for  the  inspection  of  visitors  from 
all  parts  of  the  country ;  they  are  not  the  animals  whose  likenesses  are 
produced  by  the  camera  and  the  pictures  sent  broadcast  over  all  the 
entire  world  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  every  people  the  meats  made 
and  put  up  by  the  great  packing-houses  of  the  United  States.  If 
perchance  it  becomes  necessary  to  drive  the  (  Canners '  on  the  hoof, 
they  are  routed  through  the  alleys  or  back  streets  or  driven  under  the 
cover  of  darkness.  The  '  Canners '  are  never  on  exhibition,  living  or 
dead,  for  they  go  in,  are  killed,  and  prepared  into  food  on  the  other 
side  of  the  partitions  from  the  great  show  rooms  of  the  packing- 
houses. There  are  no  pictures  taken  of  the  '  Canners ' ;  there  is  no 
extra  advertising  made  of  their  arrival  and  killing;  they  simply  arrive 
and  are  killed,  and  how  and  where  their  carcasses  are  disposed  of  is 
not  even  made  a  matter  of  record."  .  .  . 

"  If  the  animal  be  distempered  or  disordered,  then  the  killing  and 
placing  the  product  on  the  market  for  food  purposes  is  next  door  to  a 
crime.  Yet  this  is  done  by  the  wholesale  every  working-day  in  the 
year.  And  every  plan  is  resorted  to  in  order  that  as  much  of  the 
animal  or  the  carcass  may  be  saved  for  some  one  of  the  packing-house 
products  as  possible.  Nothing  is  wasted  or  thrown  aside  that  the 
greed  of  gain  will  allow  to  pass  into  the  food  supply. 

"  And  then  to  know  that  the  meats  of  animals,  killed  as  are  these, 
are  sold  the  world  over  as  food  for  humans !  To  know  that  the  heart, 
or  tongue,  or  liver  of  such  an  animal  may  be  placed  on  the  market  in 
the  community  in  which  we  live  for  sale  as  food !  To  know  that  the 
stomach  of  such  an  animal  may  be  exposed  for  our  inspection  as  a 
choice  piece  of  tripe !  To  know  that  the  guts  of  such  an  animal  may 
be  used  as  casings  for  our  breakfast  sausage !  To  know  that  the  dried 
beef  we  bought  for  luncheon  was  made  from  such  an  animal !  To 
know  that  the  choice  tenderloin  was  pulled  from  the  carcass  of  an 
animal  such  as  these !  To  know  that  the  tinned  beef  we  purchased  at 
the  grocery  was  made  from  such  ghastly  meat!  To  know  that  the 
extract  of  beef  so  many  use  and  that  has  come  into  such  favour  is  the 
boiling  down  of  juices  from  such  stock !  To  know  that  the  choice 
mince-meat  of  commerce  is  made  from  the  trimmings  of  such  car- 
casses, and  are  so  small  they  can't  be  used  for  other  purposes!  To 
know  that  there  are  men  engaged  in  the  killing  of  such  animals  who 
close  their  eyes  to  the  conditions  and  their  consciences  to  the  welfare 
of  their  fellowmen!  And  to  know  that  the  men  who  make  up  the 
Beef  Trust  are  the  instigators  of  all  this,  and,  that  they  may  possess 
themselves  of  gold,  are  willing  to  sacrifice  human  life  even  in  this 
wholesale  manufacture  of  unclean  and  unwholesome  meats  which  they 
put  upon  the  markets  as  food  products ! 

"  And  mind  you,  this  is  not  adulterated  food ;  far  from  it.  It  is  un- 
clean and  unwholesome  food,  nothing  more  or  less.  The  tag  on  the 
quarter  of  beef  on  the  hook  or  on  the  block  in  the  local  market  shows 
that  it  passed  the  inspection  of  an  official  appointed  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  .States.  What  sort  of  an  inspection  was  given  the 
killing  is  a  mere  matter  of  conjecture;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  inspection  of  the  carcass.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  inspection 

508 


DEBASEMENT    OF    COMMODITIES 

goes  no  further  than  the  carcass.  And  the  manufacture  of  the  food 
products  or  cut  meats  proceeds  under  the  direction  of  men  who  are 
employed  at  sufficient  salaries  to  quiet  any  unpleasantness.  And  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  adjourned  without  any  attention  being 
given  to  the  countless  petitions  that  the  food  laws  should  be  amended, 
and  that  animal  food  should  be  put  on  the  market  under  better  in- 
spection and  greater  restrictions.  Perhaps  it  might  be  nearer  the 
fact  to  say  that  Congress  did  not  adjourn  without  giving  the  question 
some  attention,  for  only  a  few  days  before  adjournment  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  by  little  less  than  a  unanimous  vote,  solemnly 
resolved  that  they  would  not  consider  any  pure-food  law  at  that  ses- 
sion. Why  ?  Does  the  Beef  Trust  ask  for  any  pure-food  laws  or  amend- 
ments to  existing  laws  ?  Does  the  Beef  Trust  give  any  law  any  atten- 
tion? Is  not  the  Beef  Trust  a  law  unto  itself?  And  if  the  Beef 
Trust  can  control  the  railroads,  and  the  Congress,  what  use  to  waste 
time  on  laws  ?  Is  it  not  better  to  educate  the  people  as  to  the  facts 
regarding  the  animal  food  supply  and  products,  and  then  trust  to 
the  native  good  sense  of  the  individual  that  he  will  refrain  from  the 
purchase  or  use  of  such  food  ?" 

Mr.  Hirschauer  states  that  the  tinned  and  canned  meats  of  the 
Trust  are  unhealthy  and  unwholesome,  and  asserts  that  the  manu- 
factured products  contain  little  or  no  nourishment,  and  he  further 
adds  that  even  the  meat  on  the  block  may  be  unwholesome.  He 
states  that  all  the  cold-storage  beef  houses  in  the  country  are  alike 
and  conducted  in  the  same  manner.  In  explanation  of  some  of  the 
methods  employed  he  says :  "  The  cold-storage  beef  house  is  only  a 
cool  room,  or  a  large  refrigerator.  The  local  market  has  been  slow, 
and  the  manager  of  the  Jamestown  Beef  Co.  has  been  unable  to  unload 
on  the  local  dealers,  all  the  meats  that  the  Beef  Trust  and  the  packing- 
house have  sent  to  him.  There  is  a  sudden  change  in  the  temperature, 
.and  the  meats  are  quickly  affected  thereby  —  they  should  have  been 
disposed  of  days  before,  but  the  demand  would  not  warrant  the  local 
dealer  increasing  his  supply.  The  quarters  become  slimy  and  stale. 
The  chemists  of  the  packing-houses  have  provided  against  such 
emeigencies,  and  with  the  chemicals  prepared  into  washes  and  powders 
furnished  him  for  use  in  such  cases,  the  manager  washes  and  dresses 
the  meats  on  hand,  not  with  the  idea  of  restoring  the  dead  meat  to 
life,  but  rather  to  arrest  the  natural  decay  until  he  can  unload  the  re- 
mains on  the  local  dealer,  and  so  avoid  the  expense  of  burial  and  re- 
tain his  position  and  the  salary  that  goes  with  his  employment.  The 
process  of  putrefaction  is  arrested  for  the  time  being,  and  the  manager 
visits  the  local  dealers  and  gets  their  assistance  by  prevailing  on  them 
to  take  just  a  little  more  meat  than  they  actually  want  at  that  par- 
ticular time;  they  can  make  up  some  nice  Hamburg  steaks  —  he  will 
give  some  preservative  powder  that  will  kill  the  taint  or  smell ;  or  if 
it  is  only  a  little  bad  on  the  outside  the  meat  cutter  can  trim  it  off 
and  let  the  one  who  buys  for  consumption  pay  the  regular  price  just 
the  same  as  though  the  meat  was  not  dead  and  quite  ready  for 
burial." 

In  treating  of  the  Beef  Trust  hog  the  author  says:  Think  of  the 
boneless  ham,  which  is  made  up  of  all  sorts  of  pieces  of  the  lean  pork 

509 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

and  stuffed  in  gut  casings !  And  the  California  hams,  that  are  nothing 
but  the  shoulders  of  the  low-grade  hogs,  with  all  the  meat  cut  away 
save  just  enough  to  hide  the  knuckle  joint,  and  are  sold  on  the  bar- 
gain counters  of  every  grocery  the  country  over  at  an  average  of  eight 
cents  the  pound,  and  which  would  be  dear  at  any  price!  And  the 
minced  ham,  put  up  in  gut  or  bladder  casings,  into  which  the  trim- 
mings from  shoulders  and  low-grade  pieces  are  mixed  with  a  little 
choice  *  Canner '  beef  to  give  it  the  proper  flavour !  And  the  hams 
with  the  bones  removed,  which  are  sold  both  cooked  and  pickled,  and 
are  the  shoulders  with  a  lean  piece  of  meat  inserted  to  fill  up  the 
place  occupied  by  the  bone!  And  the  prize  skinned  hams,  which  are 
the  hams  of  the  old  hogs,  and  whose  skin  is  so  heavy  and  coarse  that 
nobody  would  buy  such  looking  things,  but  as  a  new  feature  in  pack- 
ing-house products  the  skinned  ham  finds  a  ready  market!  What 
becomes  of  the  coarse  skin  or  rind  that  is  taken  off  the  ham  ?  Why, 
it  is  cooked,  chopped  fine,  and  is  quite  a  feature  in  the  headcheese 
product.  Don't  think  there  is  anything  lost  or  thrown  away  at  the 
packing-house !  It  is  a  trite  saying  in  the  trade  that  the  Beef  Trust 
has  even  saved  the  appetite  and  the  disposition  of  the  hog,  and  all  that 
is  lost  is  the  dying  squeal." 

Apropos  of  sheep  Mr.  Hirschauer  trenchantly  remarks :  "  It  is 
remarkable  that  the  Beef  Trust  sends  to  market  only  the  lambs,  very 
rarely  dealing  in  mutton.  In  the  sheep-grazing  states  of  the  West,  a 
buck  sheep  may  be  lost  in  the  mountain  wilds  ten  or  fifteen  years, 
and  grow  horns  a  yard  across,  but  if  he  ever  finds  his  way  to  the 
Beef  Trust,  and  is  a  subject  of  the  care  of  the  packing-house,  his 
last  and  farewell  appearance  before  the  public  will  be  in  the  character 
of  a  lamb.  In  the  local  market,  the  dealer,  who  is  very  seldom  a 
butcher,  and  rarely  knows  anything  at  all  about  meats,  catches  on  to 
the  situation  very  readily ;  and  if  he  Happens  to  be  a  tailor,  he  will  cut 
either  lamb  or  mutton  from  one  and  the  same  carcass  to  suit  the  re- 
quirements of  his  customer." 

In  his  chapter  upon  "  The  Indifference  of  Authorities  "  Mr.  Hirsch- 
auer treats  the  legislatures  of  the  several  States  and  the  United  States 
Senate  to  a  stinging  indictment  for  their  inefficiency,  their  cupidity 
and  their  treachery.  In  closing  he  says :  "  So  it  has  come  about 
that  the  Beef  Trust,  and  the  other  great  combinations  or  trusts,  by 
manipulation  and  intrigue  in  National  and  State  legislatures,  and 
relying  on  the  ignorance  of  the  people  regarding  the  mode  and  manner 
of  such  organisations,  have  gained  a  control  of  affairs  that  endangers 
the  very  structure  of  society.  Eelying  on  the  truth  of  the  old  adage 
that  '  Where  ignorance  is  bliss,  'tis  folly  to  be  wise,'  the  Beef  Trust 
laid  the  foundation  for  its  colossal  fortune  and  the  ultimate  absorp- 
tion of  the  entire  earnings  of  the  people.  Open  wide  the  books  of 
the  Beef  Trust,  tear  down  the  partitions  of  the  packing-houses,  so 
that  the  world  may  know  what  is  being  done  with  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  unclean  cattle  that  the  Beef  Trust  gathers  from  every 
community  in  the  country,  and  the  Lord  of  Creation  would  not  save 
the  Beef  Trust  from  the  wrath  of  an  outraged  and  indignant  people. 
If  these  United  States,  this  America,  be  a  government  of  the  people, 

510 


DEBASEMENT   OF   COMMODITIES 

by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  then  the  Beef  Trust  will  perish 
from  the  earth." 

Regarding  the  matter  of  inspection,  Mr.  Hirschauer  points  out  the 
physical  impossibility  of  the  inspector  rendering  efficient  service,  even 
though  he  were  desirous  of  so  doing.  Upon  this  subject  he  says: 
"  Of  the  Federal  bureau  of  inspection  maintained  at  the  Chicago  stock- 
yards, about  fifty  of  the  staff  are  classed  as  inspectors.  The  Govern- 
ment official  is  supposed  to  work  eight  hours  a  day.  For  the  week 
ending  April  1,  1905,  the  receipts  of  animals  at  the  Chicago  stock- 
yards was  295,900.  This  would  mean  that  each  inspector  must  ex- 
amine a  fraction  more  than  two  animals  each  minute  of  the  working 
hours  of  the  week."  .  .  . 

"  The  people  should  know  that  the  inspection  is  a  farce  except  as 
to  cattle  and  carcass  meats  for  export,  and  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States  are  compelled  to  eat  not  only  what  the  foreign  nations 
do  not  buy  but  what  they, will  not  allow  exported  to  their  countries." 


511 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    CRY   OF   THE    STOMACH 


33  513 


By  Heaven,  square  eaters,  more  meat  I  say! 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher. 

ATE   POISONED    SAUSAGE;    4   DEAD. 

FORT  SMITH,  Ark.,  June  19  — J.  B.  Barmore,  a  farmer  near  this  city, 
his  two  young  daughters,  and  baby  son  are  dead  in  Belle  Point  Hospital, 
poisoned  by  eating  bologna  sausage  at  supper  Thursday  night.  Mrs. 
Barmore,  who  ate  of  all  things  on  the  table  except  the  sausage,  was  not 
even  ill. 

The  sausage  was  the  ordinary  packing  house  kind  sold  by  meat  dealers. 

It  was  purchased  by  Barmore  out  of  the  original  stamped  package  from 
a  street  vender  of  luncheons.  The  time  that  elapsed  between  the  purchase 
of  the  sausage  and  the  fatal  termination  of  the  illness  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  authorities  to  locate  the  particular  box  in  which  the 
stuff  was  packed. 

News  Note,  Boston  American,  June  19,  '06. 

POISONED   BY  DRIED  BEEF. 

Iowa  City,  June  14. —  Mrs.  J.  C.  Loehr,  of  Lone  Tree,  narrowly  es- 
caped death  yesterday  by  poisoning  from  eating  dried  canned  beef. 
Prompt  medical  assistance  alone  saved  her  life. 

Why  should  not  the  packer  of  poisoned  food  be  put  in  a  penitentiary 
just  as  any  other  poisoner?  If  Armour's  embalmed  beef  augmented  the 
fatality  of  soldiers,  if  he  has  sold  chemically  poisoned  and  diseased  meats 
which  people  have  eaten,  why  is  not  he  many  thousands  of  times  a  cold- 
blooded murderer? 

Special  to  Times-Republican. 

SENATE  SURRENDERS  ON  MEAT  BILL. 

Washington,  June  30. —  Despite  bitter  protests  the  Senate  surrendered 
last  night  to  the  House  on  every  essential  point  on  the  meat  bill  and 
adopted  the  conference  report,  by  which  the  government  pays  the  cost 
of  inspection,  and  labels  on  canned  goods  are  to  be  undated. 

Boston  American,  June  80,  1906. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE   CRY   OF   THE    STOMACH 


HE  facts  presented  in  the  foregoing  chapter  do  not  rest 
upon  the  evidence  of  any  one  man.  Far  from  it.  The 
indictment  has  been  vouched  for  over  and  over  again. 
The  testimony  of  W.  K.  Jaques,  M.  D.,  who  was  form- 
erly at  the  head  of  the  meat  inspection  at  the  Chicago 
stock-yards,  is  all  to  the  same  effect.  In  his  article  en- 
titled "  A  Picture  of  Meat  Inspection/'  in  "  The  World's  Work  "  for 
May,  1906,  he  says :  "  Government  inspectors  are  employed  in  all  the 
packing  houses  that  export  beef,  and  usually  there  is  but  one  inspector 
on  duty  at  the  killing  beds  of  each  packing  house.  The  accuracy  and 
thoroughness  of  the  work  of  these  inspectors  can  be  judged  when  it  is 
estimated  that  from  1,600  to  2,200  cattle  are  often  killed  under  the 
eye  of  a  single  inspector  in  a  day  from  eight  to  ten  hours.  Walking 
back  and  forth  through  the  killing  beds,  the  inspector  can  give  only 
the  briefest  glance  at  the  animals  that  are  being  converted  into  food. 
In  this  glance  he  is  supposed  to  detect  evidences  of  disease  which 
pathologists  may  require  hours  to  find. 

"  The  government  employs  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  people. 
Of  these  about  fifty  are  skilled  animal  pathologists,  capable  of  inspect- 
ing meats.  There  have  been  received  at  the  stock-yards  in  a  single 
day  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  animals.  The  slaughter  of  fifty 
thousand  is  not  an  unusual  day's  work.  And  yet  the  packers  and 
government  inspectors  say  that  '  Every  animal  is  government  in- 
spected/ .  .  . 

"  During  the  first  month  in  which  I  was  City  Director,  one  meat 
inspector  made  only  one  condemnation  for  that  month,  and  that  of  an 
immature  calf.  Another  inspector  made  no  report  to  me  of  any  work 
done  during  my  entire  term  of  office,  and  I  was  powerless  to  compel 
him  to  do  so  because  of  his  political  backing.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  he  drew  his  salary  regularly. 

"  Still  another  meat  inspector  was  engaged  in  a  profitable  side-line 
of  buying  quarantined  beef  for  packers.  When  an  animal  was  sus- 
pected of  being  diseased,  it  was  quarantined  by  the  state  inspector. 
If  it  was  found  not  to  be  diseased  it  was  passed,  sold  at  auction,  and 
the  money  given  to  the  owner.  This  was  the  story  for  the  public  and 
seemed  satisfactory  until  I  found  that  the  bids  were  not  open  but 
made  in  writing  —  and  favoured  bidders  usually  got  the  meat.  The 
fact  that  meat  had  been  suspected  and  quarantined  was  sufficient  ex- 
cuse for  the  low  price  at  which  it  was  bid  off. 

"  Since  a  meat  inspector,  in  his  official  capacity,  could  ride  through 
the  stock-yards,  pick  out  the  finest  beef,  order  it  quarantined,  and 

515 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

have  it  killed,  bidding  it  in  for  about  half  price,  of  course,  his  services 
were  valuable  to  the  firm  employing  him. 

"  This  system  of  securing  bids  in  writing,  opened  only  by  the  '  ring ' 
is  still  in  existence.  The  unfortunate  owners  of  these  quarantined  ani- 
mals, which  might  be  as  fine  beef  as  ever  came  into  the  yards,  are 
usually  located  in  some  distant  state,  where  they  are  utterly  helpless  to 
learn  the  truth  of  the  situation. 

"  Two  of  the  four  meat  inspectors  were  engaged  in  the  practice  of 
veterinary  medicine.  The  third  attended  a  medical  college,  and 
graduated  while  acting  as  meat  inspector.  This  comprised  the  mighty 
bulwark  which  was  legally  empowered  to  stand  between  the  public  and 
diseased  meat."  .  .  . 

"  I  found  that  the  federal  inspectors  were  condemning  considerable 
meat  and  sending  it  to  the  rendering  tanks,  and  when  I  confronted 
them  with  my  interpretation  of  the  law,  they  admitted  that  they  could 
not  legally  send  the  meat  to  the  tanks,  but  that  it  was  done  under  the 
threat,  that,  if  it  were  not  permitted,  government  inspection  would  be 
withdrawn  from  the  objecting  packers. 

"  The  federal  inspectors  could  inspect  and  pass  meat  for  export,  but 
instructions  given  them  by  the  federal  laws  distinctly  state  that  all 
condemned  meat  must  be  quarantined  and  set  aside  '  To  be  disposed  of 
according  to  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  state  and  municipality  in 
which  it  is  found'  Therefore  the  only  legal  power  to  destroy  meat 
was,  and  is,  in  the  hands  of  the  city  meat  inspectors.  Their  authority 
supersedes  that  of  both  government  and  state  inspectors. 

"  Government  inspection  is  only  at  the  packer's  request.  State  in- 
spection is  clearly  illegal  in  Chicago;  for  the  power  of  condemnation 
and  destruction  was  given  to  Chicago  in  its  charter,  and  the  state 
legislature  cannot  delegate  this  function  to  a  live-stock  commission. 
But  the  state  legislature  has  been  only  too  glad  to  assist  the  packer 
by  creating  a  live-stock  commission.  This  seises  suspected  and  dis- 
eased animals,  quarantines  and  slaughters  them,  and  gives  the  packer 
the  opportunity  of  buying  the  meat  (diseased  and  wholesome)  with 
the  stamp  of  the  inspector  on  it,  at  half  price/' 

Dr.  Jaques,  in  relating  how  he  sprinkled  condemned  meats  with 
kerosene  in  order  to  make  sure  they  did  not  find  their  way  into  food 
products,  states  that  this  practice  raised  a  bitter  cry  of  complaint  from 
the  packing  interest.  In  this  connexion  he  relates  the  following  in- 
teresting incident :  "  I  sent  one  of  my  inspectors  to  a  slaughter-house 
with  orders  to  kerosene  all  meat  he  found  unfit  for  use.  He  returned 
in  a  state  of  great  indignation  and  excitement,  saying  that  the  men 
fought  hard  and  long  to  keep  him  from  using  kerosene. 

'  Why/  said  he,  '  I  drew  out  seven  hogs  that  were  diseased  with 
cholera,  and  went  to  get  ,my  kerosene  can.  When  I  returned,  there 
were  only  two  left/  '  Where  are  the  other  five  ? '  I  asked,  and  the 
man  replied,  '  Oh,  they  are  in  sausage  by  this  time/ 

"  The  same  inspector,  who  was  a  doughty  little  German,  was  graph- 
ically described  by  another  who  was  sent  to  help  him  as  being  found 
'  at  one  end  of  the  hog,  pulling  with  all  his  might  toward  his  kerosene 
can,  while  at  the  other  end  was  a  little  Jew,  pulling  just  as  hard 

516 


THE    CRY   OF   THE    STOMACH 

toward  the  sausage  room.'  To  the  inspector  it  was  a  matter  of  duty ; 
to  the  Jew  a  question  of  money. 

"  One  other  incident  would  go  to  show  that  sausage  advertised  as 
'government  inspected'  is  a  rather  uncertain  article.  Immediately 
following  the  passing  of  the  meat  by  the  government  inspector,  the 
beef  trimmers  cut  off  all  unsightly  portions,  bruised  or  injured  places, 
enlarged  glands  or  abscesses.  I  asked  the  inspector  what  was  done 
with  these  trimmings.  '  Sausage,'  was  his  laconic  reply.  Can  an  in- 
spector guarantee  all  the  component  parts  of  sausage  when  he  ex- 
amines the  finished  product  ? 

"  It  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  the  boast  of  the  packer  that  '  noth- 
ing is  lost,'  to  imagine  what  the  by-products  of  the  packing  industry 
may  mean.  What  are  called  '  trade  secrets '  means  the  selling  of  un- 
eatable things  under  palatable  names." 

The  following  figures  which  the^  doctor  offers  show  only  too  plainly 
to  what  an  extent  the  purchasing  public  is  victimised.  "  A  change  of 
administration  resulted  in  the  resumption  of  meat  inspection  August 
7,  1905.  With  two  regular,  and  some  temporary,  inspectors  in  less 
than  five  months,  more  than  $300,000  worth  of  diseased  and  rotten 
meat,  much  of  which  had  already  been  passed  by  government  inspectors, 
was  destroyed,  a  striking  contrast  to  the  small  amount  of  the  year 
before.  This  enormous  amount  was  condemned  in  less  than  five 
months  by  a  force  of  inspectors  which  could  have  seised  but  a  fraction 
of  what  should  have  been  taken.  For  twenty-two  months  previous, 
this  inspection  had  been  withdrawn ;  if  it  had  been  maintained  during 
that  time,  more  than  a  million  and  a  quarter  dollars'  worth  of  food 
might  have  been  condemned,  but  was  not,  and  must  have  gone  some- 
where. Where  did  it  go  if  not  to  the  public  ? 

"  NO  DEFINITE  STANDARD  OF  CONDEMNATION/' 

"  My  experience  revealed  another  difficulty,  that  of  a  standard  for 
condemnation.  Authorities  differed  on  the  subject.  One  declared 
that  when  any  part  of  the  animal  was  diseased,  it  should  all  go  into 
the  fertiliser  tank.  Another  said  that  only  the  diseased  part  need  be 
cut  away.  Still  another  would  pass  all  meat  if  well  cooked.  The 
present  health  commissioner  is  having  the  same  difficulty.  His  recent 
decision  is  that  if  the  disease  is  localised,  only  the  diseased  part  need 
be  cut  away.  I  will  venture  the  assertion  that,  though  the  commis- 
sioner of  health  will  allow  the  flesh  from  an  animal  that  has  localised 
lumpy-jaw  to  pass  into  the  public  food  supply,  he  would  not  permit  his 
family  to  eat  an  ounce  of  it  if  he  knew  it.  The  men  who  kill  and 
handle  this  meat  will  not  eat  it. 

"  I  will  also  venture  the  assertion,  that,  if  the  finest  restaurant  in 
America  should  publish  on  its  bill  of  fare,  that  its  choice  roast  beef 
was  cut  from  an  animal  which  had  a  small  localised  tubercular  area, 
no  physician  would  dine  there,  or  permit  his  patients  to  do  so.  Yet 
if  this  issue  were  brought  to  court,  probably  a  hundred  physicians 
would  be  willing  to  testify  that  such  meat,  if  well  cooked,  would  be 
harmless..  The  trouble  is  that  more  beef  is  served  rare  than  well 
done.  //  all  meats  are  well  cooked,  it  would  lessen  the  danger  from 
disease,  especially  from  trichina-infected  pork. 

517 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

"It  is  also  well-known  to  bacteriologists  that  the  tubercular  germ 
is  one  of  the  most  resistent  things  in  nature.  Its  hard,  horny  body 
resists  extremes  in  temperature.  The  rules  of  .the  government  require 
that  lard  rendered  from  tubercular  hogs  shall  be  boiled  for  four  hours 
at  a  temperature  of  220  degrees.  Can  it  be  possible,  then,  that  roast 
beef  and  two-inch  steaks  from  tubercular  cattle  are  safe  food  in  a 
rare  state  ?  " 

Dr.  Jaques  states  that  the  only  time  when  an  animal  can  be  properly 
inspected  is  at  the  time  of  killing,  when  the  animal  is  opened  and 
before  it  has  been  possible  to  remove  diseased  portions.  He  states 
that  there  are  no  bars  against  lumpy-jawed  cattle.  Speaking  of  this 
disease,  Charles  Edward  Eussell  says,  in  "  Everybody's  Magazine  "  for 
April,  1906,  "Again,  this  Government  does  not  allow  gentlemen  to 
make  great  fortunes  by  selling  things  unfit  for  food  —  poisoned  meat, 
for  instance.  No  Beef  Trust  could,  ever  exist  in  Switzerland,  nor  any 
private  interference  with  the  food-supply,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
the  Government  does  all  the  slaughtering  in  its  own  slaughter-houses 
under  its  own  sanitary  supervision.  No  private  person  is  allowed  to 
slaughter  animals  for  food.  Those  interested  in  the  subject  may  care 
to  know  that  no  ( lumpy-jaw '  cattle  are  eaten  in  Switzerland,  and  few 
Swiss  have,  cancer.  On  the  whole,  the  Swiss  seem  to  have  rather  the 
best  of  us  in  this  regard.  I  recall  the  grisly  secrets  of  Chicago  Pack- 
ingtown,  the  doors  behind  which  no  one  is  allowed  to  go,  the  horrible 
filth,  the  '  lumpy-jaw '  cattle,  and  the  swine  with  tuberculosis  that  go 
somewhere  and  do  not  return  —  the  hideous  revelations  of  the  *  Lon- 
don Lancet/  Are  we  quite  sure  we  can  teach  everything  to  the 
.Swiss?  At  least  they  know,  when  they  sit  down  to  dinner,  that  they 
are  not  to  eat  cancer  germs,  nor  infected  pork,  nor  the  flesh  of  animals 
that  have  died  natural  deaths.  They  also  know  that  they  are  not 
paying  artificial  tribute  to  private  fortunes.  Suppose  the  State  of 
Illinois  owned  and  operated  all  the  slaughter-houses  within  its  borders. 
How  long  would  the  American  Beef  Trust  last?  Five  minutes? 
Perhaps  you  think  I  have  raised  an  unnecessary  alarm  about  infected 
meat.  I  have  here  a  statement  from  Dr.  D.  E.  Salmon,  Chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  of  the  United  States.  He  says: 

(  Since  the  federal  inspection  has  been  established  for  meat  shipped 
in  the  interstate  trade,  the  tendency  is  to  send  known  diseased  animals 
to  the  slaughter-houses  that  kill  for  the  local  trade,  and  have  little,  if 
any,  inspection.  And  unquestionably  many  badly  diseased  animals 
get  upon  the  market  and  are  eaten.'  >' 

In  connexion  with  the  distribution  of  meat  infected  with  cancer 
germs  as  a  food-product  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  total  deaths 
from  cancer  in  the  census  year  1890  were  found  to  be  18,536,  while 
ten  years  later,  in  1900,  they  had  risen  to  29,415.  Assuming  that 
the  population  considered  was  the  same  in  each  case,  though  as  a 
matter  of  fact  it  was  of  course  greater  in  1900,  this  would  show,  ac- 
cording to  these  figures,  an  increase  of  more  than  58  per  cent,  during 
the  ten  years  mentioned.  Making  all  due  allowances  for  increase  of 
population,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  growing  prevalence  of  cancer  is 
assuming  alarming  proportions. 

Can  we  doubt,  after  the  overwhelming  evidence  which  has  been 

518 


THE   CRY   OF   THE    STOMACH 

published  regarding  the  conditions  and  practices  which  obtain  in 
Packingtown,  that  our  meat  supply  and  food-products  are  responsible 
for  a  very  large  part  of  this  increased  mortality?  We  are  told  that 
the  mortality  from  cancer  has  multiplied  some  four  or  five  times 
during  the  last  fifty  years,  and  are  informed  that,  whereas  it  was 
formerly  more  prevalent  among  women  than  men,  it  is  now  more 
prevalent  among  men  and  is  becoming  increasingly  so.  Mr.  Roger 
Williams  and  Sir  William  Banks  hold  that  cancer  areas  coincide  with 
districts  where  the  people  are  best  nourished.  We  believe  it  will  be 
admitted  that  the  rich  eat  more  meat  than  the  poor,  and  particularly, 
we  should  say,  is  this  true  of  certain  of  the  canned  meats.  Further, 
we  think  it  will  be  admitted  that  men  are  more  addicted  to  meat  than 
women  and  very  much  more  liable  to  relish  it  in  a  rare  or  underdone 
condition.  In  view  of  these  considerations  does  not  the  present  condi- 
tion of  our  animal  food  supply  have  a  very  important  bearing  upon 
the  spread  of  this  terrible  disease? 

In  "  The  World's  Work  "  for  May,  1906,  Dr.  Caroline  Hedger,  who 
visits  and  practises  among  the  people  in  Packington,  that  is,  the 
workers  in  the  packing-houses  and  their  families,  gives  some  interest- 
ing facts  under  the  heading,  "  The  Unhealthfulness  of  Packingtown." 
She  very  properly  states  that,  "  On  the  health  of  the  workers  in  the 
stock-yards  and  the  packing-houses,  and  on  the  healthfulness  of  their 
surroundings  depend,  to  some  extent,  the  wholesomeness  of  the  food." 
.  .  .  "  No  one  yet  knows  how  many  cases  of  tuberculosis  there  are 
among  the  workers  in  the  yards,  for,  until  now,  no  system  of  reporting 
cases  of  the  plague  has  been  used  in  Chicago.  In  1902  the  deaths  in 
the  Twenty-ninth  Ward,  which  embraces  this  district,  were  28  per 
10,000,  which  is  55  per  cent,  more  than  the  average  number  per  10,000 
for  the  whole  city  in  the  same  year." 

.She  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  every  possible  opportunity  is 
given  for  the  men  of  Packingtown  to  drink.  She  says :  "  Outside  the 
stock-yards  on  Ashland  Avenue  are  forty-five  saloons  in  two  blocks. 
Every  one  of  them  is  a  restaurant  that  sells  good  hot  food  cheaper 
than  any  restaurant  alone  can  afford  to  sell  it,  and  makes  very  little 
even  on  the  beer  served  with  the  food.  They  depend  for  their  profit 
on  the  whisky  consumed  when  checks  are  cashed,  for  they  cash  checks, 
and  the  men  are  paid  in  checks.  Another  inducement  to  visit  these 
restaurant  saloons  at  the  noon  hour  is  that  they  offer  those  bringing 
their  own  lunch  more  attractive  places  to  eat  than  the  packing- 
houses, though  I  have  seen  men  eating  lunch  in  the  rooms  where 
sheep  are  slaughtered.  A  drinker  of  alcohol  stands  the  chance  of 
infection  by  tuberculosis,  as  compared  to  a  teetotaler,  of  3  to  1. 

"  In  any  infectious  disease,  such  as  tuberculosis,  the  resistance  of  the 
individual  means  much.  Disease  germs  are  less  apt  to  attack  a  body 
the  tissues  of  which  are  well  nourished,  healthy,  and  rested,  than  a 
body  in  a  low  condition  of  vitality.  Thus  the  matter  of  food  and 
drink  becomes  vital.  So  does  ventilation.  A  person  cannot  breathe 
the  air  exhaled  by  himself  and  others  in  a  closed  room  and  be  healthy. 
Nor  can  he  be  worked  systematically  past  a  reasonable  fatigue  point 
without  having  his  protective  barriers  beaten  down. 

"What  a  man  eats  and  drinks  depends  in  a  large  measure  on  his 

519 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

wages,  and  so  does  the  amount  of  room  he  can  afford  for  his  family. 
Before  the  last  strike  in  the  stock-yards,  the  average  wage  per  week 
for  the  whole  yards  was  $7.40.  It  is  somewhat  less  now,  and  a  cattle 
butcher  told  me  that  he  had  to  do  one-half  more  work  than  before  the 
strike." 

Dr.  Hedger  adverts  to  the  baleful  effects  of  the  insufferable  pace  set 
the  workers  of  Packingtown.  In  this  connexion  she  says :  "  A  strik- 
ing illustration  of  what  this  fast  work  may  lead  to,  was  shown  a  few 
days  ago  by  a  man  who,  while  working  at  full  speed,  tried  to  work 
faster  to  finish  a  given  amount  of  work  in  a  given  time.  He  was  a 
skinner,  using  both  hands.  A  shock  like  electricity  went  through  his 
whole  body,  and  his  cutting  hand  fell  powerless.  Eepeated  attempts 
proved  that  his  ability  to  cut  was  at  least  temporarily  gone.  His 
nerves  had  worked  to  the  point  of  exhaustion,  and,  though  he  can  do 
other  work,  his  highly  skilled  ability  can  no  longer  be  depended  on 
as  an  earning  factor.  This  is  one  of  the  cases  where  the  limitation 
of  output  must  be  considered  from  the  human  side.  In  a  lesser  de- 
gree, the  high  speed  of  the  workers  depletes  nervous  power,  and  the 
over-fatigue  places  the  worker  in  a  position  to  be  easily  infected  with 
any  kind  of  disease  germs/* 

Under  the  heading,  "  Menaces  to  Health/'  Dr.  Hedger  says,  in  part : 
"  Then  there  is  Bubbly  Branch  on  the  west  edge  of  the  district.  It 
is  a  stagnant  branch  of  the  Chicago  River.  The  filth  from  the  stock- 
yards sewer  pours  into  it.  It  is  really  a  large  open  sewer  itself.  In 
summer,  if  you  are  detained  on  the  bridge  that  spans  it,  your  cloth- 
ing will  smell  for  hours.  The  scum  of  filth  gets  brown  and  dusty- 
looking  in  hot  weather.  It  will  bear  up  cats  and  chickens. 

"  The  '  dump/  another  menace  to  the  workers'  health,  is  a  great  ex- 
cavation made  by  a  brick  yard.  Into  this  hole  is  dumped  the  city 
garbage  from  the  residence  wards.  The  poorer  foreigners  pick  over 
this  rotting  mass,  and  carry  off  chunks  of  bread.  One  woman  who 
has  tuberculosis  has  a  wall  of  garbage,  nearly  four  feet  high,  marking 
off  her  tiny  front  yard.  Large  mud-holes  exist,  too.  In  addition,  the 
people  themselves  contribute  other  garbage." 

"  Sunlight  kills  the  germs  of  tuberculosis.  A  vast  number  of  the 
packing-house  workers  work  by  electric  light.  If  a  tubercular  per- 
son chose  to  expectorate  in  those  totally  dark  rooms,  where  scores  of 
girls  work,  those  germs  could  live  almost  indefinitely  unless  removed. 
Many  stairs  and  dark  rooms  in  the  yards  look  very  unused  to  water 
and  soap.  From  the  ceilings  of  the  killing-rooms  and  corridors,  to 
the  rag  that  a  girl  wipes  a  can  with  before  capping  it,  there  is  dirt. 
Some  of  it  certainly  could  be  avoided. 

"  The  air  in  some  of  the  departments,  especially  the  canning  depart- 
ment, is  bad  —  sometimes  so  steamy  that  it  is  impossible  to  see 
through  it,  and  providing  moisture  to  keep  tuberculosis  germs  alive. 
There  are  no  devices  visible  to  prevent  the  inhalation  of  dust.  In  the 
soap-mixing  department  of  one  firm,  which  I  visited,  the  dust  was 
choking.  Only  a  few  men  worked  here,  but  they  wore  no  respirators. 
In  the  painting-rooms  where  girls  paint  the  cans,  the  smell  of  tur- 
pentine is  very  strong;  and  the  girls  inhale  so  much  paint  that  their 
sputum  is  blue.  This  department  is  popularly  credited  with  more  tu- 

520 


THE    CRY   OF  THE   STOMACH 

berculosis  than  any  other  department  where  women  work.  One 
woman,  in  the  last  stages  of  consumption,  was  found  sewing  bags  at 
home.  These  were  for  a  special  kind  of  export  sausage.  She  had 
them  carefully  piled  up,  and  explained  that  she  had  to  keep  them  very 
clean,  as  they  could  not  or  would  not  be  washed.  In  two  weeks  she  was' 
dead.  The  toilet  facilities  in  the  packing-houses  are,  I  am  told, 
scanty,  and  the  dressing-rooms  for  women  very  crowded. 

"  THE  REMEDIES   FOR  DANGER  TO  OUR  FOOD." 

"  It  is  revolting  to  think  of  the  chances  for  infection  of  food  in  a 
situation  like  this.  Certain  products,  like  tongues,  potted  meats,  and 
soups,  are  sterilised  after  being  canned,  but  others,  like  dried  beef  and 
quarters  of  beef,  go  direct  to  the  consumer.  For  their  own  sakes,  the 
American  people  should  consider  the  health  of  the  32,000  packing- 
house workers,  a  centre  of  infection  by  tuberculosis." 

We  beg  the  Eeader  to  realise  that  our  purpose,  in  offering  so  much 
evidence  upon  these  matters,  is  to  show  that,  however  hard  it  may  be 
to  believe  it,  these  revolting  conditions  exist  and  cause  the  wide- 
spread contamination  of  an  enormous  part  of  the  country's  food  sup- 
ply. The  conditions  unearthed  are  so  terrible  that  they  would  net  be 
believed  upon  the  evidence  of  any  one  or  two  people.  If  any  reform 
is  to  come,  it  is  essential  that  conditions  as  they  are  should  be  thor- 
oughly understood.  This  is  no  place  for  the  spurious  optimist  —  the 
destructive  optimist  who  is  the  real  pessimist,  par  excellence  —  to 
cry  out  that  there  is  also  much  neatness  shown  in  some  parts  of  Pack- 
ingtown,  and  it  would  not  be  even  were  this  neatness  real  and  not 
intended  merely,  as  we  have  seen,  as  a  sort  of  stage  pageant  to  di- 
vert the  attention  and  lull  the  suspicions  of  the  victimised  public. 
Until  the  optimist  can  prove  that  bad  conditions  do  not  exist,  let  him 
hold  his  peace;  for  so  long  as  there  is  a  single  pound  of  poisonous 
food-product  sold  to  the  public  the  victims  thereof,  as  well  as  all  men 
who  have  developed  the  social  sense,  should  cry  out  against  the  in- 
famy. What  is  it  to  the  man,  dying  of  ptomaine  poison  as  the  result 
of  eating  canned  meat,  to  be  told  that,  if  only  he  had  partaken  of  lard 
instead  —  lard  rendered  from  cholera-infected  or  tubercular  hogs  — 
lard  which  had  been  boiled  for  four  hours  at  a  temperature  of  220  de- 
grees, he  might  still  be  well  and  happy  ?  Or  what  is  it  to  him  to  be 
told  that  his  case  is  only  that  of  one  in  a  hundred,  or,  for  that  mat- 
ter, one  in  a  thousand?  Will  he  not  very  justly  demand  that  the 
ratio  of  outrage  shall  be  reduced  below  the  average  of  one  in  in- 
finity? As  a  nation  we  have  gone  daft  over  this  matter  of  optimism, 
until  to-day  we  laud  the  most  pernicious  and  destructive  pessimism, 
if  only  it  assume  the  guise  and  name  of  optimism.  The  wholesale 
corruption  in  this  country  has  at  length  brought  about  a  great  wave 
of  public  protest.  Investigations  are  being  made  on  every  hand  with 
results  which  richly  justify  the  effort  expended.  All  this  is  well, 
but  even  now  the  fickle  public,  caught  with  a  "muck-rake"  sop  to 
Cerberus,  is  beginning  to  cry  out  that  investigation  be  stopped.  This 
means  that  the  subsidised  press  considers  it  now  safe  to  attempt  to 
start  a  reaction,  confident  that  the  fickle  public  can  be  caught,  as  it 

521 


GILLETTE'S   .SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

were,  on  the  rebound,  and  hypnotised  again  into  their  favourite  "  op- 
timistic "  trance.  The  point  which  we  would  like  to  impress  upon 
the  Reader,  with  all  the  emphasis  in  our  power,  is  that  the  so-called 
"  muck-rakers  "  are  the  real  optimists  —  the  men  who  are  willing  to 
'  put  forth  money  and  effort  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  better  so- 
cial conditions,  while  the  spurious,  let-alone  optimists,  who  for  their 
own  selfish  ends  seek  to  divert  public  indignation  by  their  trust-in- 
spired Siren-songs,  are  the  men  who  are  willing  that  all  higher  stand- 
ards shall  be  guiltily  and  insidiously  undermined,  while  they  keep 
the  people  lulled  in  a  fatuous  torpor  —  they  are  the  men  who  are  the 
real,  destructive  pessimists,  the  worst  menace  to  this  or  any  other 
country.  He  who  hoes  out  the  dog-grass  and  the  Canadian  thistle 
of  evil,  that  he  may  plant  in  their  stead  the  violet  of  innocence  and 
the  white  rose  of  justice,  will  be  reviled  as  a  destructive  pessimist, 
yet  he  is  a  constructive  optimist  of  the  highest  order;  while  he  who 
descants  enthusiastically  upon  the  grandeur  of  dog-grass  and  thistle, 
in  the  attempt  to  make  his  hearers  believe  them  beautiful  floral  pro- 
ductions, will  be  lauded  as  a  comfortable,  happy  optimist,  whose  "  pure 
mind"  finds  only  good  in  everyfhing,  whereas,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
this  "  cheerful  idiot "  is  the  most  dangerous  of  destructive  pessimists, 
his  whole  life  being  a  sequence  of  efforts  subversive  of  good.  In  all 
history  there  is  not  a  single  instance  of  any  great  and  lasting  improve- 
ment which  was  not  the  direct  result  of  an  enlightened  discontent. 
If  you  sit  at  ease,  why  should  you  change  jour  seat  ?  If  all  things 
are  as  they  should  be,  why  make  any  effort  whatever  to  alter  any- 
thing? Is  it  not  plain,  therefore,  that  the  logical  result  of  this 
halleujah  "  optimism  "  is  inaction  —  yea,  death  ?  Such  "  optimism  " 
is  static,  while  the  "pessimism"  it  reviles  is  dynamic;  the  one  is 
dead  and  stagnant,  the  other  alive  and  fluent,  and,  as  only  running 
water  can  maintain  its  purity,  so  society  can  only  keep  from  rotting 
by  that  enlightened  discontent  which  the  foolish  and  the  vicious  have 
named  "  destructive  pessimism,"  but  which  the  wise  and  the  good 
know  to  be  the  highest  type  of  beneficent  and  constructive  optimism. 

Having  made  this  explanation,  let  us  return  again  to  the  consid- 
eration of  the  infamies  of  Packingtown.  In  the  article  entitled  "  The 
Failure  of  Government  Inspection,"  by  Thomas  H.  McKee,*  we  are 
told  that  the  first  inspection  of  animals  accomplishes  but  little,  since 
it  results  in  the  rejection  only  of  animals  with  apparent  defects.  He 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that,  after  these  animals  are  inspected  in 
this  way,  they  are  purchased  by  the  packers,  so  that,  when  the  post- 
mortem examination  is  made  and  shows  certain  cattle  to  be  unfit  for 
food,  the  packer  must  either  suffer  a  loss  or  resort  to  trickery.  He 
says  regarding  this  phase  of  the  matter:  "  He  is  then  dealing  with  his 
own  property,  and  deviltries  may  begin.  After  a  steer  has  been  killed 
and  placed  in  the  cooling  room,  the  carcass  and  its  parts  are  never 
again  seen  by  an  inspector.  Many  weeks  later  a  case  of  sealed  cans, 
each  containing  something,  is  presented  to  an  inspector  to  receive  the 
government  label.  The  packer  tells  the  inspector  that  the  cans  con- 
tain meat  and  the  label  is  put  on.  During  the  interim  that  meat 
may  have  taken  a  dreary  journey.  It  may  have  been  cut  up  and 

*  "  The  World's  Work,"  for  May,  1906. 

522 


THE    CRY   OF   THE    STOMACH 

stored  in  dark,  rat-infested  rooms,  been  soaked  for  weeks  in  liquid 
pickle,  trundled  through  murky  passages,  pitchforked  by  labourers 
from  vessel  to  vehicle  and  back  again,  and  finally  cooked  in  open  vats, 
in  rooms,  low,  hot,  greasy,  and,  except  for  the  flare  of  torches,  dark  as 
a  mine. 

"  In  a  conversation  with  the  manager  of  one  of  the  Chicago  packing- 
houses, I  spoke  of  the  uncleanliness  of  his  pickling  and  cooking  de- 
partments. He  did  not  defend  them,  but  said :  '  If  you  will  visit  the 
kitchens  of  some  of  the  hotels  in  this  town,  you  will  be  less  affected  by 
what  you  have  seen  here/  which  simply  means  *  I  am  excused,  because 
there  are  others  just  as  bad.'  The  government  inspectors,  officially, 
know  nothing  about  the  processes  through  which  the  meat  has  passed 
after  leaving  the  cooling  room. 

"  Ceilings,  walls,  and  pillars  may  bear  the  accumulated  filth  of  years ; 
cooking  vessels  and  utensils  may  be  germ-laden  and  poisonous;  the 
personal  cleanliness  of  the  workmen  may  be  wholly  forgotten :  yet  all 
these  conditions,  so  vitally  affecting  the  purity  of  the  product,  the 
government  ignores.  It  recognises  the  existence  of  germs  in  the 
bodies  of  diseased  animals,  when  these  reach  the  stock-yards,  but  re- 
pudiates the  theory  of  germ  infection  through  contact  with  ancient 
filth.  The  inspector's  stamp  does  not  guarantee  sanitation,  cleanli- 
ness, or  absence  of  adulteration,  and,  in  vouching  for  the  purity  of 
products  prepared  as  packing-house  products  are,  the  government 
makes  itself  a  party  to  a  most  reprehensible  deception." 

Mr.  McKee  corroborates  what  has  been  said  again  and  again  in  the 
matter  of  lard.  Under  the  heading,  "  Diseased  Hogs  Used  for  Lard," 
he  says :  "  And  now  see  how  these  rules  work  in  the  handling  of 
pork:  On  the  occasion  of  a  visit  I  made  to  one  packing-house,  the 
hogs  from  the  killing  floor,  in  a  slowly  gliding  line,  were  moving  to- 
ward the  doors  of  the  cooling  rooms  where  we  stood.  The  export 
hogs,  the  smooth,  chunky  little  porkers,  were  shunted  into  their  sepa- 
rate room;  the  big  fellows  hurried  into  the  place  whence  they  would 
later  drop  through  the  floor  into  the  packing  department;  while  the 
other  hogs  in  the  line  entered  still  another  cooling  room.  I  noticed 
that  occasionally  a  solitary  hog  was  cut  out  of  the  line  and  pushed 
along  an  overhead  track  to  the  middle  of  the  room,  where  several 
others  hung.  There  happened  to  be  six  of  these  hanging  together 
when  my  party  arrived.  Two  of  them  were  as  red  as  if  smeared  with 
paint,  and  scabbed  on  the  legs  and  snouts. 

'  These  hogs  had  cholera/  the  inspector  said,  '  and  the  next  three 
are  tubercular.  See  how  skinny  they  are,  and  they  have  these  queer 
spots  inside  of  them.' 

"  The  remaining  carcass  had  an  ugly  ulcer  in  its  side.  Around  a 
block  nearby,  several  men  were  chopping  up  these  diseased  hogs.  The 
pieces  were  thrown  into  a  box  truck,  which,  when  full,  was  trundled 
into  another  room  alongside  the  huge  iron  cylinder,  the  base  of  which 
rested  on  the  floor  below,  and  in  the  top  of  which  was  a  port-hole. 
The  chunks  of  diseased  meat  were  then  thrown  into  the  tank,  in  the 
inspector's  presence. 

'  What  will  be  the  product  of  this  tank  ?  '  I  anxiously  inquired. 

'  Fertiliser  and  lard/  the  inspector  replied. 

523 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

"  He  noticed  my  qualms,  for  he  immediately  explained  that  the  dis- 
eased meat  would  remain  in  that  cylinder  for  four  hours  under  twen- 
ty-five pounds  steam  pressure,  a  treatment  which  no  germ  could  sur- 
vive. The  other  tanks  in  the  room  under  steam  were  gurgling  and 
muttering  so  suggestively  that  I  beat  a  hasty  retreat.  Daylight 
reached  again,  and  my  equanimity  somewhat  restored,  I  questioned  the 
inspector  further: 

'  Do  all  of  the  tanks  in  that  room  produce  fertiliser  and  lard  ? ' 

'  No,'  he  said,  '  part  of  them  produce  fertiliser  and  soap  grease. 
Into  these  go  spoiled  meats,  dirty  scraps,  and  diseased  carcasses  when 
they  are  bad  enough.' 

'  Those  cholera  hogs  looked  pretty  bad  to  me/  I  continued. 

'  They  are  not  bad  alongside  of  some  we  get,  though.' 

'  Who  decides  whether  or  not  a  carcass  is  too  bad  for  lard  ? '  I  pur- 
sued. 

1  It  is  more  or  less  in  my  discretion,'  he  explained,  *  The  Depart- 
ment gives  us  rules,  but  in  the  end  we  have  to  use  our  own  judgment. 
When  I  think  that  a  hog  is  too  bad  to  be  used  for  lard  I  order  it  into 
the  grease  tank/ 

"  It  struck  me  that  not  many  carcasses  went  into  the  grease  tank, 
because,  I  reasoned,  the  pigs  have  to  walk  into  the  abattoir,  and  one 
much  sicker  than  those  whose  bodies  I  saw  could  not  climb  the  incline. 
The  cooking  of  these  carcasses  probably  did  destroy  disease  germs,  but 
it  can  be  imagined  that  the  spectacle  described  did  not  tend  to  whet 
my  appetite  for  pie  crust  shortened  with  *  United  States  Government 
Inspected'  lard/' 

Eegarding  the  question  of  dishonest  inspection,  Mr.  McKee  says 
that  the  inspectors  are  given  discretionary  power,  which  he  holds  to 
be  a  prolific  cause  of  the  shocking  conditions  which  obtain.  Con- 
tinuing he  says :  "  Extortion  and  bribery  are  the  natural  offspring 
of  discretion  lodged  in  petty  hands.  The  use  of  general  terms  in 
defining  the  duties  of  an  inspector  is  wrong  in  theory  and  pernicious 
in  practice.  If  the  inspector  holds  his  position  above,  and  independ- 
ent of,  the  packer,  the  latter  is  at  his  mercy.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
the  inspector's  tenure  of  office  is  to  any  extent  controlled  by  the 
packer,  which  I  shall  show  to  be  the  fact,  the  inspector  is  reduced  to 
servitude. 

"  The  meat  business  is  one  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  destruction  of 
evidence.  The  inspector  can  slight  his  duty,  and  there  is  but  little 
chance  of  discovery.  After  a  carcass  is  shorn  of  head  and  viscera,  lit- 
tle remains  to  excite  suspicion.  Eemembering  that  condemnation  by 
an  inspector  inflicts  loss  upon  the  packers,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe 
that  an  inspector  vested  with  discretion  would  be  inclined  to  placate 
the  power  that  could  destroy  him. 

"  In  a  conversation  with  Dr.  0.  E.  Dyson,  who  for  thirteen  years 
has  been  connected  with  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  the  study 
of  diseases  of  food  animals,  and  during  the  greater  portion  of  that 
time  has  been  chief  of  the  bureau  of  inspection  at  Chicago,  I  asked 
him: 

'What  would  be  the  result  if  a  packer  refused  to  permit  carcasses 
to  be  destroyed,  if  the  inspector  demanded  their  destruction  ?  " 

524 


THE    CRY   OF   THE    STOMACH 

'  That  has  never  happened/  he  said,  '  but  if  it  did,  the  chief  inspec- 
tor would  report  the  fact  to  the  Department,  and  the  inspectors  would 
be  immediately  withdrawn  from  that  establishment/ 

"  Where  inspectors  are  employed,  the  inspector  cannot  remain  a  mo- 
ment longer  than  the  packer  desires.  The  latter,  under  the  law,  can 
expel  every  inspector  on  his  premises,  without  notice.  The  question, 
then,  whose  servant  the  inspector  is,  answers  itself." 

Mr.  McKee  shows  that  this  inspection  is  a  farce,  so  far  as  public 
protection  is  concerned,  that  it  merely  results  in  ante-mortem  and 
post-mortem  examinations  which  the  packers  would  have  to  have  made 
by  pome  one  for  their  own  sakes,  and  which  they  now  get  without  cost 
to  themselves,  the  government  paying  the  bills.  Continuing  he  says : 
"  Government  inspection,  however,  now  permits  the  packer  to  sell 
under  sanction  of  law  questionable  products  as  first  class.  The  rules 
require  meat  to  be  classified  into  either  first-class  food  or  offal,  and 
this  function  is  vested  in  an  inspector  who  is  more  or  less  under  the 
thumb  of  the  packer.  -The  latter,  therefore,  gets  all  the  benefit  of 
government  inspection  with  few  of  the  burdens. 

"  The  whole  situation  suggests  that  federal  inspection  is  nothing 
more  than  a  shrewd  advertising  scheme  suggested  to  the  packers  sev- 
eral years  ago,  when  several  European  countries  forbade  the  exporta- 
tion to  them  of  trichinae-infected  pork.  The  flaunting  of  govern- 
ment inspection  in  our  face  is  equivalent  to  '  See  how  Uncle  Sam 
makes  us  be  good.  It  is  awfully  hard  on  us,  but  you,  the  public,  get 
the  benefit/  I  doubt  if  the  arrival  of  the  corps  of  United  States  in- 
spectors in  Packingtown  has,  in  any  essential,  ruffled  the  even  tenor  of 
the  packers'  ways/'  ,  .  . 

"  Let  the  government  and  the  packers  tell  the  truth ;  let  us  know 
what  we  are  buying ;  let  us  stop  the  deception." 

Of  all  that  has  been  written  upon  our  poisoned  food  supplies  the 
most  stinging  indictment  of  all  is  Mr.  Upton  Sinclair's  "  The  Jun- 
gle," a  novel  of  Chicago.  Of  this  book,  Thomas  Wentworth  Higgin- 
son  is  quoted  as  saying,  "  It  comes  nearer  than  any  book  yet  published 
among  us  to  being  the  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  of  the  social  tragedy  of  our 
great  cities." 

Robert  Hunter  says  of  it,  "  It  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  ter- 
rible stories  ever  written.  "As  a  portrayal  of  industrial  conditions  I 
have  never  read  anything  in  literature  that  equals  it;"  while  Char- 
lotte Perkins  Oilman  says :  "  That  book  of  yours  is  unforgetable. 
should  think  the  Beef  Trust  would  buy  it  up  at  any  price  — or  you,  d 
they  could.  If  the  American  public  wants  to  know  how^its  meat  is 
provided  and  at  what  cost  to  them  they  can  find  out  here." 

Jack  London  calls  the  work  "  The  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  of  Wage 
Slavery,"  while  David  Graham  Phillips  calls  it  "  The  Greatest  Novel 
written  in  America  in  Fifty  Years." 

So  terrible  is  the  indictment  contained  in  The  Jungle  that  the 
publishers  of  the  book  sent  an  able  lawyer  to  Chicago  to  investigate 
Packingtown  conditions,  in  order  that  they  might  be  sure  they  could 
in  fairness  publish  the  novel.  They  state  that  his  report  amply  veri- 
fied the  truth  of  the  story. 

Wishing  for  the  author's  personal  assurance,  we  wrote  Mr.  Upton 

525 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Sinclair  and  received  in  reply  a  letter  which  the  following  is  an 
extract :  "  As  to  the  question  as  to  the  truth  of  the  book,  if  you  read 
my  letter  in  '  Collier's  Weekly '  for  March  24,  and  Articles  in  the 
'  World's  Work '  and  '  Everybody's  Magazine '  for  the  month  of  May, 
you  will  get  some  information  on  that  point.  As  to  the  questions  of 
conditions  in  the  stock-yards,  I  would  say  that  the  book  is  scien- 
tifically accurate.  I  spent  seven  weeks  in  that  district,  living  among 
the  people,  and  I  have  talked  with  hundreds  of  workingmen.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  book  which  is  not  literally  and  exactly  true,  and  you 
may  regard  the  book  as  reliable  as  a  book  of  statistics.  I  have  not  ex- 
ercised the  novelist's  privilege  at  all  in  that  portion  of  the  work  deal- 
ing with  the  stock-yards;  the  facts  which  relate  to  the  conditions  of 
life  there  are  accurate  in  the  minutest  detail." 

Eev.  Artemas  Jean  Haynes,  formerly  pastor  of  Mr.  Armour's 
church,  says,  in  part,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Sinclair  regarding  "  The 
Jungle  " :  "  There  isn't  a  doubt  about  it,  you  have  written  a  great 
book."  .  .  . 

"  Let  me  say  at  once,  that  it  seems  to  me  I  have  a  certain  con- 
crete right  to  speak.  In  some  ways  I  have  been  closer  to  the  sheer 
deviltry  of  the  thing  than  even  yourself.  For  three  years  (1897- 
1900)  I  was  pastor  in  Chicago  of  one  of  the  richest  and  most  influ- 
ential churches  of  our  order  in  the  Middle  West.  During  this  time  I 
preached  in  Plymouth  church  Sunday  mornings,  and  gave  my  even- 
ings to  mission  work  in  the  district  which  you  describe.  Having  lived 
most  of  my  life  as  a  workingman  —  five  years  of  that  time,  on  and 
off,  as  a  common  sailor  —  I  had  the  workman's  point  of  view  and 
found  myself  in  full  sympathy  with  him.  I  saw  the  hideously  cruel 
side  of  Chicago  life;  and  looked  at  it  steadily,  with  eyes  wide  open. 
Men  will  say  that  you  have  overdrawn  the  thing;  it  is  not  so.  Words 
utterly  fail  and  break  down  in  the  attempt  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
exploitation  of  the  poor  in  Chicago.  Terrible  as  is  '  The  Jungle/  it 
falls  far  short  of  the  awful  reality.  Do  you  know  Eobert  Hunter? 
He  was  in  Chicago  at  the  time,  and  we  used  to  wrestle  over  these 
bitter  problems.  But  what  was  the  use?  What  can  a  man  do  who 
has  no  other  weapon  than  his  voice?  Speak,  of  course.  Yes,  but  he 
will  find  too  often  that  he  is  only  a  voice  in  the  wilderness.  I  did 
what  I  could,  had  trouble  with  my  church,  and  finally  broke  down 
in  health.  All  this  is  of  no  interest  to  you,  except  to  show  you  that 
I  am  in  a  position  to  bear  testimony  to  the  essential  truthfulness  of 
your  portrayal.  You  had  the  novelist's  rights,  of  course,  but  you  have 
not  misused  them.  Your  book  is  true  —  true  as  life  —  true  as  death. 
Men  who  do  not  know  should  keep  still.  Men  who  do  know,  and  deny 
it,  are  liars.  Men  who  know,  and  say  nothing,  are  cowards.  I  hope 
the  men  who  will  hate  this  book  will  speak  out.  What  we  want  is 
the  naked  truth;  my  soul  is  singing  for  joy  over  the  thing  you  have 
done."  .  .  . 

"  In  '  The  Jungle/  one  feels  how  unutterably  tragic  is  the  life  of 
the  oppressed  poor  —  how  much  of  beauty  and  joy  they  miss.  The 
man  who  can  read  it  without  being  moved  to  the  depths  of  his  being, 
may  know  that  judgment  has  been  passed  upon  him.  Already  he  is  a 
dead  soul." 

526 


It  is  not  our  purpose,  at  this  juncture,  to  call  attention  to  the  in- 
finite pathos  of  this  book,  nor  to  put  before  the  Reader  the  crying 
injustices  or  the  despairing  struggles  which  make  up  the  tragedy  of 
its  pages.  To  do  justice  to  these  factors  we  should  have  to  quote  the 
whole  book.  All  those  who  wish  to  keep  abreast  of  epoch-making 
literature  should  read  Mr.  Sinclair's  book  from  cover  to  cover.  For 
the  time  being  we  must  content  ourselves  with  calling  attention  to  such 
portions  as  bear  directly  upon  the  present  question  of  the  debasement 
of  our  food  supply.  Apropos  of  this  subject  we  quote  the  following: 
"  Looking  down  this  room,  one  saw,  creeping  slowly,  a  line  of  dangling 
hogs  a  hundred  yards  in  length ;  and  for  every  yard  there  was  a  man, 
working  as  if  a  demon  were  after  him.  At  the  end  of  this  hog's 
progress  every  inch  of  the  carcass  had  been  gone  over  several  times; 
and  then  it  was  rolled  into  the  chilling-room,  where  it  stayed  for 
twenty-four  hours,  and  where  a  stranger  might  lose  himself  in  a  for- 
est of  freezing  hogs. 

"  Before  the  carcass  was  admitted  here,  however,  it  had  to  pass  a 
government  inspector,  who  sat  in  the  doorway  and  felt  of  the  glands 
in  the  neck  for  tuberculosis.  This  government  inspector  did  not  have 
the  manner  of  a  man  who  was  worked  to  death ;  he  was  apparently  not 
haunted  by  a  fear  that  the  hog  might  get  by  him  before  he  had  fin- 
ished his  testing.  If  you  were  a  sociable  person,  he  was  quite  willing 
to  enter  into  conversation  with  you,  and  to  explain  to  you  the  deadly 
nature  of  the  ptomaines  which  are  found  in  tubercular  pork;  and 
while  he  was  talking  with  you  you  could  hardly  be  so  ungrateful  as 
to  notice  that  a  dozen  carcasses  were  passing  him  untouched.  This 
inspector  wore  a  blue  uniform,  with  brass  buttons,  and  he  gave  an  at- 
mosphere of  authority  to  the  scene,  and,  as  it  were,  put  the  stamp  of 
official  approval  upon  the  things  which  were  done  in  Durham's." 

Referring  to  the  killing  of  cattle  the  author  says :  "  The  manner 
in  which  they  did  this  was  something  to  be  seen  and  never  forgotten. 
They  worked  with  furious  intensity,  literally  upon  the  run  —  at  a 
pace  with  which  there  is  nothing  to  be  compared  except  a  football 
game.  It  was  all  highly  specialised  labour,  each  man  having  his  task 
to  do;  generally  this  would  consist  of  only  two  or  three  specific  cuts, 
and  he  would  pass  down  the  line  of  fifteen  or  twenty  carcasses,  mak- 
ing these  cuts  upon  each.  First  there  came  the  '  butcher,'  to  bleed 
them ;  this  meant  one  swift  stroke,  so  swift  that  you  could  not  see  it 
—  only  the  flash  of  the  knife ;  and  before  you  could  realise  it,  the  man 
had  darted  on  to  the  next  line,  and  a  stream  of  bright  red  was  pour- 
ing out  upon  the  floor.  This  floor  was  half  an  inch  deep  with  blood, 
in  spite  of  the  best  efforts  of  men  who  kept  shovelling  it  through  holes ; 
it  must  have  made  the  floor  slippery,  but  no  one  could  have  guessed 
this  by  watching  the  men  at  work." 

Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  industries  of  Packingtown  may  be 
gathered  from  the  following:  "And  then  the  visitors  were  taken  to 
the  other  parts  of  the  building,  to  see  what  became  of  each  particle 
of  the  waste  material  that  had  vanished  through  the  floor;  and  to 
the  pickling-rooms,  and  the  salting-rooms,  the  canning-rooms,  and 
the  packing-rooms,  where  choice  meat  was  prepared  for  shipping  in 
refrigerator-cars,  destined  to  be  eaten  in  all  the  four  corners  of  civil- 

527 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

isation.  Afterwards  they  went  outside,  wandering  about  among  the 
mazes  of  buildings  in  which  was  done  the  work  auxiliary  to  this  great 
industry.  There  was  scarcely  a  thing  needed  in  the  business  that 
Durham*  and  Company  did  not  make  for  themselves.  There  was  a 
great  steam-power  plant  and  an  electricity  plant.  There  was  a 
barrel  factory,  and  a  boiler-repair  shop.  There  was  a  building  to 
which  the  grease  was  piped,  and  made  into  soap  and  lard ;  and  then 
there  was  a  factory  for  making  lard  cans,  and  another  for  making 
soap  boxes.  There  was  a  building  in  which  the  bristles  were  cleaned 
and  dried,  for  the  making  of  hair  cushions  and  such  things;  there 
was  a  building  where  the  skins  were  dried  and  tanned,  there  was  an- 
other where  heads  and  feet  were  made  into  glue,  and  another  where 
bones  were  made. into  fertiliser.  No  tiniest  particle  of  organic  matter 
was  wasted  in  Durham's.  Out  of  the  horns  of  the  cattle  they  made 
combs,  buttons,  hair-pins,  and  imitation  ivory;  out  of  the  shin  bones 
and  other  big  bones  they  cut  knife  and  tooth-brush  handles,  and 
mouthpieces  for  pipes;  out  of  the  hoofs  they  cut  hair-pins  and  but- 
tons, before  they  made  the  rest  into  glue.  From  such  things  as  feet, 
knuckles,  hide  clippings,  and  sinews  came  such  strange  and  unlikely 
products  as  gelatin,  isinglass,  and  phosphorous,  bone-black,  shoe-black- 
ing, and  bone-oil.  They  had  curled-hair  works  for  the  cattle  tails, 
and  a  '  wool-pullery '  for  the  sheep  skins ;  they  made  pepsin  from  the 
stomachs  of  the  pigs,  and  albumen  from  the  blood,  and  violin  strings 
from  the  ill-smelling  entrails.  When  there  was  nothing  else  to  be 
done  with  a  thing,  they  first  put  it  into  a  tank  and  got  out  of  it  all 
the  tallow  and  grease,  and  then  they  made  it  into  fertiliser.  All  these 
industries  were  gathered  into  buildings  near  by,  connected  by  gal- 
leries and  railroads  with  the  main  establishment ;  and  it  was  estimated 
that  they  had  handled  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  billion  of  animals  since 
the  founding  of  the  plant  by  the  elder  Durham  a  generation  and  more 
ago.  If  you  counted  with  it  the  other  big  plants  —  and  they  were  now 
really  all  one  —  it  was,  so  Jokubas  informed  them,  the  greatest  ag- 
gregation of  labour  and  capital  ever  gathered  in  one  place.  It  em- 
ployed thirty  thousand  men ;  it  supported  directly  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  people  in  its  neighbourhood,  and  indirectly  it  sup- 
ported half  a  million.  It  sent  its  products  to  every  country  in  the 
civilised  world,  and  it  furnished  the  food  for  no  less  than  thirty 
million  people ! " 

The  inhuman  brutality  of  the  whole  system;  the  method  by  which 
men  are  squeezed  like  oranges  of  all  there  is  in  them  and  then  thrown 
idly  aside  is  well  illustrated  by  the  following :  "  This  was  the  first 
time  in  his  life  that  he  had  ever  really  worked,  it  seemed  to  Jurgis; 
it  was  the  first  time  that  he  had  ever  had  anything  to  do  which  took 
all  he  had  in  him.  .  .  .  The  pace  they  set  here,  it  was  one 
that  called  for  every  faculty  of  a  man  —  from  the  instant  the  first 
steer  fell  till  the  sounding  of  the  noon  whistle,  and  again  from  half- 
past  twelve  till  heaven  only  knew  what  hour  in  the  late  afternoon  or 
evening,  there  was  never  one  instant's  rest  for  a  man,  for  his  hand 
or  his  eye  or  his  brain.  Jurgis  saw  how  they  managed  it;  there  were 
portions  of  the  work  which  determined  the  pace  of  the  rest,  and  for 
these  they  had  picked  men  whom  they  paid  high  wages,  and  whom 

528 


THE    CRY   OF   THE    STOMACH 

they  changed  frequently.  You  might  easily  pick  out  these  pace-mak- 
ers, for  they  worked  under  the  eye  of  the  bosses,  and  they  worked 
like  men  possessed.  This  was  called  '  speeding  up  the  gang/  and  if 
any  man  could  not  keep  up  with  the  pace,  there  were  hundreds  outside 
begging  to  try." 

In  a  description  of  a  pickle-room  we  find  the  following :  "  It 
seemed  that  he  was  working  in  the  room  where  the  men  prepared  the 
beef  for  canning,  and  the  beef  had  lain  in  .vats  full  of  chemicals,  and 
men  with  great  forks  speared  it  out  and  dumped  it  into  trucks,  to  be 
taken  to  the  cooking-room.  When  they  had  speared  out  all  they  could 
reach,  they  emptied  the  vat  on  the  floor,  and  then  with  shovels  scraped 
up  the  balance  and  dumped  it  into  the  truck.  This  floor  was  filthy, 
yet  they  set  Antanas  with  his  mop  slopping  the  '  pickle '  into  a  hole 
that  connected  with  a  sink,  where  it  was  caught  and  used  over  again 
forever;  and  if  that  were  not  enough,  there  was  a  trap  in  the  pipe, 
where  all  the  scraps  of  meat  and  odds  and  ends  of  refuse  were  caught, 
and  every  few  days  it  was  the  old  man's  task  to  clean  these  out,  and 
shovel  their  contents  into  one  of  the  trucks  with  the  rest  of  the 
meat ! " 

A  little  later  we  find  the  following :  "  One  curious  thing  he  had 
noticed,  the  very  first  day,  in  his  profession  of  shoveller  of  guts; 
which  was  the  sharp  trick  of  the  floor-bosses  whenever  there  chanced 
to  coir.e  a  (  slunk '  calf.  Any  man  who  knows  anything  about  butcher- 
ing knows  that  the  flesh  of  a  cow  that  is  about  to  calve,  or  has  just 
calved,  is  not  fit  for  food.  A  good  many  of  these  came  every  day  to 
the  packing-houses  —  and,  of  course,  if  they  had  chosen,  it  would 
have  been  an  easy  matter  for  the  packers  to  keep  them  till  they  were 
fit  for  food.  But  for  the  saving  of  time  and  fodder,  it  was  the  law 
that  cows  of  that  sort  came  along  with  the  others,  and  whoever  no- 
ticed'it  would  tell  the  boss,  and  the  boss  would  start  up  a  conversa- 
tion with  the  government  inspector,  and  the  two  would  stroll  away. 
So  in  a  trice  the  carcass  of  the  cow  would  be  cleaned  out,  and  the 
entrails  would  have  vanished;  it  was  Jurgis's  task  to  slide  them  into 
the  trap,  calves  and  all,  and  on  the  floor  below  they  took  out  these 
'  slunk '  calves,  and  butchered  them  for  meat,  and  used  even  the  skins 
of  them. 

"  One  day  a  man  slipped  and  hurt  his  leg ;  and  that  afternoon,  when 
the  last  of  the  cattle  had  been  disposed  of,  and  the  men  were  leaving, 
Jurgis  was  ordered  to  remain  and  do  some  special  work  which  this  in- 
jured man  had  usually  done.  It  was  late,  almost  dark,  and  the  gov- 
ernment inspectors  had  all  gone,  and  there  were  only  a  dozen  or  two 
of  men  on  the  floor.  That  day  they  had  killed  about  four  thousand 
cattle,  and  these  cattle  had  come  in  freight  trains  from  far  states,  and 
some  of  them  had  got  hurt.  There  were  some  with  broken  legs,  and 
some  with  gored  sides;  there  were  some  that  had  died,  from  what 
cause  no  one  could  say;  and  they  were  all  to  be  disposed  of,  here  iri 
darkness  and  silence.  '  Downers,'  the  men  called  them ;  and  the  pack- 
ing-house had  a  special  elevator  upon  which  they  were  raised  to  the 
killing-beds,  where  the  gang  proceeded  to  handle  them,  with  an  air 
of  businesslike  nonchalence  which  said  plainer  than  any  words  that  it 
was  a  matter  of  everyday  routine.  It  took  a  couple  of  hours  to  get 
34  529 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

them  out  of  the  way,  and  in  the  end  Jurgis  saw  them  go  into  the  chill- 
ing-rooms with  the  rest  of  the  meat,  being  carefully  scattered  here 
and  there  so  that  they  could  not  be  identified.  When  he  came  home 
that  night  he  was  in  a  very  sombre  mood,  having  begun  to  see  at  last 
how  those  might  be  right  who  had  laughed  at  him  for  his  faith  in 
America." 

We  have  already  given  Dr.  Hedger's  view  of  Bubbly  Branch.  Here 
is  what  Mr.  Sinclair  says  of  Bubbly  Creek  and  of  some  samples  of  po- 
litical corruption  about  as  noisome :  " '  Bubbly  Creek '  is  an  arm  of 
the  Chicago  River,  and  forms  the  southern  boundary  of  the  yards ;  all 
the  drainage  of  the  square  mile  of  packing-houses  empties  into  it,  so 
that  it  is  really  a  great  open  sewer  a  hundred  or  two  feet  wide.  One 
long  arm  of  it  is  blind,  and  the  filth  stays  there  forever  and  a  day. 
The  grease  and  chemicals  that  are  poured  into  it  undergo  all  sorts  of 
strange  transformations,  which  are  the  cause  of  its  name;  it  is  con- 
stantly in  motion,  as  if  huge  fish  were  feeding  in  it,  or  great  leviathans 
disporting  themselves  in  its  depths.  Bubbles  of  carbonic  acid  gas 
will  rise  to  the  surface  and  burst,  and  make  rings  two  or  three  feet 
wide.  Here  and  there  the  grease  and  filth  have  caked  solid,  and  the 
creek  looks  like  a  bed  of  lava ;  chickens  walk  about  on  it,  feeding,  and 
many  times  an  unwary  stranger  has  started  to  stroll  across,  and 
vanished  temporarily.  The  packers  used  to  leave  the  creek  that  way, 
till  every  now  and  then  the  surface  would  catch  on  fire  and  burn 
furiously,  and  the  fire  department  would  have  to  come  and  put  it 
out.  Once,  however,  an  ingenious  stranger  came  and  started  to  gather' 
this  filth  in  scows,  to  make  lard  out  of ;  then  the  packers  took  the  cue, 
and  got  oiit  an  injunction  to  stop  him,  and  afterwards  gathered  it 
themselves.  The  banks  of  'Bubbly  Creek'  are  plastered  thick  with 
hairs,  and  this  also  the  packers  gather  and  clean. 

"And  there  were  things  even  stranger  than  this,  according  to  the 
gossip  of  the  men.  The  packers  had  secret  mains,  through  which  they 
stole  billions  of  gallons  of  the  city's  water.  The  newspapers  had 
been  full  of  this  scandal  —  once  there  had  even  been  an  investigation, 
and  an  actual  uncovering  of  the  pipes;  but  nobody  had  been  punished, 
and  the  thing  went  right  on.  And  then  there  was  the  condemned 
meat  industry,  with  its  endless  horrors.  The  people  of  Chicago  saw 
the  government  inspectors  in  Packingtown,  and  they  all  took  that  to 
mean  that  they  were  protected  from  diseased  meat;  they  did  not  un- 
derstand that  these  hundred  and  sixty-three  inspectors  had  been  ap- 
pointed at  the  request  of  the  packers,  and  that  they  were  paid  by 
the  United  States  government  to  certify  that  all  the  diseased  meat 
was  kept  in  the  state.  They  had  no  authority  beyond  that;  for  the 
inspection  of  meat  to  be  sold  in  the  city  and  state  the  whole  force 
in  Packingtown  consisted  of  three  henchmen  of  the  local  political 
machine !  And  shortly  afterward  one  of  these,  a  physician,  made 
the  discovery  that  the  carcasses  of  steers  which  had  been  condemned 
as  tubercular  by  the  government  inspectors,  and  which  therefore  con- 
tained ptomaines,  which  are  deadly  poisons,  were  left  upon  an  open 
platform  and  carted  away  to  be  sold  in  the  city ;  and  so  he  insisted 
that  these  carcasses  be  treated  with  an  injection  of  kerosene  —  and 
was  ordered  to  resign  the  same  week!  So  indignant  were  the  pack- 

530 


THE    CRY    OF   THE    STOMACH 

ers  that  they  went  farther,  and  compelled  the  mayor  to  abolish  the 
whole  bureau  of  inspection ;  so  that  since  then  there  has  not  been  even 
a  pretence  of  any  interference  with  the  graft.  There  was  said  to  be 
two  thousand  dollars  a  week  hush-money  from  the  tubercular  steers 
alone ;  and  as  much  again  from  the  hogs  which  had  died  of  cholera  on 
the  trains,  and  which  you  might  see  any  day  being  loaded  into  box- 
cars and  hauled  away  to  a  place  called  Globe,  in  Indiana,  where  they 
made  a  fancy  grade  of  lard."  .  .  . 

"It  seemed  that  they  must  have  agencies  all  over  the  country,  to 
hunt  out  old  and  crippled  and  diseased  cattle  to  be  canned.  There 
were  cattle  which  had  been  fed  on  *  whiskey-malt/  the  refuse  of  the 
breweries,  and  had  become  what  the  men  called  '  steerly ' —  which 
means  covered  with  boils.  It  was  a  nasty  job  killing  these,  for  when 
you  plunged  your  knife  into  them  they  would  burst  and  splash  foul- 
smelling  stuff  into  your  face ;  and  when  a  man's  sleeves  were  smeared 
with  blood,  and  his  hands  steeped  in  it,  how  was  he  ever  to  wipe  his 
face,  or  to  clear  his  eyes  so  that  he  could  see?  It  was  stuff  such  as 
this  that  made  the  *  embalmed  beef '  that  had  killed  several  times  as 
many  United  States  soldiers  as  all  the  bullets  of  the  Spaniards;  only 
the  army  beef,  besides,  was  not  fresh  canned,  it  was  old  stuff  that  had 
been  lying  for  years  in  the  cellars/'  .  .  . 

"  They  were  regular  alchemists  at  Durham's ;  they  advertised  a 
mushroom-catsup,  and  the  men  who  made  it  did  not  know  what  a 
mushroom  looked  like.  They  advertised  'potted  chicken,' — and  it 
was  like  the  boarding-house  soup  of  the  comic  papers,  through  which 
a  chicken  had  walked  with  rubbers  on.  Perhaps  they  had  a  secret 
process  for  making  chickens  chemically  —  who  knows?  said  Jurgis's 
friend ;  the  things  that  went  into  the  mixture  were  tripe,  and  the  fat 
of  pork,  and  beef  suet,  and  hearts  of  beef,  and  finally  the  waste  ends 
of  veal,  when  they  had  any.  They  put  these  up  in  several  grades, 
and  sold  them  at  several  prices;  but  the  contents  of  the  cans  all 
came  out  of  the  same  hopper.  And  then  there  was  *  potted  game ' 
and  '  potted  grouse,'  '  potted  ham/  and  '  deviled  ham ' —  de-vyled,  as 
the  men  called  it.  '  De-vyled '  ham  was  made  out  of  the  waste  ends 
of  smoked  beef  that  were  too  small  to  be  sliced  by  the  machines ;  and 
also  tripe,  dyed  with  chemicals  so  that  it  would  not  show  white; 
and  trimmings  of  hams  and  corned  beef ;  and  potatoes,  skins  and  all ; 
and  finally  the  hard  cartilaginous  gullets  of  beef,  after  the  tongues 
had  been  cut  out.  All  this  ingenious  mixture  was  ground  up  and 
flavoured  with  spices  to  make  it  taste  like  something.  Anybody  who 
could  invent  a  new  imitation  had  been  sure  of  a  fortune  from  old 
Durham,  said  Jurgis's  informant;  but  it  was  hard  to  think  of  any- 
thing new  in  a  place  where  so  many  sharp  wits  had  been  at  work  for 
so  long ;  where  men  welcomed  tuberculosis  in  the  cattle  they  were  feed- 
ing, because  it  made  them  fatten  more  quickly ;  and  where  they  bought 
up  all  the  old  rancid  butter  left  over  in  the  grocery-stores  of  a  con- 
tinent, and  '  oxidised  *  it  by  a  forced-air  process,  to  take  away  the 
odour,  rechurned  it  with  skim-milk,  and  sold  it  in  bricks  in  the  cities ! 
Up  to  a  year  or  two  ago  it  had  been  the  custom  to  kill  horses  in  the 
yards  —  ostensibly  for  fertiliser;  but  after  long  agitation  the  news- 
papers had  been  able  to  make  the  public  realise  that  the  horses  were 

531 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

being  canned.  Now  it  was  against  the  law  to  kill  horses  in  Packing- 
town,  and  the  law  was  really  complied  with  —  for  the  present,  at  any 
rate.  Any  day,  however,  one.  might  see  sharp-horned  and  shaggy- 
haired  creatures  running  with  the  sheep  —  and  yet  what  a  job  you 
would  have  to  get  the  public  to  believe  that  a  good  part  of  what  it 
buys  for  lamb  and  mutton  is  really  goat's  flesh !  " 


532 


CHAPTEE  V 
SWINE   AND    SWINE 


533 


Things  equal  to  the  same  thing  are  equal  to  each  other. 

Axiom. 

I  might  say  that  I  regard  my  hogs  as  my  most  profitable  live  stock, 
but  for  all  that  I  do  not  find  it  necessary  to  keep  my  pig  in  my  par- 
lour. It  is  natural  for  my  shoats  to  root  up  the  sod  in  my  pasture,  but  it 
isn't  necessary,  and  so  I  put  rings  in  their  noses.  I  find  that  my  pork- 
ers make  very  satisfactory  bacon  from  corn-meal  and  clover,  and  so  I 
don't  find  it  necessary  to  give  them  the  freedom  of  the  strawberry  patch. 
Of  course,  Comegys,  if  my  prize  Poland-China  boar,  Plutus,  number  117, 
could  state  his  economic  views,  he  would  probably  tell  me  that  in  all 
these  things  I  am  violating  the  sacred  principle  of  laissez  faire.  He 
would  insist  in  the  strongest  terms  that  the  barbed-wire  fence  between 
his  pen  and  the  garden  is  a  serious  obstruction  to  porcine  enterprise. 
And  he  would  be  right,  too,  from  a  purely  porcine  point  of  view.  But 
his  reasoning  would  be  wrong  because  the  porcine  view-point  is  not  the 
correct  one.  As  a  matter  of  fact  I  am  not  keeping  my  farm  for  the 
benefit  of  my  pigs.  I  am  keeping  my  pigs  for  the  benefit  of  my  farm. 
John  M.  Palmer  —  The  Morals  of  Mammon,  McClure's,  July,  1906, 


534 


CHAPTER  V. 
SWINE   AND    SWINE 

N"  reference  to  the  conditions  obtaining  in  the  lesser 
or  tributary  industries  in  Packingtown,  we  are  told 
that  each  one  is  a  separate  little  inferno,  as  horrible 
in  its  way  as  the  killing-beds,  the  source  and  fountain 
of  them  all,  the  workers  in  each  having  their  own 
peculiar  diseases.  "  There  were  the  men  in  the 
pickle-rooms,  for  instance,  where  old  Antanas  had  gotten  his  death ;  * 
scarce  a  one  of  these  that  had  not  some  spot  of  horror  on  his  per- 
son. Let  a  man  so  much  as  scrape  his  finger  pushing  a  truck  in  the 
pickle-rooms,  and  he  might  have  a  sore  that  would  put  him  out  of 
the  world;  all  the  joints  in  his  fingers  might  be  eaten  by  the  acid, 
one  by  one.  Of  the  butchers  and  floorsmen,  the  beef -boners  and  trim- 
mers, and  all  those  who  used  knives,  you  could  scarcely  find  a  person 
who  had  the  use  of  his  thumb ;  time  and  time  again  the  base  of  it 
had  been  slashed,  till  it  was  a  mere  lump  of  flesh  against  which  the 
man  pressed  the  knife  to  hold  it.  The  hands  of  these  men  would 
be  criss-crossed  with  cuts,  until  you  could  no  longer  pretend  to  count 
them  or  to  trace  them.  They  would  have  no  nails, —  they  had  worn 
them  off  pulling  hides;  their  knuckles  were  swollen  so  that  their 
fingers  spread  out  like  a  fan.  There  were  men  who  worked  in  the 
cooking-rooms,  in  the  midst  of  steam  and  sickening  odours,  by  arti- 
ficial light;  in  these  rooms  the  germs  of  tuberculosis  might  live  for 
two  years,  but  the  supply  was  renewed  every  hour.  There  were  the 
beef -luggers,  who  carried  two-hundred-pound  quarters  into  the  refrig- 
erator-cars ;  a  fearful  kind  of  work,  that  began  at  lour  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  that  wore  out  the  most  powerful  men  in  a  few  years. 
There  were  those  who  worked  in  the  chilling-rooms,  and  whose  spe- 
cial disease  was  rheumatism ;  the  time-limit  that  a  man  could  work  in 
the  chilling-rooms  was  said  to  be  five  years.  There  were  the  wool- 
pluckers,  whose  hands  went  to  pieces  even  sooner  than  the  hands  of 
the  pickle-men;  for  the  pelts  of  the  sheep  had  to  be  painted  with 
acid  to  loosen  the  wool,  and  then  the  pluckers  had  to  pull  out  this 
wool  with  their  bare  hands,  till  the  acid  had  eaten  their  fingers  off. 
There  were  those  who  made  the  tins  for  the  canned-meat;  and  their 
hands,  too,  were  a  maze  of  cuts,  and  each  cut  represented  a  chance 
for  blood-poisoning.  Some  worked  at  the  stamping-machines,  and  it 
was  very  seldom  that  one  could  work  long  there  at  the  pace  that  was 
set,  and  not  give  out  and  forget  himself,  and  have  a  part  of  his  hand 
chopped  off.  There  were  the  'hoisters/  as  they  were  called,  whose 
task  it  was  to  press  the  lever  which  lifted  the  dead  cattle  off  the 

*"The  Jungle,"  (p.  116)  by  Upton  Sinclair. 

535 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

floor.  They  ran  along  upon  a  rafter,  peering  down  through  the 
damp  and  the  steam;  and  as  old  Durham's  architects  had  not  built 
the  killing-room  for  the  convenience  of  the  holsters,  at  every  few 
feet  they  would  have  to  stoop  under  a  beam,  say  four  feet  above  the 
one  they  ran  on;  which  got  them  into  the  habit  of  stooping,  so  that 
in  a  few  years  they  would  be  walking  like  chimpanzees.  Worst  of 
any,  however,  were  the  fertiliser-men,  and  those  who  served  in  the 
cooking-rooms.  These  people  could  not  be  shown  to  the  visitor, —  for 
the  odour  of  a  fertiliser-man  would  scare  any  ordinary  visitor  at  a 
hundred  yards,  and  as  for  the  other  men,  who  worked  in  tank-rooms 
full  of  steam,  and  in  some  of  which  there  were  open  vats  near  the  level 
of  the  floor,  their  peculiar  trouble  was  that  they  fell  into  the  vats ;  and 
when  they  were  fished  out,  there  was  never  enough  of  them  left  to 
be  worth  exhibiting, —  sometimes  they  would  be  overlooked  for  days, 
till  all  but  the  bones  of  them  had  gone  out  to  the  world  as  Durham's 
Pure  Leaf  Lard !  " 

The  following  picture  of  conditions  in  Packingtown  during  mid- 
summer is  worthy  of  a  Zola  or  a  Dante :  "  All  day  long  the  rivers 
of  hot  blood  poured  forth,  until,  with  the  sun  beating  down,  and  the 
air  motionless,  the  stench  was  enough  to  knock  a  man  over;  all  the 
old  smells  of  a  generation  would  be  drawn  out  by  this  heat  —  for  there 
was  never  any  washing  of  the  walls  and  rafters  and  pillars,  and  they 
were  caked  with  the  filth  of  a  lifetime.  The  men  who  worked  on 
the  killing-beds  would  come  to  reek  with  foulness,  so  that  you  could 
smell  one  of  them  fifty  feet  away;  there  was  simply  no  such  thing 
as  keeping  decent,  the  most  careful  man  gave  it  up  in  the  end,  and 
wallowed  in  uncleanness.  There  was  not  even  a  place  where  a  man 
could  wash  his  hands,  and  the  men  ate  as  much  raw  blood  as  food  at 
dinner-time.  When  they  were  at  work  they  could  not  even  wipe 
off  their  faces  —  they  were  as  helpless  as  newly  born  babes  in  that 
respect;  and  it  may  seem  like  a  small  matter,  but  when  the  sweat 
began  to  run  down  their  necks  and  tickle  them,  or  a  fly  to  bother 
them,  it  was  a  torture  like  being  burned  alive.  Whether  it  was  the 
slaughter-houses  or  the  dumps  that  were  responsible,  one  could  not 
say,  but  with  the  hot  weather  there  descended  upon  Packingtown  a 
veritable  Egyptian  plague  of  flies;  there  could  be  no  describing  this 
—  the  houses  would  be  black  with  them.  There  was  no  escaping ;  you 
might  provide  all  your  doors  and  windows  with  screens,  but  their  buz- 
zing outside  would  be  like  the  swarming  of  bees,  and  whenever  you 
opened  the  door  they  would  rush  in  as  if  a  storm  of  wind  were  driv- 
ing them." 

Concerning  the  demoniacal  haste  forced  upon  the  workers  we  have 
the  following :  "  On  the  contrary,  the  speeding-up  seemed  to  be  grow- 
ing more  savage  all  the  time;  they  were  continually  inventing  new 
devices  to  crowd  the  work  on  —  it  was  for  all  the  world  like  the 
thumb-screw  of  the  mediaeval  torture-chamber.  They  would  get  new 
pace-makers  and  pay  them  more;  they  would  drive  the  men  on  with 
new  machinery  —  it  was  said  that  in  the  hog-killing  rooms  the  speed 
at  which  the  hogs  moved  was  determined  by  clock-work,  and  that  it 
was  increased  a  little  every  day.  In  piece-work  they  would  reduce  the 
time,  requiring  the  same  work  in  a  shorter  time,  and  paying  the 

536 


SWINE   AND    SWINE 

same  wages;  and  then,  after  the  workers  had  accustomed  themselves 
to  this  new  speed,  they  would  reduce  the  rate  of  payment  to  corre- 
spond with  the  reduction  in  time!  They  had  done  this  so  often  in 
the  canning  establishments  that  the  girls  were  fairly  desperate ;  their 
wages  had  gone  down  by  a  full  third  in  the  past  two  years,  and  a 
storm  of  discontent  was  brewing  that  was  likely  to  break  any  day." 

We  have  already  alluded  in  a  previous  chapter  to  potato-flour  as  a 
food  adulterant  in  this  country.  The  following  quotation  from  "  The 
Jungle  "  is  of  interest  in  this  connexion :  "  But  they  had  come  to  a 
new  country,  where  everything  was  different,  including  the  food. 
They  had  always  been  accustomed  to  eat  a  great  deal  of  smoked  sau- 
sage, and  how  could  they  know  that  what  they  bought  in  America 
was  not  the  same  —  that  its  colour  was  made  by  chemicals,  and  its 
smoky  flavor  by  more  chemicals,  and  that  it  was  full  of  '  potato- 
flour  '  besides?  Potato-flour  is  the  waste  of  potato  after  the  starch 
and  alcohol  have  been  extracted;  it  has  no  more  food  value  than  so 
much  wood,  and  as  its  use  as  a  food  adulterant  is  a  penal  offence  in 
Europe,  thousands  of  tons  of  it  are  shipped  to  America  every  year. 
It  was  amazing  what  quantities  of  food  such  as  this  were  needed  every 
day,  by  eleven  hungry  persons.  A  dollar  sixty-five  a  day  was  simply 
not  enough  to  feed  them,  and  there  was  no  use  trying;  and  so  each 
week  they  made  an  inroad  upon  the  pitiful  little  bank-account  that  Ona 
had  begun.  Because  the  account  was  in  her  name,  it  was  possible  for 
her  to  keep  this  a  secret  from  her  husband,  and  to  keep  the  heart- 
sickness  of  it  for  her  own." 

In  explanation  of  the  way  disappearances  were  sometimes  accounted 
for  in  Packingtown,  we  have  the  following :  "  Brother  Jonas  dis- 
appeared. One  Saturday  night  he  did  not  come  home,  and  thereafter 
all  their  efforts  to  get  trace  of  him  were  futile.  It  was  said  by  the 
boss  at  Durham's  that  he  had  gotten  his  week's  money  and  left 
there,  That  might  not  be  true,  of  course,  for  sometimes  they  would 
say  that  when  a  man  had  been  killed;  it  was  the  easiest  way  out  of 
it  for  all  concerned.  When,  for  instance,  a  man  had  fallen  into  one 
of  the  rendering  tanks  and  had  been  made  into  pure  leaf  lard  and 
peerless  fertiliser,  there  was  no  use  letting  the  fact  out  and  making  his 
family  unhappy." 

The  fertiliser  plant  is  described  as  the  nethermost  hell  of  the  whole 
system.  We  are  told  that  the  men  talked  about  it  in  awe-stricken 
whispers :  "  The  fertiliser-works  of  Durham's  lay  away  from  the 
rest  of  the  plant.  Few  visitors  ever  saw  them,  and  the  few  who  did 
would  come  out  looking  like  Dante,  of  whom  the  peasants  declared 
that  he  had  been  into  hell.  To  this  part  of  the  yards  came  all  the 
'tankage,'  and  the  waste  products  of  all  sorts;  here  they  dried  out 
the  bones, —  and  in  suffocating  cellars  where  the  daylight  never  came 
you  might  see  men  and  women  and  children  bending  over  whirling 
machines  and  sawing  bits  of  bone  into  all  sorts  of  shapes,  breathing 
their  lungs  full  of  the  fine  dust,  and  doomed  to  die,  every  one  of 
them,  within  a  certain  definite  time.  Here  they  made  the  blood  into 
albumen,  and  made  other  foul-smelling  things  into  things  still  more 
foul-smelling.  In  the  corridors  and  caverns  where  it  was  done  you 
might  lose  yourself  as  in  the  great  caves  of  Kentucky.  In  the  dust 

537 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

and  the  steam  the  electric  lights  would  shine  like  far-off  twinkling 
stars  —  red  and  blue,  green  and  purple  stars,  according  to  the  colour 
of  the  mist  and  the  brew  from  which  it  came.  For  the  odours  in 
these  ghastly  charnel-houses  there  may  be  words  in  Lithuanian,  but 
there  are  none  in  English.  The  person  entering  would  have  to  sum- 
mon his  courage  as  for  a  cold-water  plunge.  He  would  go  on  like 
a  man  swimming  under  water ;  he  would  put  his  handkerchief  over  his 
face,  and  begin  to  cough  and  choke;  and  then,  if  he  were  still  obsti- 
nate, he  would  find  his  head  beginning  to  ring,  and  the  veins  in  his 
forehead  to  throb,  until  finally  he  would  be  assailed  by  an  overpower- 
ing blast  of  ammonia  fumes,  and  would  turn  and  run  for  his  life,  and 
come  out  half -dazed. 

"  On  top  of  this  were  the  rooms  where  they  dried  the  e  tankage/ 
the  mass  of  brown  stringy  stuff  that  was  left  after  the  waste  por- 
tions of  the  carcasses  had  had  the  lard  and  tallow  tried  out  of  them. 
This  dried  material  they  would  then  grind  to  a  fine  powder,  and  after 
they  had  mixed  it  up  well  with  a  mysterious  but  inoffensive  brown 
rock  which  they  brought  in  and  ground  up  by  the  hundreds  of  carloads 
for  that  purpose,  the  substance  was  ready  to  be  put  into  bags  and  seut 
out  of  the  world  as  any  one  of  the  hundred  different  brands  of  stand- 
ard bone-phosphate/' 

We  are  let  still  further  into  the  secrets  of  Packingtown  in  the  fol- 
lowing :  "  With  one  member  trimming  beef  in  a  cannery,  and  an- 
other working  in  a  sausage  factory,  the  family  had  a  first-hand  knowl- 
edge of  the  great  majority  of  Packingtown  swindles.  For  it  was  the 
custom,  as  they  found,  whenever  meat  was  so  spoiled  that  it  could  not 
be  used  for  anything  else,  either  to  can  it  or  else  to  chop  ft  up  into 
sausage.  With  what  had  been  told  them  by  Jonas,  who  had  worked 
in  the  pickle-rooms,  they  could  now  study  the  whole  of  the  spoiled- 
meat  industry  on  the  inside,  and  read  a  new  and  grim  meaning  into 
that  old  Packingtown  jest, —  that  they  use  everything  of  the  pig  ex- 
cept the  squeal. 

"  Jonas  had  told  them  how  the  meat  that  was  taken  out  of  pickje 
would  often  be  found  sour,  and  how  they  would  rub  it  up  with  soda 
to  take  away  the  smell,  and  sell  it  to  be  eaten  on  free-lunch  coun- 
ters ;  also  of  all  the  miracles  of  chemistry  which  they  performed,  giv- 
ing to  any  sort  of  meat,  fresh  or  salted,  whole  or  chopped,  any  colour 
and  any  flavour  and  any  odour  they  chose.  In  the  pickling  of  hams 
they  had  an  ingenious  apparatus,  by  which  they  saved  time  and  in- 
creased the  capacity  of  the  plant  —  a  machine  consisting  of  a  hollow 
needle  attached  to  a  pump;  by  plunging  this  needle  into  the  meat 
and  working  with  his  foot,  a  man  could  fill  a  ham  with  pickle  in 
a  few  seconds.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  this,  there  would  be  hams  found 
spoiled,  some  of  them  with  an  odour  so  bad  that  a  man  could  hardly 
bear  to  be  in  the  room  with  them.  To  pump  into  these  the  pack- 
ers had  a  second  and  much  stronger  pickle  which  destroyed  the  odour 
—  a  process  known  to  the  workers  as  '  giving  them  thirty  per  cent/ 
Also,  after  the  hams  had  been  smoked,  there  would  be  found  some  that 
had  gone  to  the  bad.  Formerly  these  had  been  sold  as  '  Number  Three 
Grade,'  but  later  on  some  ingenious  person  had  hit  upon  a  new  de- 
vice, and  now  they  would  extract  the  bone,  about  which  the  bad 

538 


SWINE   AND    SWINE 

part  generally  lay,  and  insert  in  the  hole  a  white-hot  iron.  After  this 
invention  there  was  no  longer  Number  One,  Two,  and  Three  Grade 
—  there  was  only  Number  One  Grade.  The  packers  were  always 
originating  such  schemes  —  they  had  what  they  called  '  boneless  hams,' 
which  were  all  the  odds  and  ends  of  pork  stuffed  into  casings;  and 
'  California  hams/  which  were  the  shoulders,  with  big  knuckle-joints, 
and  nearly  all  the  meat  cut  out ;  and  fancy  '  skinned  hams,'  which 
were  made  of  the  oldest  hogs,  whose  skins  were  so  heavy  and  coarse 
that  no  one  would  buy  them  —  that  is,  until  they  had  been  cooked  and 
chopped  fine  and  labelled  '  head  cheese ' ! 

"  It  was  only  when  the  whole  ham  was  spoiled  that  it  came  into  the 
department  of  Elzbieta.  Cut  up  by  the  two-thousand-revolutions-a- 
minute  flyers,  and  mixed  with  half  a  ton  of  other  meat,  no  odour 
that  ever  was  in  a  ham  could  make  any  difference.  There  was  never 
the  least  attention  paid  to  what  was  cut  up  for  sausage;  there  would 
come  all  the  way  back  from  Europe  old  sausage  that  had  been  re- 
jected, and  that  was  mouldy  and  white  —  it  would  be  dosed  with 
borax  and  glycerine,  and  dumped  into  the  hoppers,  and  made  over 
again  for  home  consumption.  There  would  be  meat  that  had  tumbled 
out  on  the  floor,  in  the  dirt  and  sawdust,  where  the  workers  had 
tramped  and  spit  uncounted  billions  of  consumption  germs.  There 
would  be  meat  stored  in  great  piles  in  rooms;  and  the  water  from 
leaky  roofs  would  drip  over  it,  and  thousands  of  rats  would  race  about 
on  it.  It  was  too  dark  in  these  storage  places  to  see  well,  but  a 
man  could  run  his  hand  over  these  piles  of  meat  and  sweep  off  hand- 
fuls  of  the  dried  dung  of  rats.  These  rats  were  nuisances,  and  the 
packers  would  put  poisoned  bread  out  for  them;  they  would  die,  and 
then  rats,  bread,  and  meat  would  go  into  the  hoppers  together.  This 
is  no  fairy  story  and  no  joke ;  the  meat  would  be  shovelled  into  carts, 
and  the  man  who  did  the  shovelling  would  not  trouble  to  lift  out  a 
rat  even  when  he  saw  one  —  there  were  things  that  went  into  the 
sausage  in  comparison  with  which  a  poisoned  rat  was  a  tidbit.  There 
was  no  place  for  the  men  to  wash  their  hands  before  they  ate  their 
dinner,  and  so  they  made  a  practice  of  washing  them  in  the  water 
that  was  to  be  ladled  into  the  sausage.  There  were  the  butt-ends  of 
smoked  meat,  and  the  scraps  of  corned  beef,  and  all  the  odds  and  ends 
of  the  waste  of  the  plants,  that  would  be  dumped  into  old  barrels  in 
the  cellar  and  left  there.  Under  the  system  of  rigid  economy  which 
the  packers  enforced,  there  were  some  jobs  that  it  only  paid  to  do 
once  in  a  long  time,  and  among  these  was  the  cleaning  out  of  the 
waste-barrels.  Every  spring  they  did  it;  and  in  the  barrels  would  be 
dirt  and  rust  and  old  nails  and  stale  water  —  and  cart  load  after  cart 
load  of  it  would  be  taken  up  and  dumped  into  the  hoppers  with 
fresh  meat,  and  sent  out  to  the  public's  breakfast.  Some  of  it  they 
woull  make  into  '  smoked'  sausage  —  but  as  the  smoking  took  time, 
and  was  therefore  expensive,  they  would  call  upon  their  chemistry  de- 
partment, and  preserve  it  with  borax  and  colour  it  with  gelatine  to 
make  it  brown.  All  of  their  sausage  came  out  of  the  same  bowl,  but 
when  they  came  to  wrap  it  they  would  stamp  some  of  it  '  special,'  and 
for  this  they  would  charge  two  cents  more  a  pound." 

The  stinging  indictments  contained  in  "  The  Jungle  "  were  not  suf- 

539 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

fered  to  pass  unchallenged  by  the  owners  of  Packingtown.  Mr.  J. 
Ogden  Armour  came  to  the  defence  of  the  Beef  Trust  in  a  recent  ar- 
ticle published  in  "  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,"  in  which  he  makes 
what  "  Everybody's  Magazine "  describes  as  a  "  flat-footed  assertion 
that  the  Government  inspection  of  the  Beef  Trust  slaughter-houses 
is  an  impregnable  wall  protecting  the  public  from  impure  meat,  and 
that  not  an  atom  of  diseased  meat  finds  its  way  into  the  products  of 
the  Armours."  The  exact  words  used  by  Mr.  Armour  as  quoted  are 
as  follows :  "  In  Armour  &  Co.'s  business  not  one  atom  of  any  con- 
demned animal  or  carcass  finds  its  way,  directly  or  indirectly,  from 
any  source,  into  any  food  product  or  food  ingredient." 

Replying  to  this  assertion  in  the  May,  1906,  number  of  "  Every- 
body's Magazine,"  the  author  of  "  The  Jungle  "  states  that  a  year  or  so 
ago  he  would  have  considered  such  a  statement  made  by  Mr.  Armour 
to  be  the  result  of  ignorance,  but  that  now  he  is  aware  that  Mr.  Ar- 
mour knows  every  detail  of  his  business.  To  use  Mr.  Sinclair's  words : 
"  I  know  that  he  has  his  finger  upon  every  detail  of  the  packing-house 
business;  and  therefore  —  using  italics,  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Ar- 
mour's own  example  —  I  know  that  in  the  statements  quoted  above, 
Mr.  Armour  wilfully  and  deliberately  states  what  he  absolutely  and 
positively  knows  to  be  falsehoods. _ 

"  I  have  had  to  face  Mr.  Armour,  and  his  power,  and  his  prestige, 
and  his  respectability,  so  often  that  I  am  now  grown  used  to  it.  I 
had  to  face  it,  for  instance,  when  I  went  out  to  find  a  publisher  for 
my  book ;  I  know  that  several  declined  to  print  it,  because  they  be- 
lieved Mr.  Armour,  and  did  not  believe  me.  The  firm  which  .at 
present  publishes  it  sent  out  to  the  editor  of  an  ultra-respectable  news- 
paper in  Chicago,  asking  for  an  impartial  opinion  about  the  book, 
and  the  editor  in  reply  transmitted  a  twenty-eight-page  typewritten 
report,  upon  the  letter-heads  of  the  newspaper,  purporting  to  be  the 
result  of  an  impartial  investigation,  and  branding  "  The  Jungle  "  as 
a  tissue  of  falsehoods ;  and  later  on  I  was  able  to  prove  that  this 
entire  report  was  drawn  up  in  the  office  of  the  legal  department  of 
Armour  &  Co. !  " 

The  article  then  goes  on  to  state  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Thomas  H. 
McKee,  who  was  sent  to  investigate  Packingtown  conditions.  Mr. 
McKee  states  what  he  saw  with  his  own  eyes,  and  his  report  is  a  most 
eloquent  refutation  of  Mr.  Armour's  statement,  to  wit :  "  Not  one 
atom  of  any  condemned  animal  or  carcass  finds  its  way  directly  or 
indirectly,  from  any  source,  into  any  food  product  or  food  ingredient." 
Continuing  his  article,  Mr.  Sinclair  relates  some  of  his  experiences 
in  Packingtown.  He  says:  "I  lived  among  the  stock-yards  people 
for  many  weeks,  making  the  most  minute  and  painstaking  examina- 
tion into  every  detail  of  their  lives,  as  well  as  of  the  packing-house 
methods.  I  shall  never  forget  my  emotions  on  my  very  first  evening 
in  the  yards,  when  I  sat  in  the  kitchen  of  one  of  Mr.  Armour's  cattle- 
butchers,  an  old  Lithuanian  working  man,  who  had  spent  twenty- 
five  years  of  his  life  in  Packingtown.  He  had  been  one  of  Tom 
Carey's  '  Indians '  in  his  early  days ;  he  had  been  naturalised  when 
only  two  months  in  America,  and  had  voted  seven  times  at  a  recent 
election.  He  was  intimately  familiar  with  every  detail  of  Mr.  Ar- 

540 


SWINE   AND    SWINE 

mour's  business  —  as  familiar,  I  dare  say,  as  Mr.  Armour  himself  — 
and  when  he  was  fairly  started  at  telling  me  what  he  had  seen  and 
done,  my  hair  began  to  rise  on  end.  He  told  me  that  meat  which 
had  been  condemned  as  unfit  for  food,  and  had  been  dropped  into 
tanks  to  be  rendered  into  fertiliser,  was  taken  out  at  the  bottom  of 
the  tanks,  and  canned  or  cut  up  for  sausage.  He  told  me  that  he 
had  done  this  with  his  own  hands ;  he  told  me  that  his  brother-in-law, 
who  worked  in  another  of  the  big  packing-houses,  had  done  it  quite 
recently ;  and  still  I  could  not  believe  him  —  it  could  not  be  true ! " 

He  states  that  the  reports  made  to  him  were  such  that  at  first  he 
could  not  believe  them  true.  He  took  this  story  to  the  head  of  the 
University  Settlement  in  the  stock-yards  and  asked  her  for  her  opin- 
ion on  the  matter.  We  give  the  result  in  his  own  words.  "She 
said:  'Mr.  Sinclair,  I  have  lived  thirteen  years  in  this  neighbour- 
hood, and  during  that  time  scarcely  a'  week  passes  that  some  one 
does  not  tell  me  some  such  story;  but  I  can't  believe  them  —  they 
can't  be  true!  Will  your  man,  or  his  brother-in-law,  or  other  men 
who  know  of  it,  make  an  affidavit  to  it  ? '  I  took  the  question  to  the 
grizzled  old  cattle-butcher,  and  he  laughed.  '  Sure,'  he  said,  '  I'll 
make  an  affidavit  to  it  —  on  one  condition.'  '  What  is  that  ?  '  I  asked. 
'  Simply  that  the  lady  will  go  under  bond  to  give  me  a  job  for  the 
balance  of  my  life.' " 

Continuing  his  own  investigations  he  says :  "  I  got  into  many  places 
in  the  big  packing-houses  and  I  saw  sights  of  filth  and  horror  such 
as  I  hope  never  to  see  again;  but  even  disguised  as  a  working  man, 
and  in  company  with  men  who  were  intimately  known  in  the  estab- 
lishments, I  was  unable  to  get  past  the  '  spotters '  and  watchmen  who 
guard  those  particular  doors  that  I  wished  to  pass.  I  tried  it  until 
I  was  known  at  all  the  places,  and  then  I  had  to  give  it  up ;  and  so 
I  came  away  —  and  in  mentioning  this  matter  in  my  book,  because  I 
had  not  seen  it  myself,  I  told  of  it  as  a  thing  which  my  hero  did  not 
.see,  but  which  he  heard  as  a  rumour  from  other  people.  And  then 
only  the  other  day  I  came  upon  positive  evidence  of  this  crime  — 
and  in  Mr.  Armour's  own  establishment! 

"  At  the  time  of  the  embalmed-beef  scandal,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
Spanish  War,  when  the  whole  country  was  convulsed  with  fury  over 
the  revelations  made  by  soldiers  and  officers  (including  General  Miles 
and  President  Roosevelt)  concerning  the  quality  of  meat  which  Ar- 
mour &  Co.  had  furnished  to  the  troops,  and  concerning  the  death- 
rate  which  it  had  caused,  the  enormity  of  the  '  condemned-meat  in- 
dustry '  became  suddenly  clear  to  one  man  who  had  formerly  super- 
vised it.  Mr  Thomas  F.  Dolan,  then  residing  in  Boston,  had,  up 
to  a  .short  time  previous,  been  a  superintendent  at  Armour  &  Co.'s, 
and  one  of  Mr.  Philip  D.  Armour's  most  capable  and  trusted  men. 
He  had  letters,  written  in  a  familiar  tone,  showing  that  Mr.  Armour 
was  of  the  opinion  that  he,  Mr.  Dolan,  could  kill  more  cattle  for  him 
in  a  given  time  than  any  other  man  he  ever  had ;  he  had  a  jewelled 
pin  presented  to  him  by  Mr.  Armour,  and  a  gold  watch  with  Mr. 
Armour's  name  in  it.  When  he  read  of  the  death-rate  in  the  army, 
he  made  an  affidavit  concerning  the  things  which  were  done  in  the 

541 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

establishment  of  Armour  &  Co.,  and  this  affidavit  he  took  to  the 
'  New  York  Journal,'  which  published  it  on  March  1,  1899." 

The  extracts  from  Mr.  Dolan's  affidavit  are  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance for  many  reasons,  some  of  which  are  pointed  out  by  Mr. 
Sinclair,  to  wit :  The  affidavit  constituted  "  a  definite  and  explicit 
charge  concerning  certain  things  which  Mr.  Armour  has  '  branded,' 
over  his  own  signature,  as  ( absolutely  false/ "  The  affidavit  was 
published  in  a  newspaper  whose  proprietor  is  very  wealthy  and  who 
might  easily  have  been  made  the  defendant  in  a  million-dollar  libel 
suit  with  a  practical  certainty  of  damages  in  a  large  sum,  if  the  Dolan 
allegations  could  not  be  substantiated.  Commenting  upon  these  facts 
Mr.  Sinclair  continues: 

"  What  did  Mr.  Armour  do  about  it? 

"  Did  he  have  Mr.  Thomas  F.  Dolan  arrested  for  criminal  libel ;  did 
he  bring  a  suit  for  a  million  dollars  libel  against  Mr.  William  R. 
Hearst ;  did  he  defy  his  accusers  to  produce  their  evidence  and  prove 
the  atrocious  crimes  with  which  they  had  charged  him?  No,  lie  did 
not  do  any  of  these  things!  What  he  did,  I  happen  to  know  from  a 
man  who  was  present  in  Mr.  Armour's  office  when  he  did  it,  and 
who  advised  and  urged  Mr.  Armour  strongly  not  to  do  it ;  what  he  did, 
upon  his  own  decision,  was  to  send  an  agent  to  Boston  with  five 
new,  crisp  one-thousand-dollar  bills,  to  offer  to  Mr.  Dolan,  provided 
that  he  would  make  another  affidavit  declaring  that  his  former  state- 
ments were  false,  and  that  he  had  been  paid  a  large  sum  of  money 
by  the  '  New  York  Journal '  to  make  them ! 

"  The  man  whom  Mr.  Armour  sent  is  now  in  an  insane  asylum  at 
Peoria,  111. ;  his  name  is  Gilligan.  He  went  to  Mr.  Dolan  and  offered 
him,  not  merely  the  five  new,  crisp  one-thousand-dollar  bills,  but 
also  a  trip  to  Europe,  with  expenses  for  himself  and  family  paid 
for  three  years,  provided  that  he  would  make  oath  to  a  falsehood, 
and  then  take  the  next  steamer.  Mr.  Dolan  referred  the  matter  to 
the  newspaper  people,  who  agreed  with  him  that  he  could  make  quite 
as  good  use  of  the  $5,000  as  could  Mr.  Armour,  and  so  Mr.  Dolan  took 
the  five  new,  crisp  one-thousand-dollar  bills  and  deposited  them  in 
bank,  to  be  held  in  trust  for  the  education  of  his  children;  and  that 
afternoon  Mr.  Gilligan,  on  his  way  back  to  report  his, triumph  to 
his  employer,  was  confronted  with  a  copy  of  the  "  New  York  Evening 
Journal,"  of  March  16,  1899,  containing  the  whole  affidavit  and  the 
whole  story,  under  the  caption  (in  letters  which  it  would  take  a  good 
part  of  this  magazine  page  to  reproduce)  : 

"  ARMOUK  PAYS  $5,000  FOR  A  GOLD  BRICK  IN  BOSTON ! " 

"  This  is  a  pretty  story.  It  falls  in  so  beautifully  with  the  letter 
recently  made  public  by  President  Roosevelt,  describing  how  Mr. 
Armour's  attorneys  had  been  bribing  newspaper  reporters  to  misrep- 
resent the  evidence  at  the  Government  prosecutions  in  Chicago.  It 
also  falls  in  beautifully  with  Mr!  Armour's  statement  concerning  the 
endless  blackmail  to  which  a  packer  would  be  liable  who  undertook 
to  profit  by  the  '  condemned-meat  industry.'  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
any  one  who  knows  anything  at  all  about  Mr.  .Armour's  affairs  knows 

542 


SWINE   AND    SWINE 

that  his  life  is  made  miserable  by  blackmailers.  Scarcely  an  em- 
ploye of  any  responsibility  leaves  Armour  &  Co.,  who  fails  to  take 
with  him  incriminating  documents,  and  then  come  back  and  sell  them 
to  Mr.  Armour  at  fancy  prices.  I  wish  I  were  at  liberty  to  tell  some 
of  the  stories  which  I  know  about  such  things.  Only  last  week  an 
intimate  friend  of  mine  was  conversing  with  a  man  who  had  gotten 
an  immense  sum  from  Mr.  Armour;  that  I  do  not  name  the  man 
and  the  exact  figure  is  simply  because  Mr.  Armour  might  buy  him 
again,  and  thus  close  an  important  source  of  information." 

As  we  regard  the  Dolan  affidavit  of  vital  interest  to  this  subject,  and 
as  Mr.  Sinclair  has  excerpted  from  it  precisely  those  portions  which 
we  should  wish  to  extract,  we  reproduce  it  in  extenso  from  his  article 
in  the  May,  1906,  "  Everybody's."  It  is  as  follows :  "  For  ten  years 
I  was  employed  by  Philip  D.  Armour,  the  great  Chicago  beef  packer 
and  canner.  I  rose  from  a  common  beef  skinner  to  the  station  of  su- 
perintendent of  the  beef-killing  gang,  with  500  men  directly  under 
me.  .  .  . 

"  There  were  many  ways  of  getting  around  the  inspectors  —  so 
many,  in  fact,  that  not  more  than  two  or  three  cattle  out  of  one  thou- 
sand were  condemned.  I  know  exactly  what  I  am  writing  of  in  this 
connexion,  as  my  particular  instructions  from  Mr.  W.  E.  Pierce,  su- 
perintendent of  the  beef  houses  for  Armour  &  Co.,  were  very  explicit 
and  definite. 

"  Whenever  a  beef  got  past  the  yard  inspectors  with  a  case  of  lumpy 
jaw  and  came  into  the  slaughter-house  or  the  'killing-bed/  I  was 
authorised  by  ^r.  Pierce  to  take  his  head  off,  thus  removing  the  evi- 
dences of  lumpy  jaw,  and  after  casting  the  smitten  portion  into  the 
tank  where  refuse  goes,  to  send  the  rest  of  the  carcass  on  its  way  to 
market. 

"  In  cases  where  tuberculosis  became  evident  to  the  men  who  were 
skinning  the  cattle  it  was  their  duty,  on  instructions  from  Mr.  Pierce, 
communicated  to  them  through  me,  at  once  to  remove  the  tubercles 
and  cast  them  into  a  trap-door  provided  for  that  purpose. 

"  I  have  seen  as  much  as  forty  pounds  of  flesh  afflicted  with  gan- 
grene cut  from  the  carcass  of  a  beef,  in  order  that  the  rest  of  the  ani- 
mal might  be  utilised  in  trade. 

"  One  of  the  most  important  regulations  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal 
Industry  is  that  no  cows  in  calf  are  to  be  placed  on  the  market.  Out 
of  a  slaughter  of  2,000  cows,  or  a  day's  killing,  perhaps  one-half  are 
with  calves.  My  instructions  from  Mr.  Pierce  were  to  dispose  of  the 
calves  by  hiding' them  until  night,  or  until  the  inspectors  left  off  duty. 
The  little  carcasses  were  then  brought  from  all  over  the  packing-house 
and  skinned  by  boys,  who  received  two  cents  for  removing  each  pelt. 
The  pelts  were  sold  for  fifty  cents  each  to  the  kid-glove  manufacturers. 
This  occurs  every  night  at  Mr.  Armour's  concern  at  Chicago,  or  after 
each  killing  of  cows. 

"  I  now  propose  to  state  here  exactly  what  I  myself  have  witnessed 
in  Philip  D.  Armour's  packing-house  with  cattle  that  have  been  con- 
demned by  the  Government  inspectors. 

"  A  workman,  one  Nicholas  Newson  during  my  time,  informs 
inspector  that  the  tanks  are  prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  con- 

543 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

demned  cattle  and  that  his  presence  is  required  to  see  the  beef  cast 
into  the  steam-tank.  Mr.  Inspector  proceeds  at  once  to  the  place  indi- 
cated, and  the  condemned  cattle,  having  been  brought  up  to  the  tank- 
room  on  trucks,  are  forthwith  cast  into  the  hissing  steam-boilers  and 
disappear.  That  is  to  say,  they  disappear  so  far  as  the  inspector  is 
concerned.  He  cranes  his  neck  slightly,  nods  his  head  approvingly, 
and  walks  away. 

"  But  the  condemned  steer  does  not  stay  in  the  tank  any  longer  than 
the  time  required  for  his  remains  to  drop  through  the  boiler  down 
to  the  floor  below,  where  he  is  caught  on  a  truck  and  hauled  back 
again  to  the  cutting-room.  The  bottom  of  the  tank  was  open,  and 
the  steer  passed  through  the  aperture. 

"  I  have  witnessed  the  farce  many  times.  I  have  seen  the  beef 
dropped  into  the  vat  in  which  a  steam-pipe  was  exhausting  with  a 
great  noise  so  that  the  thud  of  the  beef  striking  the  truck  below  could 
not  be  heard,  and  in  a  short  time  I  have  witnessed  Nicholas  bringing 
it  back  to  be  prepared  for  the  market. 

"  I  have  even  marked  beef  with  my  knife  so  as  to  distinguish  it,  and 
watched  it  return  to  the  point  where  it  started/'  .  .  . 

"  Of  all  the  evils  of  the  stock-yards,  the  canning  department  is  per- 
haps the  worst.  It  is  there  that  the  cattle  from  all  parts  of  the 
United  States  are  prepared  for  canning.  No  matter  how  scrawny 
or  debilitated  canners  are,  they  must  go  the  route  of  their  brothers 
and  arrive  ultimately  at  the  great  boiling  vats,  where  they  are  steamed 
until  they  are  reasonably  tender.  Bundles  of  gristle  and  bone  melt 
into  pulpy  masses  and  are  stirred  up  for  the  canning  department. 

"  I  have  seen  cattle  come  into  Armour's  stock-yard  so  weak  and  ex- 
hausted that  they  expired  in  the  corrals,  where  they  lay  for  an  hour 
or  two,  dead,  until  they  were  afterward  hauled  in,  skinned,  and  put 
on  the  market  for  beef  or  into  the  canning  department  for  cans. 

"It  was  the  custom  to  make  a  pretence  of  killing  in  such  cases. 
The  coagulated  blood  in  their  veijis  was  too  sluggish  to  flow,  and  in- 
stead of  getting  five  gallons  of  blood,  which  is  the  amount  commonly 
taken  from  a  healthy  steer,  a  mere  dark-red  clot  would  form  at  the 
wound. 

"  In  other  words,  the  Armour  establishment  was  selling  carrion. 

"  There  are  hundreds  of  other  men  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Armour 
who  could  verify  every  line  I  have  written.  They  have  known  of  these 
things  ever  since  packing  has  been  an  industry.  But  I  do  not  ask 
them  to  come  to  the  front  in  this  matter.  I  stand  on  my  oath,  word 
for  word,  sentence  for  sentence,  and  statement  for  statement. 

"  I  write  this  story  of  my  own  free  will  and  volition,  and  no  one 
is  responsible  for  it  but  myself.  It  is  the  product  of  ten  years  of  ex- 
perience. It  is  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth, 
so  help  me  God.  THOMAS  F.  DOLAN. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  first  day  of  March,  1899. 

Orville  P.  Derby, 

Notary  Public,  Kings  County,  N.  Y. 
Certificate  filed  in  New  York  County." 

Mr.  .Sinclair  quotes  the  following  statement  from  Mr.  Armour. 
"  This  Government  inspection  thus  becomes  aoi  important  adjunct  of 

544 


SWINE   AND    SWINE 

the  packer's  business  from  two  view-points.  It  puts  the  stamp  of 
legitimacy  and  honesty  upon  the  packer's  product,  and  so  is  to  him 
a  necessity ;  to  the  public  it  is  an  insurance  against  the  selling  of  dis- 
eased meats." 

Commenting  upon  this  Mr.  Sinclair  says :  "  This  is  a  statement 
which  the  packers  make  continuously ;  it  is  hard  for  a  man  who  knows 
the  truth  to  read  them  and  preserve  his  temper.  What  is  the  truth 
about  this  Federal  inspection?  To  put  it  into  one  sentence  —  again 
following  Mr.  Armour's  example  by  using  italics  —  it  is  this :  That 
the  Federal  inspection  of  meat  was,  historically,  established  at  the 
packers'  request;  that  it  is  maintained  and  paid  for  by  the  people  of 
the  United  States  for  the  benefit  of  the  packers;  that  men  wearing 
the  blue  uniforms  and  brass  buttons  of  the  United  States  service  are 
employed  for  the  purpose  of  certifying  to  the  nations  of  the  civilised 
world  that  all  the  diseased  and  tainted  meat  which  happens  to  come 
into  existence  in  the  United  States  of  America  is  carefully  sifted  out 
and  consumed  by  the  American  people. 

"  This  is  a  strong  statement ;  and  yet  I  might  go  even  farther.  I 
might  say  this  also:  that  the  laws  regulating  the  inspection  of  meat 
were  written  by  the  packers,  and  written  by  the  packers  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  making  this  whole  condemned-meat  industry  impossi- 
ble of  prevention.  The  Federal  inspectors  have  power  to  condemn 
meat,  but  they  have  no  power  to  destroy  it.  This  power  is  delegated, 
under  the  law,  ^p  the  representatives  of  'the  State  or  municipality  in 
which  it  is  found/  " 

Mr.  Sinclair  quotes  a  letter  written  to  him  last  January  by  Dr. 
Jaques,  from  which  the  following  is  an  interesting  excerpt :  "  For- 
eign countries  refused  our  meat  and  the  packers  appealed  to  our  Gov- 
ernment. It  was  finally  arranged  that  Germany  would  accept  Ameri- 
can meat  if  our  Government  would  guarantee  its  quality;  to  this  end 
Federal  inspection  was  instituted  at  the  packing-houses.  The  Federal 
inspector  comes  to  the  packer  to  inspect  his  meat  for  export,  and  at 
his  bidding.  He  is  under  the  packer's  influence  continually,  and  if 
not  satisfactory  to  the  packer  will  lose  his  place.  His  instructions 
make  it  easy  for  him  by  saying  that  the  diseased  meat  is  '  to  be  dis- 
posed of  according  to  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  State  and  mu- 
nicipality in  which  it  is  found/  The  city  inspectors  are  the  usual 
grade  of  employes,  on  duty  during  City  Hall  hours,  from  9  until  5. 
The  Civic  Federation  employed  a  detective  to  watch  three  of  these, 
and  found  that  most  of  their  time  was  spent  in  saloons.  There  were 
only  four  of  them  at  the  yards.  They  were  under  a  head  of  depart- 
ment at  the  City  Hall,  who  got  his  position  for  strenuous  activity  m 
the  last  campaign.  The  packers'  contribution  made  this  same  duty 

pleasant. 

"  Just  to  show  how  the  packers  have  their  hands  on  the  situation  1 
have  only  to  say  that  the  first  of  this  month  Dr.  Biehn,  my  successor 
was  withdrawn  from  this  work  and  the  stock-yards  inspection  placed 
under  '  Fish  Murray,'  a  protege  of  the  stock-yards  alderman,  Cary. 
Murray  was  fish  inspector  under  me  and  laughed  at  my  efforts  to 
make  him  do  something  to  earn  his  salary.  To  my  knowledge,  he 
never  condemned  a  pound  of  fish  nor  did  a  day's  work  in  the  four- 
35  545 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

teen  months  that  I  was  his  chief.  The  Health  Department  now 
issues  a  statement  that  the  condition  is  remedied,  and  that  Chicago 
is  no  longer  a  dumping-ground  for  bad  meat.  The  truth  is  that  the 
mayor  is  already  fixing  up  his  fences  for  reelection." 

In  drawing  his  article  to  a  close,  Mr.  Sinclair,  says,  in  part,  "  I 
have  charged,  and  I  charge  here  again,  that  the  so-called  '  potted 
ham '  and  '  deviled  ham '  sold  by  Armour  &  Co.  consist  of  the  old 
dry  waste  ends  of  smoked  beef,  ground  up  with  potato  skins,  with  the 
hard  cartilaginous  gullets  of  beef,  and  with  the  udders  of  cows,  dyed 
to  prevent  their  showing  white.  And  the  Federal  inspection  has  no 
power  to  prevent  that !  " 

He  refers  Mr.  Armour  to  a  long  list  of  official  condemnations  of 
his  various  products,  and  cites  the  case  of  a  St.  Bernard  dog  which 
had  been  fed,  by  way  of  experiment,  upon  artificially  coloured  foods. 
After  a  15  days'  diet  the  dog  showed  a  loss  of  32  pounds  in  weight 
and  was  scarcely  able  to  walk  across  the  stage.  Mr.  Sinclair  says  in 
conclusion:  "Writing  in  a  magazine  of  large  circulation  and  influ- 
ence, and  having  the  floor  all  to  himself,  Mr.  Armour  spoke  serenely 
and  boastfully  of  the  quality  of  his  meat  products,  and  challenged 
the  world  to  impeach  his  integrity,  but  when  he  was  brought  into 
court  charged  with  crime  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  he 
spoke  in  a  different  tone,  and  to  a  different  purport ;  he  said  '  guilty.' 
He  pleaded  this  to  a  criminal  indictment  for  selling  ' preserved* 
minced  ham  in  Greenburg,  and  paid  the  fine  of  $50  and  costs.  He 
pleaded  guilty  again  in  Shenandoah,  Pa.,  on  June  16,  1905,  to  the 
criminal  charge  of  selling  adulterated  '  blockweirst ' ;  and  again  he 
paid  the  fine  of  $50  and  costs.  Why  should  Mr.  Armour  be  let  off 
with  fines  which  are  of  less  consequence  to  him  than  the  price  of  a 
postage  stamp  to  you  or  me,  instead  of  going  to  jail  like  other  con- 
victed criminals  who  do  not  happen  to  be  millionaires  ?  " 

We  have  referred  to  a  series  of  articles  published  in  The  London 
"Lancet"  in  the  early  part  of  1905.  The  "Lancet"  is  a  high-grade 
scientific  journal.  We  submit  the  following  quotations  as  being  of 
interest  with  regard  to  this  subject.  From  the  issue  of  January  7, 
1905,  we  extract  the  following;  "It  will  scarcely  be  believed,  but  it 
is  nevertheless  a  fact,  that  at  Chicago  not  only  is  there  no  municipal 
abattoir  but  there  are  no  private  abattoirs  in  the  technical  sense  of 
the  term.  It  is  true  that  millions  of  animals  are  slaughtered  annu- 
ally but  they  are  not  slaughtered  in  slaughter-houses.  For  many 
hours  I  wandered  about  the  stock-yards  and  I  saw  many  animals  killed 
but  nowhere  could  I  discover  the  smallest  trace  of  a  slaughter-house. 
The  animals  were  killed  not  in  abattoirs  but  in  mills  or  factories  — 
huge,  hideous  box-shaped  buildings  five  and  six  stories  high.  The 
pigs  notably  were  killed  on  the  second  or  third  floor  of  these  build- 
ings. As  for  all  the  principles  of  sanitation  laid  down  to  govern 
the  construction  of  abattoirs,  these  were  ignored  from  the  first  to  the 
last.  Consequently  the  insecurity  is  so  great  that  several  nations  of 
the  more  civilised  parts  of  the  world  have  .thought  it  necessary  to 
enact  special  laws  against  Chicago.  The  exportation  of  pork  products 
from  Chicago  to  Germany,  Austria,  France  and  Denmark  is  prohibited 
unless,  accompanied  by  a  certificate  issued,  not  by  any  local  authority, 

546 


SWINE   AND    SWINE 

but  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  itself.  The  entire  Ameri- 
can nation  thus  pledges  its  honour  that  no  product  that  has  nbt  been 
carefully  examined  under  the  microscope  shall  be  exported  from  Chi- 
cago to  those  countries.  As  for  American  citizens  or  for  British  citi- 
zens it  does  not  matter.  They  may  swallow  trichina?  wholesale;  no 
one  seems  to  think  it  is  worth  while  to  attempt  to  protect  them." 

Jan.  14,  1905.  "  But  there  is  a  singular  lack  of  the  sense  of  dig- 
nity in  the  United  States.  This  came  specially  under  my  notice  at 
St.  Louis  where  the  grandeur  of  the  World's  Fair  was  largely  spoiled 
by  the  undignified  rowdyism  and  vulgarity  that  men  allowed  to  pre- 
vail within  its  precincts.  At  the  Chicago  stock-yards  I  could  not 
but  feel  scandalised  and  humiliated  when  I  saw  the  foul  and  abomi- 
nable premises  in  which  the  representatives  of  science,  the  representa- 
tives of  the  United  States  of  America,  the  representatives  of  the 
majesty  of  the  law,  condescended  to  work  daily  in  the  accomplishment 
of  their  mission.  This  mission  would  be  better  accomplished  if  the 
veterinary  surgeons,  as  members  of  a  liberal  profession  and  as  repre- 
sentatives of  a  great  country,  refused  to  work  in  these  noisome  places. 
Such  a  course  would  at  once  stop  the  present  abominations  by  com- 
pelling the  hog-merchants  to  reconstruct  their  premises.  It  is  a  very 
good  thing  that  inspectors  are  appointed  by  the  authorities  at  Wash- 
ington, but  it  wouldjse  better  still  if  they  were  first  sent  to  Berlin  to 
learn  not  only  how  a  slaughter-house  ought  to  be  managed  and  con- 
structed, but  also  to  observe  how  those  who  have  the  honour  of  being 
intrusted  with  a  public  duty  are  more  respected  than  business  men, 
however  rich."  .  .  . 

"  An  official  of  the  Canners'  Union  assured  me  that  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  members  of  his  union  worked  by  artificial  light.  He 
had  not  himself  seen  daylight  for  many  months,  and  so  far  as  the 
enjoyment  of  sunshine  was  concerned  they  might  as  well  be  miners 
working  in  a  coal-pit.  Yet  if  ever  there  was  an  occupation  requiring 
plenty  of  daylight  and  fresh  air  it  is  that  of  cleaning,  cutting  up, 
preparing,  and  canning  animal  food.  But  the  buildings  are  so  large 
and  square  in  shape  that,  as.  already  explained,  the  light  from  the 
windows  cannot  penetrate  to  the  centre ;  while  machinery,  passing  car- 
casses, furniture,  fixtures,  and  partitions  shut  out  the  light  from  many 
of  the  places  that  it  might  otherwise  reach.  Yet  it  is  obvious  that 
work  of  this  description  —  the  manipulation  of  animal  substance  in- 
tended for  food  —  should  be  done  only  in  the  broadest  daylight  and 
in  the  purest  atmosphere.  In  these  dark  places  the  meat  falls  on  the 
floor  and  comes  in  contact  with  the  dirt  from  the  boots  of  the  workers 
and  the  bacilli  from  the  sputum  of  a  population  among  whom  pul- 
monary tuberculosis  is  more  prevalent  than  among  any  other  section 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Chicago.  Close  at  hand  there  are  closets,  and 
they  are  in  some  places  only  a  few  feet  from  the  food.  These  closets 
are  at  times  out  of  order,  deficient,  defective,  or  even  entirely  devoid 
of  flushing.  They  are  all  the  more  offensive  as  they  are  not  suffi- 
ciently numerous  for  the  large  staff  of  workers  who  use  them.  This 
is  especially  the  case  in  one  of  the  rooms  where .  soup  is.  made  for 
preserving  in  tins.  In  one  department  there  were  two  closets,  neither 

547 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

of  which  could  be  flushed,  provided  for  80  women.  Little  or  no 
thought  has  been  taken  as  to  the  welfare  of  the  workers." 

We  have  dealt  thus  at  great  length  with  this  subject  of  wholesale 
food  adulteration  and  debasement  for  the  reason,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  it  shows  better  than  almost  anything  else  we  could  submit,  to 
what  shameful  moral  pass  this  great  American  dollar-love  has  brought 
us,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  because  our  food-supply  is  a  matter  of 
universal  importance  and  interest.  Here  is  a  case  where  the  pluto- 
cratic rich  can  no  more  side-step  the  results  of  corruption  than  can 
the  impoverished  toiler.  On  the  contrary,  these  evils  are  perhaps  a 
graver  menace  to  the  rich  than  to  the  poor.  The  national  vigour  ap- 
parently is  on  the  wane.  Cancer  and  other  grave  ailments  are  in- 
creasing to  an  alarming  degree.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  a  strictly 
healthy  man  or  woman  is  such  a  rarity  as  to  excite  almost  universal 
comment  ?  There  are  many  who,  we  think,  are  types  of  physical  vig- 
our until  we  question  them,  when  we  at  once  find  that  the  thoroughly 
healthy  American  adult  is  all  but  a  thing  of  the  past.  Is  it  any 
wonder  when  we  reflect  that  practically  everything  we  eat  and  drink 
is  either  robbed  of  the  good  it  is  supposed  to  contain,  or  supplied 
with  deleterious  evils  which  it  should  not  contain,  or  suffered  to  be- 
come diseased,  putrescent,  or  otherwise  unfit  for  human  stomachs  ? 

What  a  comment  it  is  upon  our  modern  civilisation  when  papers 
find  it  necessary  to  utter  warnings  like  the  following,  extracted  from 
the  "  Cincinnati  Post " :  "  It  is  too  much  to  expect  that  the  Chicago 
packers  will  clean  up  until  they  are  compelled  to,  so,  for  people  who 
still  wish  to  eat  meat  from  cans  a  word  of  advice  may  be  convenient. 

"  This  is,  cook  it  thoroughly. 

"  Cooking  will,  at  least,  kill  all  the  germs.  Dead  germs  may  not  be 
particularly  nutritious,  but  they  are  at  least  harmless.  Acid  pre- 
servatives will  not  be  removed  by  cooking,  but  the  adult  stomach  can 
stand  a  certain  amount  of  acid  poison.  But  under  no  circumstances 
feed  children  on  canned  meats.  Give  them  fresh  meat  only,  and  see 
that  it  is  fresh." 

Still  better  than  this  advice  is  that  of  the  Eev.  Herbert  S.  Bigelow, 
as  given  in  an  article  entitled  "  Flesh  Eating,"  published  in  "  The 
Public  "  of  June  16,  1906.  He  says  in  part :  "  In  his  famous  letter 
to  the  London  '  Times/  on  the  land  question  in  Eussia,  Tolstoy  spoke 
of  several  ideas  as  ripe  for  discussion  and  action.  He  spoke  of  pri- 
vate property  in  land  as  the  '  nearest  and  most  obvious  evil/  He  held 
that  besides  facing  this  evil  our  civilisation  must  also  face  the  prob- 
lems of  capital  punishment,  prostitution,  and  militarism.  And  to 
this  category  of  ripe  problems  he  added  the  practice  of  flesh-eating. 

"  The  packing-house  exposure  is  the  most  effective  argument  ever 
made  for  a  vegetarian  diet.  It  will  be  hard  for  imaginative  people 
to  forget  those  dead  rats  and  amputated  fingers.  They  will  reflect 
that  there  is  already  an  army  of  government  meat  inspectors.  If, 
with  all  these  inspectors,  it  took  a  socialist  novel  to  acquaint  the  public 
with  conditions,  how  secure  will  these  imaginative  people  feel  when 
the  government  has  a  few  more  inspectors  ? 

"  We  used  to  go  to  the  priests  for  salvation.  Now  we  go  to  the 
state,  We  fly  to  the  arms  of  the  government  inspector.  Just  as  if  he 

548 


SWINE   AND    SWINE 

had  not  already  been  tried  and  found  wanting.  '  Oh,'  said  a  lady  « the 
government  is  going  to  put  a  label  on  the  meat.  It  will  be  all 'right 
now.  Great  is  government!  With 'a  government  label  on  the  sau- 
sage, and  a  rabbit's  foot  around  the  neck,  may  luck  be  with  us !  At 
any  rate,  we  may  try  eating  as  Governor  Pingree  used  to  vote,  hold- 
ing the  nose."  .  .  . 

"But  the  church  as  well  as  the  state  is  under  indictment.  Has 
not  the  church  been  telling  us  that  the  individual  problem  is  every- 
thing; that  if  the  individual  soul  is  saved,  society  will  save  itself? 
Are  not  the  packers  church  members  ?  Is  not  their  gold  lifted  to  God 
every  Sabbath  day  ?  Do  not  their  pastors  encourage  them  in  the  idea 
that  their  souls  are  already  saved  ?  Has  the  church  lost  its  effective- 
ness, or  is  its  philosophy  wrong?  But  while  we  are  waiting  for  the 
church  to  convert  the  packers,  or  for  socialism  to  convert  the  packing 
business,  why  not  turn  vegetarians  ? 

'•'  There  are  weary  arguments  for  and  against  this  course.  But 
'don't  argue  —  try  it.'  This  is  the  time  to  make  the  experiment. 
Perhaps  meat  eating  is  not  at  all  a  necessity,  as  is  thought,  but  only 
a  habit. 

"  We  are  not  responsible  for  the  tooth-and-claw  struggle  of  the  uni- 
verse. That  is  the  saddest  of  mysteries.  But  we  remember  the  words 
of  the  prophet :  '  They  shall  not  hurt  or  destroy  in  all  my  holy  moun- 
tain.' Those  words  were  born  in  man's  soul.  Is  it  not  his  destiny  to 
give  them  reality  ?  " 

Concerning  the  above  it  may  be  well  to  state,  for  the  benefit  of  those 
who  crave  meat  and  think  they  cannot  live  without  it,  that,  if  they  will 
learn  to  use  a  reasonable  amount  of  Olive  Oil  on  lettuce,  salads,  and 
the  like  they  will  be  surprised  at  the  quickness  with  which  their  desire 
for  meat  will  vanish.  Of  course  almost  everything  is  now  adulterated, 
most  "  Olive  Oil "  being  largely  cotton-seed  oil,  but,  if  care  is  taken, 
a  preparation  can  be  secured  which  contains'  at  least  a  fair  per  cent, 
of  olive  oil,  and,  even  if  the  worst  happens,  cotton-seed  oil  is  not  poi- 
sonous. 

We  have  seen  how  hard  it  is  even  to  pass  a  pure-food  law  against 
the  interests  of  the  privileged  and  protected  poisoners  of  the  American 
people,  and  we  have  seen,  further,  as  for  example,  in  the  "  embalmed  " 
beef  Spanisli  war  episode,  what  a  farce  is  the  pretence  of  enforcing 
legal  penalties  against  millionaire  offenders.  Is  it  possible  that  any 
one  can  be  so  simple  or  so  ignorant  as  not  fully  to  realise  that  our 
country  of  boasted  freedom  is  held  a  very  bauble  and  plaything  in  the 
hollow  of  Mammon's  hand?  We  were  formerly  a  government  of  the 
people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people.  We  are  now  a  government  of 
privileged  plutocrats,  by  privileged  plutocrats  and  for  privileged  pluto- 
crats. Is  it  not  high  time  that  some  means  were  found  by  which  we 
could,  even  though  slowly,  attain  to  our  former  high  estate?  Under 
the  Gillette  plan  this  could  be  done,  and  quickly,  too.  Think  for  a 
moment,  Eeader,  what  a  revolution  this  plan  would  effect  in  just  the 
evils  which  form  the  subject  matter  of  this  chapter.  There  would  be 
no  more  adulterated  foods,  no  more  poisoned  products,  no  more 
ptomaine-contaminated  or  disease-polluted  foods.  There  would  be  no 
incentive  whatever  for  producing  an  inferior  article,  and  there  would 

549 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

be  every  incentive  for  making  the  very  best  which  could  be  produced  by 
conscientious  skill  directing  the  highest  and  most  scientific  facilities. 
Under  this  new  dispensation  the  race  would  take  a  new  lease  of  life, 
instead  of  beginning  as  now  to  be  poisoned  and  infected  at  the  cradle. 
We  can  scarcely  realise  what  a  change  would  be  brought  about  if  the 
present  great  knowledge  of  chemistry  were  applied,  not  as  now  to 
debasing  our  food-products,  but  to  rendering  them  of  the  highest  edible 
purity  and  efficiency.  Under  our  present  regime  the  reward  of  riches 
awaits  the  man  who  can  dress  up  saw-dust  in  such  an  enticing  garb 
that  it  shall  become  a  popular  breakfast-food.  If  at  the  same  time  he 
can  contrive  to  work  into  it  some  drug  having  a  cumulative  effect  which 
causes  his  patrons  to  become  hopelessly  addicted  to  his  saw-dust,  still 
greater  would  be  his  financial  return.  Under  the  new  regime  all  this 
will  be  changed.  Every  food  would  be  absolutely  pure,  clean  and 
wholesome,  and  its  ingredients,  together  with  their  edible  values,  would 
be  legibly  printed  upon  every  package.  In  short,  this  millennial  revo- 
lution would  be  brought  about,  not  by  making  human  beings  angels, 
but  simply  by  so  arranging  social  conditions  that  honesty  and  all  the 
other  virtues  would  not  only  be  the  best  policy  upon  distant  and  abso- 
lutely moral  grounds  but  upon  immediate  considerations  of  expedi- 
ency and  self-interest,  and  this  would  be  so  conspicuously  apparent 
even  to  childish  intelligences  that  a  criminal  act  under  the  new  sys- 
tem would  at  once  indicate  the  need  of  an  alienist  rather  than  of  a 
disciplinarian.  That  these  statements  are  true,  and  that  they  are 
well  within  the  bounds  of  possibility,  will,  we  believe,  be  abundantly 
proved  as  we  proceed.* 

*  For  a  brief  description  of  the  Gillette  System  see  Appendix  "  A." 


550 


BOOK  X 

CHAPTER      I.    INEQUALITY 

CHAPTER    II.     MAMMON  AS  GOD 

CHAPTER  III.    THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  DOLLAR 


551 


Association  in  equality  is  the  law  of  progress. 

Henry  George. 

O  blood  of  the  people!  changeless  tide,  through  century,  creed  and  race! 
Still  one  as  the  sweet  salt  sea  is  one,  though  tempered  by  sun  and  place; 
The  same  in  the  ocean  currents,  and  the  same  in  the  sheltered  seas; 
Forever  the  fountain  of  common  hopes  and  kindly  sympathies; 
Indian  and  Negro,  Saxon  and  Celt,  Teuton  and  Latin  and  Gaul  — 
Mere  surface  shadow  and  sunshine;   while  the  sounding  unifies  all! 
One  love,  one  hope,  one  duty  theirs!  No  matter  the  time  or  ken, 
There  never  was  separate  heart-beat  in  all  the  races  of  men! 

But  alien  is  one  —  of  class,  not  race  —  he  has  drawn  the  line  for  him- 
self; 

His  roots  drink  life  from  inhuman  soil,  from  garbage  of  pomp  and  pelf; 

His  heart  beats  not  with  the  common  beat,  he  has  changed  his  life- 
stream's  hue; 

He  deems  his  flesh  to  be  finer  flesh,  he  boasts  that  his  blood  is  blue: 

Patrician,   aristocrat,  tory  —  whatever  his  age  or  name, 

To  the  people's  rights  and  liberties,  a  traitor  ever  the  same. 

The  natural  crowd  is  a  mob  to  him,  their  prayer  a  vulgar  rhyme; 

The   freeman's   speech   is   sedition,   and    the   patriot's   deed   a   crime. 

Wherever  the  race,  the  law,  the  land, —  whatever  the  time  or  throne, 

The  tory  is  always  a  traitor  to  every  class  but  his  own. 

Thank  God  for  a  land  where  pride  is  clipped,  where  arrogance   stalks 

apart; 
Where  law  and  song  and  loathing  of  wrong  are  words  of  the  common 

heart; 
Where   the    masses   honour   straightforward   strength,    and   know,    when 

veins  are  bled, 

That  tne  bluest  blood  is  putrid  blood  —  that  the  people's  blood  is  red. 

Crispus  AttucJcs,  by  John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 

It  is  easy  to  persuade  the  masses  that  the  good  things  of  this  world 
are  unjustly  divided  —  especially  when  it  happens  to  be  the  exact 
truth. 

Froude  —  Ccesar. 

Such  hath  it  been  —  shall  be  —  beneath  the  sun 
The  many  still  must  labour  for  the  one. 

Byron  —  The  Corsair. 


For  those  who  see  Truth  and  would  follow  her;  for  those  who  rec- 
ognise Justice  and  would  stand  for  her,  success  is  not  the  only  thing 
Success!  Why,  Falsehood  has  often  that  to  give;  and  Injustice  often 
has  that  to  give.  Must  not  Truth  and  Justice  have  something  to  give 
that  is  their  own  by  proper  right  —  theirs  in  essence,  and  not  by  acci- 
dent? That  they  have,  and  not  here  and  now,  every  one  who  has  felt 
their  exaltation  knows. 

Henry  George. 

Trade   it   may   help,   society   extend, 

But  lures  the  Pirate,   and  corrupts  the  friend: 

It  raises  armies  in  a  nation's  aid, 

But  bribes  a  senate,  and  the  land's  betray'd. 

Pope  —  Moral  Essays. 

The  growth  of  wealth  and  of  luxury,  wicked,  wasteful  and  wanton,  as 
before  God  I  declare  that  luxury  to  be,  has  been  matched  step  by  step 
by  a  deepening  and  deadening  poverty,  which  has  left  whole  neighbour- 
hoods of  people  practically  without  hope  and  without  aspiration. 

Bishop  Henry  C.  Potter. 


553 


CHAPTBE  I 
INEQUALITY 

EOM  all  the  civilisation  which  thus  far  the  world  has 
produced  one  fact  stands  out  cruel  and  jagged  above 
all  others,  and  this  fact  is  the  glaring  inequality  which 
seems  to  be  the  inevitable  fruitage  of  every  growing 
civilisation.  When  society  is  young,  when  its  people 

are  all  close  to  the  earth,  as  it  were,  this  is  not  so 

noticeable,  but  just  as  soon  as  progress  begins  to  lighten  labour  and 
to  push  the  wolf  of  absolute  want  farther  from  the  doors  of  at  least 
the  favoured  few,  then  we  find  the  line  of  demarcation  between  the 
house  of  Have  and  the  house  of  Want  ever  growing  sharper,  until  the 
civilisation,  or  rather  material  progress,  approaches  its  zenith,  when 
the  social  family  establishes  two  clearly  denned  planes  of  cleavage,  the 
one  being  identified  by  conspicuous  waste  and  conspicuous  idleness,  the 
other  by  conspicuous  work  and  conspicuous  want.  We  find,  as  civili- 
sation advances,  more  and  more  is  said  about  the  "  earning  "  power  of 
money,  till  the  time  has  now  come  when  scarcely  one  man  in  a  thou- 
sand realises  the  absurdity  of  referring  to  money  or  wealth  as  "  earn- 
ing "  anything.  Money  or  other  evidence  of  wealth  may  accrue  to  the 
owner  of  money  or  wealth  by  reason  of  its  use,  but  it  is  neither  good 
diction  nor  good  reason  to  refer  to  money  or  to  wealth  as  "  earning  " 
anything;  and  we  make  this  statement  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
this  use  of  language  has  become  so  common  that  we  rarely  see  it  chal- 
lenged. According  to  the  Standard  dictionary  to  earn  is  "to  gain  as 
a  just  return  or  recompense  by  service,  labour  or  exertion,  or  to  merit 
by  reason  of  service  or  exertion." 

There  is  always  in  the  term  "  earn  "  a  sense  of  the  personal  equation 
and  its  relation  to  some  service  rendered,  with  the  more  or  less  plainly 
implied  recompence  which  ought  to  follow  it.  When  we  speak  of 
money  "  earning  "  interest  we  merely  mean  that  those  who  hold  this 
evidence  of  wealth  will  not  tender  it  for  use  unless  they  are  paid  for  so 
doing,  and  this  pay  which  accrues  is  called  interest.  The  point  we 
wish  to  make  is  simply  this,  that  money  does  not  earn  anything  in  the 
same  way  that  labour  earns,  and  if  we  are  to  use  the  term  as  applied  to 
money  or  wealth  we  should  find  a  different  one  to  use  in  connexion 
with  labour.  The  earning  of  labour  is  an  active,  dynamic  thing.  The 
so-called  "  earning  "  of  capital  is  in  no  sense  active,  but,  rather,  dead 
and  static.  Capital  never  adds  to  itself  a  single  cent  of  wealth  save 
through  the  interposition  of  labour.  It  is  merely  stored  labour  which 
can  upon  occasion  be  used  to  facilitate  the  efforts  of  the  actual  pro- 
ducer. If  Smith  borrow  from  Brown  a  hundred  dollars  at  6  per  cent. 
in  order  that  he  may  buy  tools  to  till  his  soil  and  pay  for  the  same, 

554 


INEQUALITY 

let  us  say,  from  the  products  of  the  ground  he  works,  the  wealth  which 
Brown  receives  as  interest  is  wealth  which  Smith  has  earned  or  con- 
jured from  the  earth  by  his  labour.  Certainly  the  wealth  which  fol- 
lows the  application  of  Smith's  labour  to  Smith's  land  can  only  be  re- 
garded as  Smith's  earnings,  yet  this  is  precisely  the  wealth  which  a 
little  later  we  shall  find  Brown  referring  to  as  the  earnings  of  the 
money  he  loaned  Smith.  This  custom  of  referring  to  the  "  earnings  " 
of  any  form  or  part  of  wealth  as  if  they  were  the  legitimate  earnings 
of  labouring  individuals  has  been  productive  of  an  immense  deal  of 
harm  and  injustice. 

Had  the  equivalent  of  twenty-five  dollars  of  our  money  or  approxi- 
mately £5  sterling  been  placed  on  interest  in  England  at  5  per  cent., 
say,  in  the  year  1690,  during  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary,  it  would 
forthwith  have  begun  to  "  earn  "  wealth  for  its  possessor.  Four  years 
later,  when  the  Bank  of  England  was  founded,  it  might  have  secured 
8  per  cent.,  but  suppose  a  straight  rate  of  5  per  cent,  per  annum 
compounded  had  been  adhered  to.  In  the  year  1903,  this  original 
"  labour  value "  of  $25  would  have  grown  by  its  "  earnings  "  to  the 
tidy  sum  of  $819,200.  According  to  the  last  census  the  average 
earnings  of  wage-earners  was  in  the  vicinity  of  $438.00.  For  the 
sake  of  round  figures  let  us  call  it  $440.  At  5  per  cent.,  $819,200 
yields  annually,  or  according  to  present  phrase,  "earns"  annually 
$40,960,  which  is  a  sum  sufficient  to  cover  the  wages  of  93  per- 
sons at  $440.00  per  year.  We  see,  therefore,  that  the  frugal  in- 
dividual who,  say  in  1690,  put  by  the  results  of  two  weeks'  work, 
started  then  and  there  what  our  economists  call  an  "  earning  "  mechan- 
ism which  in  the  year  1903  is  able  to  control  the  lives  of  93  persons, 
and  if  this  same  mechanism  were  kept  perfectly  intact  for  a  matter  of 
500  years  or  so  longer  it  would  control  the  lives  of  every  man,  woman 
and  child  upon  the  face  of  the  globe,  assuming  the  population  to 
remain  sensibly  constant.  It  is  something  akin  to  this,  though  in 
a  less  degree,  which  is  making  its  presence  felt  to-day  upon  every  hand. 
It  is  a  pleasant  fiction  of  the  rich  to  speak  of  their  money  as  "  earn- 
ing," while  they  themselves  perchance  do  nothing  but  waste.  The 
fact  of  the  matter  is  that  wealth  does  not  "  earn  "  anything,  but  that  it 
simply  confers  upon  its  possessor  the  power  to  levy  upon  the  real 
earnings  of  labour.  The  age-long  mistake  which  has  been  made  in 
this  regard  is  one  of  the  fruitful  sources  of  our  present  inequality. 

Closely  connected  with  this  and  usually  tributary  to  it,  is  the  idea 
that  the  millionaire  has  "earned"  his  possessions.  It  is  impossible 
for  any  man  in  a  life-time  to  earn  even  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dol- 
lars, in  any  proper  sense  of  that  term.  Well  does  Mr.  Howells  say,  in 
his  "  -Hazards  of  New  Fortunes  " :  "  It  is  the  landlords  and  the  mer- 
chant princes,  the  railroad  kings  and  the  coal  barons  .  .  .  that 
make  the  millions,  but  no  man  earns  them." 

This  popular  misconception  of  the  term  "  earn  "  makes  possible  an 
inequality  and  inequity  which,  were  the  subject  properly  understood, 
would  not  be  tolerated  by  the  world's  toilers  for  a  single  week.  Let 
us  take  as  an  illustration  a  significant  event  which  occurred  not  very 
long  ago. 

Upon  a  recent  visit  made  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  India,  he  was 

555 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

entertained  with  a  lavishness  which  all  but  beggars  description.  At 
Jaipur  the  Maharaja  subscribed  $330,000  just  to  ornament  the  city, 
and  the  native  merchants  quickly  followed  this  example  of  generosity. 
At  Rawalpindi  40,000  troops  were  assembled  from  all  parts  of  India 
constituting  "the  greatest  military  pageant  witnessed  in  modern 
Asia/'  At  Delhi,  Agra,  Gwalior,  Lucknow  and  Calcutta  the  same 
wild  profusion  and  indifference  to  expense  obtained.  The  famous 
lakes  at  Eangoon  were  made  to  look  like  vast  rubies  by  the  submersion 
of  skillfully  designed  coloured  electric  lights.  When  the  Prince  made 
his  three-days'  journey  down  the  Irawady  River,  three  steamers  were 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  his  party.  The  vessel  occupied  by  the 
Prince  had  been  rebuilt  for  his  use,  and  it  was  estimated  that  the 
steamship  company  spent  $200,000  just  to  carry  him  from  Mandalay 
to  Prome,  a  distance  of  less  than  250  statute  miles,  as  the  crow  flies. 
When  the  Prince  travelled  overland  it  was  in  a  train  every  car  of 
which  had  been  specially  constructed  for  the  use  of  the  royal  party, 
making  it  "  an  imperial  palace  on  wheels."  In  Delhi  a  million  dol- 
lars were  expended  to  make  the  Prince's  reception  a  gorgeous  success. 

Commenting  upon  this  triumphal  procession  a  recent  writer  says: 
"  Wealth  and  fashion,  plenty  and  prosperity,  success  and  happiness 
were  shown  to  him  wherever  he  went.  These  are  not  India.  These 
from  India  are  as  far  apart  as  the  poles." 

At  the  very  time  when  the  Prince  was  making  his  triumphal  proces- 
sion through  the  richer  portions  of  India,  cholera  and  the  plague  were 
raging  in  the  abodes  of  want  and  misery.  At  this  time,  we  are  told, 
was  beginning  what  promised  to  be  "  the  worst  of  all  famines  of  black 
famine  history."  WThat  this  means  the  Reader  will  realise  when  he 
reflects  that  during  the  last  150  years  the  Indian  famine  has  killed 
28,000,000  souls.  28,000,000  souls !  Consider  for  a  moment  what  a 
monument  this  is  to  man's  greed,  and  thirst  for  power.  Never  believe 
for  a  moment  that  these  horrible  pestilences  are  inherently  necessary. 
They  are  merely  the  work  of  ambitious,  vicious  or  misguided  men. 
One  of  the  greatest  causes  of  Indian  misery  and  death  is  the  system  of 
caste  which  is  in  vogue,  and  this  system  is  deliberately  upheld  and 
encouraged  by  the  Anglican  Church  for  the  mere  purpose  of  maintain- 
ing its  own  supremacy.  In  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Russell's  "Soldiers 
of  the  Common  Good,"  in  "  Everybody's  Magazine  "  for  June,  1906, 
we  extract  the  following  apropos  of  the  conditions  obtaining  in  India : 
"  Here,  in  this  frightful  country,  are  296,000,000  people,  of  whom 
130,000,000  live  in  a  way  unfit  for  beasts,  in  a  way  that  would  be 
unwholesome  and  intolerable  for  swine,  burrowing  in  wretched  mud 
huts,  clad  in  strips  of  rag,  fed  upon  mea.gre  fragments  barely  enough 
to  keep  them  alive,  swarming  in  filth  unutterable ;  except  only  for  the 
dwellers  in  London's  Whitechapel  the  saddest,  the  most  forlorn,  the 
most  hopeless  of  human  creatures."  .  .  . 

"  In  this  country  of  India  about  200,000,000  people  live  fast  bound 
in  the  misery  and  iron  of  a  system  of  caste  that  has  no  more  place  in 
civilisation  than  voodooism  or  witchcraft  would  have.  Wherever  this 
system  exists  are  no  progress,  no  enterprise,  no  improvement,  no  incen- 
tive, no  ambition,  no  healthful  life.  It  is  the  most  deplorable  affliction 
that  ever  befell  any  people;  under  it  India  has  been  for  a  thousand 

556 


INEQUALITY 

years  a  stagnant  pool.     It  is  the  paralysis  of  energy,  the  death  of 
aspiration,  the  end  of  hope."     .     .     . 

"  From  the  poorer  elements  among  these  people  is  wrung  every  year 
the  heaviest  proportionate  taxation  known  on  this  earth.  A  system 
of  land  tenure  and  land  taxation  conceived  by  savages  and  formulated 
by  homicidal  maniacs,  a  system  that  throws  the  heaviest  burden  upon 
those  least  able  to  bear  it,  has  been  largely  responsible  for  India's 
unparalleled  famine  record  of  28,000,000  deaths  in  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years." 

Some  idea  of  the  pitiless  devastation  which  is  taking  place  al- 
most constantly  in  India  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  figures, 
which  are  taken  from  Mr.  Bomesh  C.  Dutt's  work  entitled  "  Open 
Letters  to  Lord  Curzon,"  a  work  which  treats  the  Indian  question  with 
great  intelligence  and  thoroughness.  In  1866  about  one  million  per- 
sons perished  in  Orissa,  or,  on  an  average,  about  one  person  in  three 
of  the  population.  The  northern  Indian  famine  of  1869  claimed 
1,200,000.  The  Madras  famine  of  1877  rising  5,000,000.  The  north- 
ern Indian  famine  of  1878,  1,250,000.  The  great  famine  of  1897 
was  so  extensive  that  at  one  time  3,000,000  persons  were  receiving  the 
government  relief  which  alone  kept  them  alive. 

Regarding  the  famine  of  1900  in  the  Punjab,  Rajputana,  Central 
Provinces  and  Bombay,  Mr.  Dutt  says :  "  Of  the  famine  from  which 
India  is  suffering  in  the  present  year  it  is  not  possible  to  give  any 
final  figures,  either  to  show  the  numbers  relieved,  or  to  indicate  the 
mortality.  In  the  present  month  (June,  1900)  nearly  six  millions  of 
people  are  on  relief  works,  and,  in  spite  of  every  effort  on  the  part  of 
relief  officers,  mortality  is  high  in  Gujrat  and  elsewhere.  It  is  a  sad 
but  significant  fact  that  the  last  famine  of  this  century  is  also  the 
most  widespread  and  the  severest  famine  that  has  ever  visited  India." 

After  referring  to  the  famines  of  the  past,  Mr.  Russell,  in  the  article 
already  referred  to,  gives  later  information  regarding  the  famine  of 
1900.  He  says :  "  But  all  these  horrors  are  surpassed  by  the  startling 
devastation  of  the  black  famine  that  began  in  the  Punjab,  Rajputana, 
the  Central  Provinces,  and  Bombay  in  1900  and  was  hardly  extin- 
guished for  two  years.  In  June,  1900,  6,200,000  people  were  on  Gov- 
ernment relief,  and  for  many  months  the  number  so  relieved  continued 
to  b'e  in  excess  of  all  previous  records.  The  resources  of  the  Govern- 
ment broke  down  under  the  emergency ;  money  and  supplies  came  from 
many  lands.  The  people  of  England  subscribed  $2,500,000.  America 
sent  320,000  bushels  of  grain,  a  free  gift,  and  subscriptions  from  every 
considerable  city.  Yet  so  great  was  the  calamity  that  the  world's  gen- 
erosity could  not  stem  it.  The  country  was  a  huge  charnel-house,  the 
people  died  faster  than  the  bodies  could  be  removed,  the  towns  and 
villages  were  often  filled  with  the  dead,  the  very  air  was  poisoned. 

"  Of  the  mortality  of  that  dreadful  time  there  exist  only  estimates, 
and  these  are  not  officially  encouraged.  For  reasons  easy  to  under- 
stand, the  subject  is  not  attractive  to  official  speculation.  But  what 
the  famine  really  meant  for  India  may  be  surmised  from  its  astound- 
ing effects  on  the  census  figures.  The  census  was  taken  in  1901,  one 
year  after  the  famine  began.  I  give  the  decrease  of  population  in  the 

557 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

famine  area  as  shown  by  comparing  the  census  of  1901  with  the  cen- 
sus of  1891 : 

FAMINE  AREA. 

BRITISH  STATES  LOSS  PERCENTAGE  OP 

LOSS 

Aymer-Merwan    66,028  12.17 

Berar    144,622  4.96 

Bombay    627,025  3.93 

Central  Provinces 938,976  8.71 

NATIVE   STATES 

Hyderabad   '. 362,143  3.14 

Baroda    464,469  19.23 

Eajputana    2,175,070  18.10 

Central  India 1,816,929  17.50 

Bombay  States 1,167,607  14.49 

Central  Provinces 177,015  8.09 

Totals 7,939,884  11.032 

"  As  there  was  little  emigration  from  India,  this  astounding  de- 
crease in  ten  years  was  the  work  of  the  famine;  the  missing  people 
had  been  starved  to  death. 

"  In  some  of  the  small  native  states,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  Bombay 
Presidency,  the  losses  revealed  seem  almost  incredible.  In  the  little 
State  called  Pango  the  deaths  were  forty-three  per  cent,  of  the  total 
population. 

"  Comparisons  have  been  suppressed  by  the  Indian  Government 
wherever  it  has  jurisdiction,  and  by  influence  or  request  elsewhere.  I 
believe  this  is  the  first  time  they  have  been  put  into  type. 

"  In  1891  the  population  of  the  states  embraced  in  the  Famine  Area 
was  76,688,340.  In  1901  this  population  showed  a  decrease  of  7,939,- 
880.  The  natural  increase  of  population  for  all  India  from  1881  to 
1891  was  10.2  per  cent.  From  1891  to  1901,  in  the  region  not  affected 
by  the  famine  the  natural  increase  was  5.1  per  cent.  For  all  India, 
including  the  Famine  Area,  the  figures  show  an  increase  from  1891  to 
1901  of  1.49.  On  the  basis  of  1.49  per  cent,  the  natural  increase  in  the 
Famine  Area  should  have  been  1,150,335.  On  the  basis  of  5.1  per 
cent,  the  increase  in  the  Famine  Area  should  have  been  3,911,105.  On 
the  basis  of  10.2  per  cent  the  increase  in  the  Famine  Area  should 
have  been  8,589,000. 

"  The  decrease  was  7,939,880. 

"  On  the  smallest  possible  basis  of  calculation,  therefore,  that  of  all 
India  from  1891  to  1901,  the  actual  loss  of  population  was  certainly 
more  than  8,000,000,  and  on  the  other  bases  I  have  given,  the  actual 
loss  becomes  something  almost  unthinkable. 

"  That  in  the  heart  of  civilisation,  in  the  twentieth  century,  under  a 
humane,  enlightened  and  Christian  Government,  8,000,000  people 
should  perish  in  a  year  for  lack  of  food  is  the  strangest  and  most 
humiliating  fact  whereof  we  have  record. 

558 


O 


.ll 


INEQUALITY 

"More  people  died  for  want  of  food  in  India  in  one  year  than  have 
perished  on  all  the  battle-fields  of  the  world  in  several  centuries. 

"  For  one  hundred  years  we  have  been  pleased  to  cry  out  against  the 
excesses  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the  Eeign  of  Terror.  It  would 
take  3,500  Reigns  of  Terror  to  kill  as  many  people  as  died  in  India 
in  one  year  for  lack  of  food. 

"  When  a  dam  bursts  at  Johnstown,  when  Mt.  Pelee  breaks  forth, 
when  an  earthquake  causes  devastation  in  Italy,  the  world  responds 
with  its  ready  sympathy ;  its  relief  pours  in  upon  the  survivors.  And 
yet  all  the  numbers  that  have  perished  in  all  these  disasters  — how 
trifling  they  look  compared  with  the  colossal  total  of  8,000,000  that  in 
one  year  perished  in  India  for  lack  of  food ! 

"  And  I  beg  your  attention,  good,  sympathetic  souls,  all  of  your  at- 
tention and  your  thought,  for  two  tremendous  facts : 

"  1.     Famines  grow  worse  and  come  oftener  in  India. 

"  2.     They  are  absolutely  unnecessary. 

"  The  famine  of  1897  was  worse  than  the  famine  of  1892  or  the 
famine  of  1889  or  the  famine  of  1878.  The  famine  of  1900  was  worse 
than  the  famine  of  1897. 

"If,  then,  these  famines  are  to  increase  in  severity  and  frequency, 
the  question  before  the  world  is  whether  India  shall  become  a  chronic 
charge  upon  the  rest  of  mankind  or  whether  the  rest  of  mankind  shall 
sit  by  and  with  stony  heart  watch  this  incalculable  suffering  in  the 
midst  of  plenty." 

The  cut  reproduced  herewith  is  from  the  article  from  which  we 
have  quoted  and  tells  more  graphically  than  words  can  the  appalling 
price  of  man's  inhumanity  to  man. 

We  do  not  have  to  go  to  India  in  order  to  find  shocking  evidences  of 
injustice  and  inequality.  In  the  United  States  of  America  little  babes 
four  years  old  work  in  sweat-shops,  while  children  but  a  little  older 
work  in  mills  and  elsewhere.  Over  against  this  destitution,  squalor, 
disease  and  unremitting  toil,  on  the  one  hand,  may  be  set  the  prodigal 
and  almost  unbelievable  extravagances  of  the  rich,  on  the  other  hand. 

The  colossal  residences  of  our  princes  of  privilege  are  not  necessi-- 
tated  by  the  size  of  the  families  which  occupy  them,  for  as  Mr.  Elbert 
Hubbard  has  pointed  out  in  his  "Respectability  its  Rise  and  Cure," 
the  size  of  houses  is  upon  the  average  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  size  of  the 
families  occupying  them,  the  large  house  generally  indicating  the 
small  family  and  the  small  house  the  large  family. 

Mr.  William  C.  Whitney,  for  example,  lived  in  a  palace  which  sold 
after  his  death  for  $2,000,000,  .which  was  thought  to  be  a  very  low 
price.  His  walls  were  hung  with  masterpieces,  a  single  one  of  which, 
a  Van  Dyke  portrait,  was  said  to  have  cost  $120,000.  A  little  north 
of  this  palatial  abode  is  a  still  larger  pile  on  Fifth  Ave.,  owned  by  Sena- 
tor Clark.  The  corner  stone  of  this  structure  weighs  16  tons,  and 
Mr.  Henry  George,  Jr.,  tells  us,  in  his  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege,"  that 
the  car  which  brought  this  stone  from  the  quarry  was  specially  built 
for  the  work.  The  palace  is  designed  to  contain  a  theatre  capable 
of  seating  500  persons.  In  his  chapter  entitled  "How  our  Princes 
Live,"  Mr.  Henry  George,  Jr.,  gives  many  interesting  details,  from 
wiieh  we  extract  a  few  of  the  more  important.  He  says:  "  We  might 

559 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

describe  palace  after  palace  of  our  Princes  of  Privilege  that  for  a 
couple  of  miles  stud  Fifth  Avenue  as  thickly  as  the  sumptuous  resi- 
dences of  the  nobles  graced  the  undulations  of  the  Palatine  Hill  in 
Eome  before  the  imperial  regime  made  it  the  sole  abode  of  the  Emper- 
ors. Yet  magnificent  residences  are  not  confined  to  Fifth  Avenue,  by 
any  means.  We  find,  for  instance,  the  splendid  habitation  of  Mr. 
Charles  M.  Schwab,  the  steel  and  shipyard  prince,  rising  in  the  centre 
of  a  square  block  at  Seventy-third  Street  and  Riverside  Drive.  The 
exterior  of  this  building  is  of  the  French  chateau  mixed  Gothic  and 
-Renaissance  style  preceding  1550.  It  is  modelled  after  the  celebrated 
chateau  of  Chenonceaux,  Blois  and  Azay-le-Ridau.  When  completely 
finished,  this  residence  of  an  American  citizen,  who  twenty-five  years 
ago  started  with  nothing,  may  cost  not  far  from  $7,000,000."  .  .  . 

"  A  home  of  similar  princely  order,  but  of  far  different  architectural 
style,  is  that  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Howard  Gould  on  the  north  shore  ol 
Sands  Point.  It  is  called  '  Castle-gould.'  It  suggests  the  twelfth 
century  Kilkenny  Castle  in  Ireland,  but  will  be,  when  finished,  much 
larger  and  furnished  beyond  all  comparison.  The  two  hundred  serv- 
ants of  this  great  establishment  have  the  anomalous  American  dis- 
tinction of  wearing  livery. 

"  From  Long  Island  we  might  pass  to  Yonkers,  a  few  miles  north 
of  New  York,  and  get  a  glimpse  of  Mr.  William  Rockefeller's  house 
and  estate;  to  North  Carolina,  to  see  Mr.  George  W.  Vanderbilt's 
mountain  palace,  *  Biltmore ; '  to  Newport  with  its  splendid  man- 
sions ;  to  Lenox  and  Tuxedo  with  their  million-dollar  '  cottages.'  But 
perhaps  more  interesting  than  any  of  these  is  Mr.  George  J.  Gould's 
'  Georgian  Court,'  at  Lakewood,  N.  J. 

'  Georgian  Court '  is  like  a  French  chateau  of  the  ancient  regime 
set  down  in  the  pine  woods.  Before  the  building  is  a  high,  ornate 
iron  fence  and  a  beautiful  lawn,  which  together  set  off  the  imposing 
fagade  to  perfection.  Beyond  the  chateau  is  a  huge  casino  for  indoor 
sports.  Grouped  picturesquely  about  are  other  dependent  buildings 
and  open  tennis  and  polo  grounds. 

"  This  { out-of-town  house '  contains  a  private  theatre,  replete  with 
the  fittings  of  the  finest  public  theatres,  and  an  inclosed  swimming- 
pool.  It  also  contains  more  than  one  hundred  and  ten  sleeping  suites. 
One  of  the  noblest  art  treasures  of  the  mansion  is  the  MacMonnies 
fountain,  with  its  great  white  marble  basin  and  bronze  and  marble 
group,  the  whole  let  into  a  beautiful,  velvet-like  lawn.  The  interior 
of  the  house  is  the  acme  of  luxury.  Bronzes,  brasses,  marbles,  tapes- 
tries, mosaics,  rugs,  glorious  natural  woods,  paint  that  rivals  ivory, 
ceiling  canvases  by  Italian  masters  and  miniatures  studded  with  pre- 
cious stones  —  these  and  a  thousand  other  things  greet  the  eye  in  a 
profusion  of  richness.  They  stun  the  mind  when  it  realises  that  this 
is  not  the  palace  of  an  Oriental  monarch  or  of  a  sultan  of  the  Arab- 
ian Night's  Tales,  but  the  abode  of  an  American  citizen. 

"  Perhaps  the  most  dazzling  feature  of  (  Georgian  Court '  is  the 
Golden  Corridor.  As  much  as  double  or  treble  the  yearly  wages  of  the 
average  anthracite  coal  miner  in  Pennsylvania  appears  to  be  laid  in 
gold  leaf  on  a  single  door."  .  .  . 

"  Yet  a  different  example  of  princely  habitation  is  the  hunting  lodge 

560 


INEQUALITY 

of  Mr.  William  Rockefeller,  in  the  Adirondack  Mountains,  in  the 
northern  part  of  New  York  State.  Mr.  Rockefeller  has  a  hunting 
estate  of  53,000  acres  in  this  region.  He  has,  with  the  aid  of  a  num- 
ber of  gamekeepers  and  after  several  protracted  suits  in  the  courts, 
twice  going  to  the  Appellate  division  of  the  Supreme  Court,  excluded 
the  old-time  dwellers  in  those  mountains  from  the  exercise  of  what 
they  considered  their  prescriptive  rights  of  hunting  and  fishing  on 
lands  and  in  streams  now  constituting  parts  of  his  great  preserves. 
There  are  various  other  large  private  game  parks  in  the  Adirondacks, 
the  most  extensive  of  which  is  the  70,000-acre  Whitney  estate  for 
moose,  elk  and  buffalo,  as  well  as  for  pheasants,  grouse  and  partridges. 
This  private  game  preserve,  exceeding  a  hundred  square  miles  in  area, 
is  about  five  times  the  extent  of  Manhattan  Island. 

"  Or  if  the  desire  is  to  travel,  witness  the  luxury  by  land  and  sea ! 
Most  of  the  very  rich  have  their  private  cars.  Mr.  W.  K.  Vanderbilt 
spent  $50,000  on  his.  Of  the  large  American  yachting  fleet  there 
are  several  boats  which  have  cost,  individually,  from  one  half  to 
three  quarters  of  a  million  to  build,  and  probably  cost  more  than 
$5,000  a  month  to  run.  A  yachting  expert  estimates  that  there  has 
been  an  expenditure  of  $44,000,000  in  yachts  in  this  country,  while 
approximately  $8,000,000  is  spent  annually  in  running  them. 

"  And  as  with  the  splendid  habitations  of  the  princes  living,  so  with 
those  of  princes  dead.  Note  the  simple  and  impressive  Vanderbilt 
tomb  at  New  Dorp,  Staten  Island ;  the  Rockefeller  tomb  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  overlooking  Lake  Erie;  the  Mackay  tomb  on  Ocean  Hill,  in 
Greenwood,  Brooklyn.  A  man  ever  watches  the  latter,  lest  graveyard 
vampires  steal  away  the  poor  dead  bodies  to  demand  ransom  from 
the  living  relatives,  as  was  done  with  the  body  of  the  dead  merchant 
prince,  Mr.  A.  T.  Stewart,  from  the  graveyard  of  St.  Mark's  church, 
New  York  City.  Massed  granite  and  riveted  steel,  polished  porphyry, 
glistening  onyx,  chiselled  marble,  moulded  bronze,  embossed  brass,  and 
glass  stained  with  a  myriad  hues  combine  in  durability  and  art  in  these 
habitations  of  our  Princes  of  Power.  Parsimony  stays  not  the  hand 
of  expense.  One  window  from  the  tomb  of  the  railroad  prince  Lament 
—  a  marvel  of  richness  and  beauty  —  would  go  far  toward  meeting 
the  arrears  of  house  rent,  for  non-payment  of  which  20,000  evictions 
occur  on  the  average  each  year  in  the  Borough  of  Manhattan,  New 
York  City ! "  .  .  . 

"  There  may  be  ambition  among  the  ultra-rich  to  shine  with  partic- 
ular lustre  in  other  ways,  as,  for  instance,  through  social  functions. 
At  one  of  these  —  the  Leiter  ball  at  Washington  —  the  jewels  worn 
were  roundly  valued  at  $15,000,000.  What  could  be  closer  to  regal 
pomp  than  the  marriage  ceremony  of  Miss  Elsie  French  to  Mr.  Alfred 
G.  Vanderbilt,  or  the  more  recent  Goelet-Whelen  nuptials  ?  A  pecul- 
iar feature  at  one  of  the  later  great  weddings,  indicating  —  what  shall 
we  say,  craving  for  display?  —  was  the  exhibition,  among  the  gifts, 
of  the  bride's  exquisite  lingerie ! 

"If  'apparel  makes  the  man/  then  are  our  rich  very  kings  and 

queens  and  princelings.     A  young  New  Yorker,  now  taking  up  his 

permanent     residence  in  Great  Britain,  spent,  by  common  report, 

$40  000  on  a  wedding  outfit.     Mr.  Cleveland  Moffett  estimates  that 

30  561 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

there  are  6,000  women  in  New  York  who  spend  yearly  something 
more  than  $6,000  each  on  their  bodily  garments,  making  an  aggre- 
gate of  close  to  $36,000,000  per  annum  !  " 

As  far  back  as  1889  Mr.  Thomas  G.  Shearman,  in  a  speech  on  "  The 
Menace  of  Plutocracy,"  called  public  attention  to  the  fact  that  "  more 
than  four-fifths  of  the  working  people  of  this  country  had  incomes  of 
less  than  $300  a  year."  As  recently  as  1902  Prof.  Robert  E.  Ely,  of 
New  York,  made  the  startling  announcement,  as  the  result  of  analysis 
of  the  census  returns,  that  15,000,000  wage-earners  in  this  country, 
men,  women,  boys  and  girls  of  10  or  more  years  of  age  engaged  in 
manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries,  obtain  on  an  average  but 
$400  a  year,  and,  since  each  of  these  workers  is  presumed  to  have  an 
average  of  two  dependents,  the  actual  average  income  of  45,000,000  of 
our  population  is  but  $133.33  per  year  for  each  person.  In  1900  the 
total  wealth  of  the  United  States  was  estimated  at  $94,300,000,000. 
According  to  Mr.  John  Moody's  estimates  in  "  The  Truth  about  the 
Trusts,"  something  more  than  "  440  industrial  franchise  transporta- 
tion and  miscellaneous"  trust  combinations  have  an  aggregate  capi- 
talisation of  $20,000,000,000,  or  of  two-ninths  of  the  entire  sum 
given  as  the  country's  aggregate  wealth. 

It  has  been  shown  that  these  400  odd  corporations  are  con- 
trolled by  a  relatively  small  number  of  people,  which  increases 
immensely  the  menace  of  their  large  holdings.  In  the  "  World's 
Work  "  for  Dec.,  1903,  it  was  pointed  out  that  at  that  time  the  24 
men  on  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corpora- 
tion represented  directly  or  indirectlv  one-twelfth  of  the  total  wealth 
of  the  country.  "  The  twenty-four  men  alluded  to  were :  J.  P.  Mor- 
gan, John  D.  Rockefeller,  Henry  H.  Rogers,  Charles  M.  Schwab, 
Elbert  H.  Gary,  George  C.  Perkins,  Edmund  C.  Converse,  James 
Gayley,  Marshall  Field,  Daniel  G.  Reid,  J.  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  Alfred 
Clifford,  Robert  Bacon,  Nathaniel  Thayer,  Abram  S.  Hewitt 
(deceased),  Clement  A.  Griscom,  Francis  H.  Peabody,  Charles  Steele, 
William  H.  Moore,  Norman  B.  Ream,  Peter  A.  B.  Widener,  James  H. 
Reed,  Henry  C.  Frick,  and  William  Edenborn." 

As  early  as  1889  Mr.  Thomas  G.  Shearman,  a  man  preeminent- 
ly well  calculated  to  judge  of  such  matters,  declared  that  the  United 
States  of  America  was  at  that  time  practically  owned  by  less  than 
250,000  persons,  and  he  made  the  prediction  that,  were  the  concentrat- 
ing movement  to  continue,,  this  number  would  within  thirty  years 
be  narrowed  down  to  less  than  50,000  persons. 

The  graphic  illustration  of  conditions  in  the  United  States  given  at 
pages  261,  262  will  be  found  instructive. 

We  offer  the  following  diagrams  as  still  further  illustrative  of  the 
distribution  of  wealth  in  the  United  States.  Were  this  wealth  equi- 
tably distributed  the  family  average  would  be  in  round  numbers 
$5,000. 

It  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  diagrams  that  1  %  of  the 
population  own  54.8%  of  the  wealth,  while  50%  of  the  population 
representing  the  very  poor  added  to  38.1%  representing  the  poor, 
making  a  total  of  88.1%  of  the  population  classed  as  "poor,"  own 
but  13%  of  the  wealth.  The  middle  class,  aggregating  but  10.9%  of 

562 


i  t- 

0    3   CO 


13 


§           s 

-        Is  • 

y 
cr                          S 

Cn                                          m 

CO 

# 

o 

co                co™ 

*- 

2 

vSJ                            ^ 

to 

00 

^ 

oL 

GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  population,  own  but  32.2%  of  the  wealth.  Figures  5  and  6  are 
but  another  statement  of  the  same  facts,  and  are  borrowed  from  "  The 
Social  Unrest/'  by  John  Graham  Brooks.  The  data  upon  which  all 
these  diagrams  are  prepared  is  taken  from  what  is  known  as  "  Spahr's 
Table  of  the  Distribution  of  Wealth  in  the  United  States"  for  the 
year  1890.  The  census  year  1900  shows  a  very  much  greater  aggregate 
wealth  than  that  of  1890.  It  does  not  seem  necessary  to  offer  any 
extended  evidence  upon  this  subject  of  social  inequality  and  injustice. 
The  evidence  of  it  is  visible  upon  every  hand,  and  the  man  who  does 
not  become  spontaneously  aware  of  it  maintains  his  ignorance  because 
he  wishes  to,  and  by  extreme  effort  of  his  will.  The  ablest  writers  and 
thinkers  of  the  present  and  of  the  recent  past  offer  their  protest  against 
our  world-wide  iniquitous  system  with  astonishing  frequency.  Even 
Prof.  Cairnes,  noted  among  economists  for  his  ability  and  caution, 
states  in  his  "Leading  Principles,"  American  Edition,  page  285: 
"  Unequal  as  is  the  distribution  of  wealth  already  in  this  country,  the 
tendency  of  industrial  progress  —  on  the  supposition  that  the  present 
separation  between  industrial  classes  is  maintained  —  is  toward  ine- 
quality greater  still.  The  rich  will  be  growing  richer ;  and  the  poor, 
at  least  relatively  poorer.  It  seems  to  me,  apart  altogether  from  the 
question  of  the  labourer's  interest,  that  these  are  not  conditions  which 
furnish  a  solid  basis  for  a  progressive  social  state ;  but,  having  regard 
to  that  interest,  I  think  the  considerations  adduced  show  that  the 
first  and  indispensable  step  toward  any  serious  amendment  of  the 
labourer's  lot  is  that  he  should  be,  in  one  way  or  other,  lifted  out  of  the 
groove  in  which  he  at  present  works,  and  placed  in  a  position  compati- 
ble with  his  becoming  a  sharer  in  equal  proportion  with  others  in  the 
general  advantages  arising  from  industrial  progress." 

Of  similar  purport  is  the  following  from  Prof.  Smart,  the  Glasgow 
economist:  "But  when  machinery  is  replacing  man  and  doing  the 
heavy  work  of  industry,  it  is  time  to  get  rid  of  that  ancient  prejudice 
that  man  must  work  ten  hours  a  day  to  keep  the  world  up  to  the 
level  of  the  comfort  it  has  attained.  Possibly,  if  we  clear  our  minds 
of  cant,  we  may  see  that  the  reason  why  we  still  wish  the  labourer  to 
work  ten  hours  a  day  is  that  we,  the  comfortable  classes,  may  go  on 
receiving  the  lion's  share  of  the  wealth  these  machines,  iron  and 
human,  are  turning  out." 

Our  own  Emerson  said:  "As  long  as  our  civilisation  is  one  of 
property,  of  fences,  of  exclusiveness,  it  will  be  mocked  by  delusions. 
Our  riches  will  leave  us  sick,  there  will  be  bitterness  in  our  laughter, 
and  our  wine  will  burn  our  mouth.  Only  that  good  profits  which 
we  can  taste  with  all  doors  open  and  which  serves  all  men." 

And  again  the  same  sage  says :  "  Of  course,  whilst  another  man 
has  no  land,  my  title  to  mine,  your  title  to  yours,  is  at  once  vitiated. 
Inextricable  seem  to  be  the  twinings  and  tendrils  of  this  evil,  and 
we  all  involve  ourselves  in  it  the  deeper  by  forming  connexions,  by 
wives  and  children,  by  benefits  and  debts." 

Matthew  Arnold  says :  "  Our  present  social  inequality  materialises 
the  upper  class,  vulgarises  the  middle  class,  and  brutalises  the  lower 
class." 

The  indictment  of  John  Euskin  is  equally  stinging :    "  To  call  the 

564 


INEQUALITY 

confused  wreck  of  social  order  and  life  brought  about  by  malicious  col- 
lision and  competition  an  arrangement  of  Providence,  is  quite  one 
of  the  most  insolent  and  wicked  ways  in  which  it  is  possible  to  take 
the  name  of  God  in  vain." 

Indeed  it  almost  seems  as  if  Pope  must  have  had  this  age  in  mind 
when  he  wrote: 

"  Injustice,  swift,  erect  and  unconfin'd, 
Sweeps  the  wide  earth,  and  tramples  o'er  mankind." 

Even  John  Fiske  has  said :  "  Inherited  predatory  tendencies  of 
men  to  seise  upon  other  people's  labour  are  still  very  strong,  and  while 
we  have  nothing  more  to  fear  from  kings,  we  may  yet  have  trouble 
enough  from  commercial  monopolists  and  favoured  industries  march- 
ing to  the  polls  their  hosts  of  bribed  retainers." 

That  this  able  and  marvellously  endowed  American  was  not  alone 
in  his  fears  is  abundantly  evident  upon  every  hand.  The  present 
social  and  commercial  system  is  even  now  in  the  dock  upon  trial  for 
its  life.  Damnatory  evidence  against  it  sufficient  to  relegate  it  for- 
ever to  the  limbo  of  a  forgotten  savagery  has  already  been  again  and 
again  adduced.  The  storm  is  gathering,  and  from  all  appearances  its 
area  will  soon  be  central  over  this  country.  Even  the  church,  with 
all  its  static  tendency  and  its  firm  adherence  in  most  cases  to  the 
standards  of  kingly  prerogatives  and  kingly  conservatism,  is  begin- 
ing  to  presage  the  coming  event. 

We  quote  the  following  from  Canon  Barnett  of  Toynbee  Hall: 
"  The  policies  which  occupy  the  leaders'  minds,  the  interests  of  busi- 
ness, tiie  theologies,  the  fashions,  are  but  webs  woven  in  the  trees 
while  the  storm  is  rising  in  the  distance.  Sounds  of  the  storm  are 
already  in  the  air,  a  murmuring  among  those  who  have  not  enough, 
puffs  of  boasting  from  those  who  have  too  much,  and  a  muttering 
from  those  who  are  angry  because,  while  some  are  drunken,  others 
are  starving.  The  social  question  is  rising  for  solution,  and,  though 
for  a  moment  it  is  forgotten,  it  will  sweep  to  the  front  and  put  aside 
as  cobwebs  the  '  deep  '  concerns  of  leaders  and  teachers." 

In  his  famous  encyclical  of  1891  Pope  Leo  XIII.  says:  'The 
momentous  seriousness  of  the  present  state  of  things  just  now  fills 
every  mind  with  painful  apprehensions;  wise  men  discuss  it,  prac- 
tical men  propose  schemes ;  popular  meetings,  legislatures,  and  sover- 
eign princes  all  are  occupied  with  it,  and  there  is  nothing  which  has 
a  deeper  hold  on  public  attention.  ...  The  concentration  of  so 
many  branches  of  trade  in  the  hands  of  a  few  individuals,  so  that  a 
small  number  of  very  rich  men  have  been  able  to  lay  upon  the  masses 
a  yoke  little  better  than  slavery." 

The  lack  of  consistency  which  is  displayed  on  every  hand  m  the 
discussion  of  social  questions  is  capitally  illustrated  by  the  following 
story  told  by  the  "  Bulletin  "  of  Sidney,  N.  S.  W. 

"  A  man  with  an  axe  flew  by  Socrates,  chasing  another  man. 

'  Stop  him !  Stop  him  ! '  cried  he  of  the  weapon.  '  He's  a  mur- 
derer ! ' 

"But  old  Socrates  wasn't  taking  any  chances,  and  jogged  on  i 

perturbably. 

565 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

'  You  fool ! '  quoth  he  of  the  axe.  '  Why  didn't  you  stop  him  ? 
He's  a  murderer,  I  tell  you ! ' 

'  A  murderer !     What's  a  murderer  ? ' 

'  Fool !     One  that  kills,  of  course.' 

'  Ah !  a  butcher/ 

'  No,  idiot !     That's  different.     One  that  kills  a  man/ 

'  Oh,  ah,  a  soldier/ 

'  No !  No !  ^That's  different  altogether.  One  that  kills  a  man  in 
time  of  peace ! ' 

'  A  hangman ! ' 

'  No !  No !  No !  That's  different.  One  that  kills  a  man  in  his 
house ! ' 

'A  doctor,  then?' 

'  No !     No !     No !     No !     No  I     That's  different ! ' 

"Running  along  after  him  (2,000  years  after)  comes  another  man 
with  flaming  eyes :  '  Stop  him !  Stop  him ! ! '  he  cries,  pointing  to 
something  he  sees,  or  thinks  he  sees,  ahead  of  him.  *  Stop  him ! 
He's  a  Socialist ! ' 

'  What's  a  Socialist?' 

( Why,  a  believer  in  state  industries,  of  course/ 

'  Oh,  I  see !  The  railways,  postoffices,  customs,  drains  and  all 
that' 

'  No,  that's  different !  I  mean  competing  against  private  enter- 
prise/ 

'  Oh !  schools,  universities  and  the  like/ 

'  No !  No !  That's  different.  I  mean  state  trading.  The  fel- 
lows that  expect  everything  done  for  'em  by  the  state !  A  loafer  that 
wants  to  share  the  earnings  of  the  industrious  workers ! ' 

'  Ah !     Ah  !     A  nobleman  who  has  inherited  land/ 

'  No !     No !     That's  different.     I  mean / '; 

The  question  now  is  no  longer  will  the  old  regime  survive,  but 
rather  what  will  succeed  it,  and  will  the  displacement  be  the  result  of 
orderly  and  constructive  evolution  or  chaotic  and  destructive  revolu- 
tion. Come  it  must  in  one  way  or  another,  and  for  ourselves  we  do 
not  hesitate  to  say  that,  if  the  present  system  could  be  displaced  only 
by  a  revolution,  we  should  consider  the  end  to  be  attained  a  noble 
justification  of  the  means  employed.  The  agonised  sufferings  of  our 
submerged  brothers  tear  our  hearts  with  pity,  fill  our  eyes  with  tears 
and  nerve  our  sinews  with  a  strength  of  determination  which  shall 
not  be  in  vain.  Too  long  already  has  the  world  been  dominated 
by  a  fanatical  thirst  for  power  and  a  demoniacal  lust  for  pelf.  We 
stand  upon  the  threshold  of  a  new  and  better  dispensation,  and  we 
ourselves  expect  that  the  human  race  will  enter  into  it  in  orderly 
peace.  The  Gillette  plan  for  social  redemption  is  evolutionary,  not 
revolutionary.  It  does  not  flay  the  present  carcass  of  society  —  leav- 
ing its  naked  and  agonised  nerves  bare  to  the  wind  —  but  by  a  rapid, 
quiet  and  orderly  process  it  forms  a  new  skin  under  the  old  which 
will  then  be  quickly  sloughed  off  without  violence  and  without  hard- 
ship to  any.  The  ease  and  the  rapidity  with  which  this  consumma- 
tion can  be  brought  about  cannot  fail  to  surprise  the  Eeader,  when 
he  learns  the  method  employed,  and  make  him  wonder  again  and 

566 


INEQUALITY 

again  why  it  was  not  all  brought  about  many,  many  years  ago.  The 
Gillette  plan  is  yet  another  illustration  of  that  truth  with  which  we 
are  all  so  familiar,  viz.,  that  all  evolution  in  art,  in  invention,  and 
in  character  is  toward  simplicity.  The  great  bit  of  acting  which 
transports  a  spell-bound  audience  is  instinct  with  the  simplicity  of 
childhood.  The  masterpieces  which  blossom  only  upon  a  few  can- 
vases in  a  century  are  so  simple  and  direct  in  their  appeal  to  our 
aesthetic  natures  that  no  line  or  brush-sweep  of  color  can  be  taken 
from  them  without  injury.  The  great  inventions  which  have  made 
the  whole  world  a  neighbourhood  seem,  when  compared  to  the  com- 
plex first  suggestions  out  of  which  they  grew,  to  be  quite  inadequate 
to  the  functions  they  so  successfully  perform.  So  it  is  with  this 
new  social  regime.  Its  simplicity,  its  directness  and  its  natural- 
ness impress  one  as  being  so  primordial  that,  for  the  nonce,  the  mind 
is  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  how  any  other  system  ever  secured  a  foot- 
hold. 


567 


CHAPTER  TI 
MAMMON    AS    GOD 


569 


It  is  certain  that  democracy  annoys  one  part  of  the  community,  and 
that  aristocracy  oppresses  another  part. 

De  Tocqueville. 

Mammon,  the  least  erected  spirit  that  fell 

From  heaven;  for  ev'n  in  heaven  his  looks  and  thoughts 

Were  always  downward  bent,  admiring  more 

The  riches  of  heaven's  pavement,  trodden  gold, 

Than  aught  divine  or  holy  else  enjoy'd 

In  vision  beatific. 

Milton. 
Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon. 

New  Testament. 

If  you  make  money  your  god,  'twill  plague  like  a  devil. 

Fielding. 

Most  people  imagine  that  the  rich  are  in  heaven,  but  as  a  rule,  it  is 
only  a  gilded  hell.  There  is  not  a  man  in  the  city  of  New  York  with 
genius  enough,  with  brains  enough,  to  own  five  millions  of  dollars.  Why? 
The  money  will  own  him.  He  becomes  the  key  to  a  safe.  That  money 
will  get  him  up  at  daylight;  that  money  will  separate  him  from  his 
friends;  that  money  will  fill  his  heart  with  fear;  that  money  will  rob 
his  days  of  sunshine  and  his  nights  of  pleasant  dreams.  He  cannot 
own  it.  He  becomes  the  property  of  that  money.  And  he  goes  right  on 
making  more.  What  for?  He  does  not  know.  It  becomes  a  kind  of 
insanity. 

R.  G-.  Ingersoll. 


570 


CHAPTER  II 
MAMMON    AS    GOD 

AN  cannot  raise  himself  by  pulling  upon  his  own 
boot-straps,  but  he  compensates  for  this  sad  ineffi- 
ciency by  the  fatal  ease  with  which  he  is  "  hoist  with 
ms  own  petar."  Endowed  by  nature  with  certain  in- 
sistent appetites,  he  seeks  to  gratify  these  with  the 
least  possible  exertion.  In  a  primitive  state  of  so- 
ciety his  wants  are  relatively  few,  and  his  means  for  gratifying  them 
are  likewise  few.  As  he  advances  in  civilisation,  however,  both  these 
wants  and  these  means  become  more  numerous,  and  he  begins  at 
length  to  hunt,  as  it  were,  not  merely  for  the  immediate  gratification 
of  his  craving,  but  rather  to  exhibit  his  skill  and  prowess  as  a 
hunter.  Having  started  originally  as  a  mere  "  pot-hunter "  he  has 
now  evolved  to  what  he  is  pleased  to  consider  the  stature  of  a  "  sport," 
from  which  great  elevation  he  looks  down  with  contempt  upon  those 
who  hunt  merely  to  supply  their  physical  needs.  He  no  longer  eats 
his  prey,  but  hunts  it  merely  for  the  love  of  killing,  or,  as  he  would 
say,  for  the  "  pleasure  of  the  chase/'  So  the  typical  successful  business 
man,  hungry  to  get  together  as  many  dollars  as  possible,  is  but  a  com- 
mercial Nimrod  who  hunts  in  many  cases  for  the  mere  pleasure  of 
the  chase.  After  he  has  acquired  wealth  enough  to  supply  his  every 
legitimate  want,  instead  of  ceasing  his  quest  he  pursues  -  the  chase 
more  madly  than  ever,  for,  as  Tacitus  said  many  centuries  ago,  the 
love  of  money  increases  as  money  increases.  The  appetite  for  it  is 
like  "the  green-eyed  monster"  which  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon. 
Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  your  rich  man  is  caught  in  his  own  net, 
the  very  blood  in  his  veins  becomes  as  it  were  a  congeries  of  little 
financial  discs,  and  his  life  the  piling  and  unpiling  of  them.  Under 
such  conditions  the  man  degenerates  into  a  mere  accounting-ma- 
chine which  vegetates  upon  this  "bank  and  shoal  of  time"  as  un- 
profitable to  himself  as  to  every  one  else.  Such  men  are  like  pockets 
in  the  earth  which  catch  and  hold  and  stagnate  in  their  subterranean 
recesses  the  fluent  waters  of  labour,  or  who  spurt  it  high  in  ostenta- 
tious geysers  to  awe  the  spirit  of  the  admiring  rabble.  Such  men 
are  as  much  to  be  pitied  as  a  blind  and  motherless  kitten  which,  hav- 
ing learned  how  to  drink  milk  to  satisfy  its  craving,  lacks  the  wit  to 
stop  when  its  stomach  is  full,  but  keeps  steadily  imbibing  until  that 
devoted  organ  bursts  with  a  resounding  explosion.  These  poor  rich 
remind  one  of  the  botanist  of  whom  Emerson  says  that,  while  he 
has  got  all  flowers  in  his  herbarium,  Nature  has  done  for  him  also 
and  put  the  man  in  a  bottle.  These  bottled  captains  of  industry, 
these  dried  and  pressed  weeds  of  Mammon  are  most  pitiable  exhibits 
upon  the  shelves  of  this  20th  century.  They  aie  "hoist  with  their 

571 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

own  petar."  They  ate  originally  to  satisfy  a  normal  craving,  and 
then  became  social  monstrosities,  victims  of  pocket  elephantiasis, 
through  their  inability  to  quit  feeding  when  their  normal  appetite 
ceased.  Another  most  singular  thing  in  this  connexion  is  that  there 
should  be  so  many  who  consider  these  monstrosities  beautiful  and 
fawn  upon  them  in  a  way  that  quite  passes  rational  comprehension. 
We  account  ourselves  civilised,  but  it  would  seem  as  if  our  ideas  of 
beauty  were  like  those  of  the  Arabian  poet  who  apostrophises  "  the 
maid  of  Okaib,  who  has  haunches  like  sand-hills,  whence  her  body 
rises  like  a  palm-tree/'  or  like  the  Yoruba  negroes  who,  according 
to  Lander,  regard  bulk,  plumpness  and  rotundity  as  the  essentials 
of  feminine  beauty. 

Treading  close  upon  the  heels  of  this  perversion  of  a  normal 
process  we  find,  as  a  national  evolution  thereof,  a  defacement  of  those 
original  virtues  which  form  the  basis  of  all  true  nobility.  The  pres- 
ent corruption  in  all  branches  of  business  has  come  to  be  accepted  as 
such  a  matter  of  course  that  it  is  now  considered  quite  the  regulation 
thing  to  reply  to  any  comments  upon  the  dishonesty  of  industrial 
captains  after  this  fashion :  "  Oh,  well,  we'd  all  do  the  same  if  we 
got  the  chance.  They're  just  a  bit  smarter,  that's  all."  Again  and 
again  do  we  hear  so-called  respectable  people  say,  when  discussing 
some  politician  who  has  gotten  suddenly  and  suspiciously  rich  during 
his  term  of  office:  "Well,  all  I  can  say  is,  if  he  didn't  feather  his 
nest  he  was  a  fool,  that's  all."  Even  men  of  intellectual  attain- 
ment have  not  always  been  proof  against  the  contamination.  We 
find  them  saying,  with  the  Philadelphia  educator,  that  they  think 
"it's  perhaps  about  the  thing  for  city  officials  to  steal  a  generous 
commission  from  all  the  monies  that  pass  through  their  hands,  pro- 
vided they  give  the  people  good  value  for  the  balance."  In  mer- 
cantile pursuits  the  same  dishonesty  obtains.  We  have  ourselves, 
personally,  seen  a  Boston  firm  in  good  standing  make  an  agreement 
to-day  with  all  its  competitors  to  materially  advance  the  price  of 
logwood  to-morrow,  pledging  their  words  th£.t  they  would  not  sell  it 
at  to-day's  price  after  closing  hour  to-night.  We  have  seen  this 
firm  on  the  morrow,  after  the  price  was  supposed  to  advance,  dictate 
letters  to  their  customers,  dating  the  letters  back  one  day  and  in- 
forming them  that  the  price  would  go  forward  on  the  morrow,  that 
they  had  booked  their  order  for  so  many  tons  and  would  cancel  it  if 
not  wanted.  Here  was  a  case  of  bare-faced  deception  and  dishon- 
esty. We  personally  know  a  Boston  firm  which  regularly  bribed  the 
buyers  for  other  concerns  to  declare  in  favour  of  its  goods,  and  justi- 
fied their  course  by  the  statement  that  they  could  not  sell  the  goods 
in  any  other  way.  That  the  buyers  for  railroads  and  other  large 
concerns  are  very  frequently  amenable  to  and  do  receive  bribes,  rake- 
offs,  perquisites,  presents,  and  the  like,  is  a  matter  of  common 
knowledge.  Even  as  we  write  there  is  in  progress  a  full-fledged 
scandal  at  the  Boston  State  House.  Allegations  have  been  made 
that  extensive  bribing  was  done  in  connexion  with  what  is  known 
as  the  "  Bucket-Shop  Bill."  District  Attorney  John  B.  Moran  moved 
in  the  matter  and  certain  witnesses  were  examined.  Before  Mr. 
Moran,  however,  had  completed  his  work  the  legislature  inaugurated 

572 


MAMMON    AS    GOD 

a  "star  chamber"  hearing  for  the  purpose  of  "  investigating "  the 
charges  of  corruption.  From  this  hearing  the  press  was  excluded. 
By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  people  naturally  believed  that  this  course 
was  adopted  for  "whitewashing"  purposes.  The  public  expressed 
its  distrust  and  even  indignation  in  unmistakable  terms.  To  cap 
the  climax  and  to  make  matters  worse,  a  Boston  paper  suddenly  an- 
nounced that  Section  17  of  Chapter  3  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  reads  as  follows :  "  A  person 
shall  not  be  excused  from  attending  and  testifying  before  either 
branch  of  the  general  court  or  before  a  committee  thereof  upon  a 
subject  referred  to  such  committee  on  the  ground  that  his  testimony 
or  evidence,  documentary  or  otherwise,  may  tend  to  criminate  him 
or  subject  him  to  a  penalty  or  forfeiture,  but  he  shall  not  be  prose- 
cuted or  subjected  to  a  penalty  or  forfeiture  for  or  on  account  of  any 
action,  «natter  or  thing  concerning  which  he  may  so  testify  or  pro- 
duce evidence,  except  for  perjury  committed  in  such  testimony;  and 
this  exception  shall  not  apply  to  an  official  paper  or  record  so  pro- 
duced by  him." 

From  this  law  it  would  appear  that  if  even  a  question  of  murder 
were  undergoing  legislative  investigation  and  the  murderer  were  to 
appear  before  the  committee  having  the  matter  in  charge  and  were 
to  acknowledge  his  guilt  he  would  be  allowed  to  go  scot-free,  and  no 
law  in  the  land  could  touch  him.  To  see  how  this  might  work  out 
let  us  suppose  something  akin  to  what  is  thought  by  many  to  be 
occurring  in  another  state  were  happening  here.  Suppose  a  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts  had  been  assassinated.  Suppose  that  those 
representing  certain  monied  interests,  having  tremendous  political  in- 
fluence, wished  to  fasten  this  crime  upon  certain  of  their  enemies. 
Suppose  they  succeeded  and  their  victims  were  executed,  and  suppose 
later  that  it  was  conclusively  proved  that  they  were  murdered  by  this 
conspiracy.  All  that  would  be  necessary  for  these  privileged  pluto- 
crats to  do  would  be  to  pass  the  word  along  to  their  henchmen, 
secure  a  legislative  investigation  and  confess  that  they  deliberately 
murdered  the  victims  of  their  conspiracy  by  false  testimony  and 
manufactured  evidence.  Their  mere  confession,  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
would,  under  this  statute,  forever  free  them  from  any  fear  of  punish- 
ment for  their  nefarious  crimes.  Indeed,  by  this  beautiful  legal  tid- 
bit, a  corrupt  legislature  might  sack  the  treasury  of  a  state  in  broad 
day-light,  and  snap  their  fingers  in  the  face  of  any  court  which  sought 
to  bring  them  to  book.  That  such  a  law  could  be  passed  is  a  glowing 
tribute  to  the  corruptness,  the  ignorance  or  the  indifference  of  our 
legislators.  And  these  men  are  mostly  lawyers!  If  a  back-woodsman 
would  let  such  a  statute  as  that  get  by  him  unnoticed  he  would  be 
worthy  the  contempt  of  his  own  cattle.  If  he  noticed  it  and  did  not 
drive  a  coach-and-six  through  it,  he  would  deserve  a  conspicuous 
niche  in  the  American  Hall  of  Infamy  now  rapidly  nearing  com- 
pletion. 

By  way  of  comment  upon  this  condition,  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Lawson 
published  the  following  letter :  "  TO  THE  BRIBE-GIVERS  AND 
BRIBE-TAKERS  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  LEGISLATURE. 

573 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"  Henceforth  it  will  be  your  privilege  to  work  at  your  vocation  in 
the  open. 

"In  the  light  of  present  conditions  it  will  only  be  necessary  for 
you  to  secure  a  majority  of  the  members  of  the  Senate  or  House. 

"  With  this  majority  you  can  appoint  an  investigating  committee 
and  —  the  trick  is  pulled  off  and  the  consequences  slammed  shut. 

"  That  the  possibilities  of  this  condition  outpipe  any  of  your  former 
dreams  will  be  evident  to  your  ebonised  ooze  imagination. 

"To  illustrate: 

"  The  .State  House  can  at  once  and  with  perfect  safety  be  con- 
fiscated for  a  State  bucket-shop,  with  the  State  treasury  as  the  kitty, 
the  bribe-givers  as  dealers,  and  the  bribe-takers  as  customers,  while 
the  different  State  institutions  can  be  turned  into  distilleries  and 
breweries.  THOMAS  W.  LAWSON." 

Under  date  of  May  26,  1906,  District  Attorney  John  B.  Moran 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  members  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  in 
which  he  comments  upon  the  star-chamber  "  investigation "  and 
which  he  closes  as  follows :  "  The  results  which  I  sought  and  had 
already  within  my  grasp  have  been  snatched  from  me  by  a  committee 
proceeding,  farcical  in  its  conduct,  vicious  in  its  results,  and  iniquitous 
in  its  conception. 

"  Had  every  member  of  the  House  been  corrupt  and  scheming  for 
exemption  from  punishment,  no  more  successful  device  could  have 
been  conceived  to  accomplish  this  purpose  by  minds  trained  in  crime 
and  developed  in  the  art  of  evading  its  penalties  than  the  one  adopted. 

"  With  several  lawyers  on  the  committee  and  with  the  Attorney- 
General  present  to  add  his  learning  to  its  wisdom  and  his  dignity  to 
its  hearings  and  his  skill  to  its  examinations,  it  is  inconceivable  that 
the  scheme  was  not  well  thought  out,  that  its  purpose  was  not  well 
defined,  that  its  results  were  not  foreseen. 

"  If  ignorance  of  the  law  be  pleaded  by  them  in  extenuation  of  pub- 
lic condemnation  due  their  conduct,  I  trust  they  will  find  some  few 
who  will  criticise  them  not  too  harshly,  but  will  in  apology  declare 
that  they  knew  no  better. 

"  To  the  public  I  commend  them  for  their  skill  or  want  of  it,  for 
their  honesty  or  want  of  it,  for  their  knowledge  or  want  of  it. 

"  To  the  Attorney-General  I  suggest  a  perusal  of  a  treatise  on  legal 
ethics  or  on  laws.  JOHN  B.  MORAN." 

The  universality  of  this  corruption  and  the  unblushing  effrontery 
with  which  it  is  practised  are  simply  astonishing.  We  quote  the 
following  illustration  from  "  Harper's  Weekly "  for  April  7,  1906 : 
"  The  House  Committee  on  Post-offices  and  'Post-roads  recently  con- 
ducted an  extended  investigation  into  charges  that  the  franking  privi- 
lege had  been  abused  by  Congressmen,  to  the  extent  of  sending 
furniture  and  other  household  goods  through  the  mails  free.  The 
committee  issued  a  clean  bill  of  health  to  the  suspected  members, 
and  then  solemnly  proceeded  to  incorporate  a  clause  in  the  Post-office 
Appropriation  bill  prohibiting  further  indulgence  in  the  abuse.  The 

574 


MAMMON    AS    GOD 

bill  was  accompanied  by  a  report  from  the  Postmaster-General  show- 
ing that  the  Post-office  Department  was  spending  something  like 
$100,000  a  year  for  carrying  matter  under  Congressmen's  franks  that 
would  not  be  allowed  in  the  mails  under  the  regulations,  even  if 
postage  were  paid.  The  'not  guilty,  but  don't-do-it-again '  verdict 
is  not  a  monopoly  of  the  rural  jury." 

We  have  already  seen  in  several  specific  instances  that  the  modem 
business  man  does  not  have  the  slightest  hesitancy  in  claiming  any- 
thing he  may  think  to  his  own  advantage  in  connexion  with  adver- 
tising his  goods.  He  may  make  his  catsup  of  wood-pulp,  adulterated 
spices  and  analine  dye,  yet  he  will  advertise  it  as  containing  nothing 
but  pure  fruit  and  legitimate  flavourings  and  as  being  of  the  natural 
colour.  When  we  come  to  consider  those  larger  aggregations  of  capi- 
tal known  as  trusts,  we  find  matters,  if  possible,  yet  worse.  Those 
who  have  read  Henry  Demorest  Lloyd's  "  Wealth  against  Common- 
wealth "  and  Ida  Tarbell's  "  History  of  the  Standard  Oil "  will  not 
need  to  be  told  what  kind  of  a  record  this  corporation  has  in  this  re- 
gard. Mr.  Lloyd's  book  is  practically  a  record  of  court  proceedings. 
Its  attitude  is  calm  and  judicial,  but  the  evidence  presented  is  damna- 
tory to  the  last  extreme. 

Of  late  the  country  has  been  passing  through  new  trust  experi- 
ences. Never  until  recent  years  has  it  been  safe  for  corporations  to 
take  the  law  into  their  own  hands  and  to  remove  American  citizens, 
whom  they  were  pleased  to  consider  hurtful  to  their  interests,  from 
their  property  and  their  homes,  not  only  without  legal  warrant  but 
in  riotous  defiance  of  every  law  of  the  land,  of  humanity,  or  of  God. 
Nor  have  they  stopped  here.  Even  while  we  write  every  effort  is 
being  made  to  deprive  certain  labour-leaders  of  their  lives  upon  the 
charge  of  complicity  in  a  murder  committed.  We  do  not  pretend 
to  prejudge  the  merits  of  this  case,  for  we  have  no  means  of  knowing 
what  evidence  will  be  produced  at  the  trial  other  than  that  which 
has  been  freely  discussed  by  the  press,  but  we  cannot  refrain  from 
stating  plainly  that,  judging  by  appearances,  the  votaries  of  the 
system  are  fairly  subject  to  the  suspicion  of  having  engaged  in  one 
of  the  most  infamous  conspiracies  of  this  or  any  other  age.  The 
evidence  against  these  labour-leaders,  as  it  has  appeared  in  the  press, 
is  such  a  tissue  of  absurdities  that  it  leads  the  thoughtful  almost  to 
hope  that  the  "  System  "  is  nearing  that  point  where  it  will  become  yet 
another  illustration  of  the  truth  of  the  saying,  "Whom  the  gods 
would  destroy  they  first  make  mad." 

The  recent  insurance  exposures  have  merely  brought  to  light  con- 
ditions which  long  have  existed  and  which  might  have  continued 
underground  for  an  indefinite  period  longer  had  not  friction  occurred 
within  the  circle.  This  well  illustrates  a  fortunate  dispensation  of 
nature.  When  thieves  give  rein  to  their  greed  for  a  certain  time  they 
tend  to  develop  a  desire  each  to  absorb  the  whole  thing  himself.  Then 
is  it  that,  like  tarantulas  in  a  bottle,  they  fight  to  see  which  one 
shall  swallow  all  the  others.  The  noise  of  this  conflict  reaches  the 
public  ear  and  then  we  have  a  "  scandal."  Had  further  evidence  of 
the  extent  to  which  privilege  controls  the  press  been  needed,  this  in- 
surance episode  would  h.ave  helped  to  furnish  it.  Happily  for  its 

$75 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

own  -good  the  general  public  is  fast  awaking  to  a  wholesome  realisa- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  our  newspapers, 
not  to  say  a  goodly  number  of  our  weeklies  and  monthlies,  are  the 
paid  organs  of  privilege.  In  many  cases  the  publication  is  owned 
outright.  In  others  it  is  controlled  through  advertising,  and  in  still 
others  through  the  influence  of  the  "  System's  "  banks.  Nor  does  this 
baneful  influence  stop  with  the  press.  It  pushes  its  way  into  the 
university  and  even  corrupts  the  pulpit. 

We  quote  the  following  from  an  article  by  the  Hon.  J.  Warren 
Mills,  published  in  "The  Arena"  for  March,  1906:  "The  trusts 
are  now  reaching  out  for  our  schools.  Rockefeller's  Chicago  Uni- 
versity is  familiar  to  us  all.  We  have  seen  academic  freedom  denied 
in  the  Leland  Stanford  University  at  Palo  Alto.  Eecently  Mr. 
Rockefeller  gave  $66,000  to  the  University  of  Nebraska,  and  Chan- 
cellor Andrews'  acceptance  of  the  same  has  made  an  important  issue 
in  the  politics  of  that  state.  Not  long  ago  Mr.  Carnegie  tried  to 
give  $25,000  to  the  University  of  Mississippi,  but  the  rebuff  he  re- 
ceived from  Governor  Vardaman  strikes  such  an  important  note  that 
it  ought  to  be  sounded  from  the  house-tops  all  over  the  land.  The 
•governor  says: 

'We  have  in  Mississippi  the  purest  and  best  stock  of  men  and 
women  under  God's  heaven,  and  we  do  not  want  them  warped  from 
the  broad  spirit  of  fairness  and  integrity  and  purity  which  has 
made  us  the  proud  people  we  are  to-day,  by  being  taught  to  bow  down 
in  a  thankful  humbleness  to  such  men  as  Andrew  Carnegie  and  Rocke- 
feller, and  become  subservient  to  the  spirit  of  greed  and  commercial- 
ism which  has  bred  the  trust  and  fostered  the  slavery  of  the  American 
workingman.  I  would  rather  see  the  walls  of  our  state  university  and 
our  colleges  crumble  into  dust  and  the  buildings  be  battered  and 
grimy  than  that  they  should  be  built  up  and  handsomely  painted  and 
furnished  by  this  money  which  has  been  coined  from  the  blood  and 
tears  of  the  toiling  masses,  '  demanding  the  usury  of  self-respect/ 
which  we  cannot  afford  to  pay. 

'  We  -may  not  have  in  Mississippi  the  scientific  equipment  for  im- 
parting knowledge  and  all  the  modern  accessories  that  make  up  the 
great  institutions  of  learning,  but  we  have  the  means  of  making  strong 
and  stalwart  men  and  women,  who  scorn  the  slavery  of  wealth  and 
stand  unequalled  in  their  proud  independence  of  thought.' 

"  Simon  Guggenheim  recently  gave  to  the  State  School  of  Mines  at 
Golden  $75,000,  and  on  October  2d,  last,  occurred  the  elaborate  cere- 
monies of  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  '  Guggenheim  Hall.' 
The  railroads  made  special  rates  and  all  the  politicians,  including  our 
governor  and  congressmen,  were  there  and  thousands  of  people  be- 
sides, and  all  assembled  on  the  momentous  occasion  to  render  homage 
to  Simon  Guggenheim,  the  donor, —  the  great  head  of  the  .Smelter 
Trust.  There,  facing  the  tall  but  silent  chimneys  of  its  latest  victim, 
with  the  cry  of  misery  and  destitution  audibly  rising  from  a  thousand 
throats,  congratulations  were  extended,  and  the  great  Simon,  son  of 
Mayer,  and  king  of  the  Smelter  Trust,  was  volubly  commended  to 
the  favour  and  affection  of  the  impressed,  and  impressive  assemblage 
of  citizens  and  students.  At  last  the  ceremonies  were  ended,  the 

576 


MAMMON   AS    GOD 

people  dispersed  and  the  sun  sank  into  a  black  cloud  that  enveloped 
the  smokeless  smelter  in  a  sombre  silence,  and  the  sorrows  and  la- 
mentations of  the  '  out-of-works '  were  soon  drowned  in  the  whistling 
winds. 

"  Another  day  was  gone,  but  a  day  that  marked  with  a  multitude 
of  witnesses  the  adding  of  a  new  department  to  the  American  Smelt- 
ing and  Befming  Company. 

"  How  long  will  Colorado  look  kindly  upon  '  Guggenheim  Hall '  ? 
How  long  before  political  platforms  will  contain  a  demand  that  the 
money  be  returned  and  the  name  chipped  off?  How  long  before  our 
people  will  too  keenly  appreciate  the  high  privilege  of  co-operatively 
founding  and  rearing  a  great  educational  institution,  by  themselves 
and  for  themselves  and  their  children,  to  tolerate  such  an  imposing 
contribution  of  '  tainted  money '  with  all  that  it  implies  ?  How  long 
before  our  parents  and  students  will  realise  the  wanton  injury  to  high 
ideals  in  compromising  at  the  very  start  the  estimates  and  judgments 
of  the  great  '  captains  of  industry  ? ' ' 

It  is  not  very  long  since  the  press  of  the  country  was  full  of  ac- 
clamations regarding  the  acceptance  by  a  church  of  a  considerable 
sum  of  money  proffered  by  an  oil  magnate.  The  money  was  accepted. 

Eegarding  this  subject  the  Eev.  Washington  Gladden  says,  in  his 
"  The  New  Idolatry  " :  "  The  question  of  tainted  money  is  a  ques- 
tion that  this  generation  must  face.  There  are  vast  heaps  of  it  on 
every  side  of  us  —  accumulations  that  have  been  made  by  methods  as 
heartless,  as  cynically  iniquitous  as  any  that  were  employed  by  Eoman 
plunderers  or  robber  barons  of  the  Dark  Ages.  In  the  cool  brutality 
with  which  properties  are  wrecked,  securities  destroyed,  and  people  by 
the  hundreds  robbed  of  their  little  all  to  build  up  the  fortunes  of  the 
multi-millionaires,  we  have  an  appalling  revelation  of  the  kind  of 
monster  that  a  human  being  may  become.  Much  of  this  wealth  has 
been  gained  by  the  most  daring  violations  of  the  laws  of  the  land ;  by 
tampering  with  courts  of  justice;  by  the  bribery  of  city  councils  or 
legislatures,  and  even  of  Congress  itself;  by  practices  which  have 
introduced  into  the  body  politic  a  virulent  and  deadly  poison  that 
threatens  the  very  life  of  the  Nation.  That  many  of  the  largest 
fortunes  in  this  country  have  some  such  origin  all  intelligent  men 
know.  Is  this  clean  money?  Can  any  man,  can  any  institution, 
knowing  its  origin,  touch  it  without  being  defiled  ?  "  .  .  . 

"To  accept  the  reward  of  iniquity  is  to  place  upon  our  lips  the 
seal  of  silence  respecting  its  perpetrators.  Those  who  recognise  no 
responsibility  for  the  maintenance  of  public  virtue  may  wear  such  a 
muzzle  without  discomfort ;  but  it  would  seem  that  public  teachers,  of 
all  sorts,  should  be  unwilling  to  put  it  on. 

"  Money  that  has  been  gained  by  nefarious  methods  is  often  brought 
to  the  door  of  the  church,  and  those  who  bring  it  seldom  fail  of  a 
warm  welcome.  The  liberal  contribution  can  hardly ^ be  refused; 
will  not  such  charity  cover  a  multitude  of  sins?  If  this  malefactor 
has  done  evil  in  the  past,  ought  we  not  to  be  glad  that  he  now  seems 
to  be  of  a  better  mind?  And  this  money  will  go  just  as  far  in  'sup- 
porting the  Gospel '  as  any  other  man's  money.  Why  should  we 
hesitate  about  taking  it?  Think  of  the  good  that  may  be  done  by 
n  577 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

turning  this  wealth  —  which  men  say  has  been  gotten  by  iniquity  — 
into  channels  of  mercy!  If  the  liberal  donor  happen  to  conceive  a 
special  fondness  for  the  parson,  and  there  are  handsome  gifts  now  and 
then,  and  suggestions  of  European  tours,  all  this  reasoning  gains  in 
cogency. 

"  Of  course,  under  such  circumstances,  the  pulpit  of  this  church  is 
not  likely  to  discuss  the  kind  of  iniquity  by  which  this  money  was 
gained,  nor  anything  near  akin  to  it.  It  would  be  extremely  un- 
grateful—  it  would,  indeed,  be  dishonourable  —  for  this  pulpit  to 
touch  upon  such  matters.  Having  sought  and  welcomed  these  lib- 
eral donations,  it  is  simply  the  dictate  of  ordinary  decency  to  refrain 
from  criticising  the  financial  methods  of  the  donor.  People  might 
charge  that  this  plutocrat  had  stipulated  that  nothing  should  be  said 
in  the  church  about  his  practices,  but  that  is  a  crude  conception;  of 
course  he  has  said  nothing  about  it ;  nothing  has  been  said  by  any- 
body; nothing  needs  to  be  said.  This  minister  has  never  promised 
.that  he  will  be  silent  on  themes  of  this  character ;  it  is  not  necessary 
for  him  to  make  any  promise;  the  situation  speaks  for  itself;  if  he 
has  the  instincts  of  a  gentleman,  he  will  not  assail  the  man  who  has 
put  him  under  such  obligations. 

"  This  pulpit,  then,  will  have  no  message  respecting  wrongs  of  this 
particular  kind.  And,  inasmuch  as  it  would  seem  rather  inconsistent 
to  attack  other  closely  related  social  wrongs  and  avoid  these,  this 
pulpit  will  probably  abstain  from  all  reference  to  public  evils.  It  will 
confine  itself  to  what  is  known  as  '  the  simple  G-ospel ' —  to  a  purely 
abstract  religionism  which  has  little  or  nothing  to  do  with,  life  in  this 
world,  but  which,  confines  itself  to  the  preparation  of  men  for  the 
world  to  come.  The  kind  of  preaching  which  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
and  Amos  and  Paul  and  James  practised  will  not  be  heard  from  this 
pulpit.  Its  moral  power  will  be  paralysed.  Its  influence  upon  the 
social  life  of  the  community  will  be  practically  nil.  Or,  if  it  stands 
for  anything  at  all,  its  silent  testimony  will  support  the  iniquities 
by  which  the  foundations  of  the  social  order  are  undermined. 

"Such  is  the  effect  of  tainted  money  upon  the  life  of  a  church. 
When  it  is  coveted  and  sought,  when  those  who  bring  it  to  the 
altars  of  the  church  are  courted  and  made  welcome,  consequences 
like  these  are  simply  inevitable. 

"  Similar  results  must  needs  appear  in  the  life  of  a  college  built  on 
such  foundations  or  largely  dependent  on  resources  of  this  character. 
Not  a  little  of  this  tainted  money  has  been  turned  into  the  channels 
of  the  higher  education.  It  seems  to  have  been  assumed  by  many 
of  those  who  have  this  work  in  charge  that  all  money  is  pure  and 
holy,  and  that  just  as  much  good  can  be  done  with  the  money  of  a 
robber  as  with  the  money  of  an  honest  merchant  or  manufacturer.  It 
seems  even  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  meritorious  achievement  to 
pave  the  highways  of  learning  with  the  price  of  blood. 

"It  is  passing  strange  that  the  implications  and  consequences  of 
such  an  alliance  should  be  ignored  or  disregarded.  Is  it  not  plain 
that  an  institution  which  accepts  subsidies  from  notoriously  iniquitous 
sources,  by  this  act  virtually  resigns  the  privilege  of  bearing  testi- 
mony against  such  iniquities?  When  we  enter  into  partnership 

678 


MAMMON    AS    GOD 

with  corruptionists  and  extortionists  in  the  business  of  education,  we 
must,  in  common  decency,  refrain  from  turning  round  and  abusing 
our  partners.  Whatever  public  teaching  may  be  needed,  respecting 
the  evil  conditions  out  of  which  this  fortune  has  sprung,  this  col- 
lege, at  least,  can  offer  none.  It  is  foolish  to  say  that  the  donor  has 
imposed  no  restrictions  upon  the  teaching ;  certainly  not ;  there  is  not 
the  least  need  of  it.  Some  things  can  be  taken  for  granted,  among 
gentlemen.  It  would  be  utterly  dishonourable  for  an  institution  thus 
founded,  or  largely  befriended,  to  enter  into  a  thorough  investigation 
of  the  methods  by  which  its  endowments  were  accumulated.  The 
teaching  might  deal,  in  an  abstract  way,  with  social  subjects;  but 
it  could  not  examine  historically  and  scientifically  certain  burning 
questions  of  its  own  neighbourhood  and  generation.  Its  instructors 
will  be  constrained  to  say  to  themselves  —  perhaps  to  one  another  — 
'  All  this  is  valuable  and  necessary  work,  but  this  is  not  the  institu- 
tion where  such  work  can  be  done/  Think  of  a  college  —  above  all, 
a  '  Christian '  college  —  putting  itself  in  such  an  attitude  as  this  be- 
fore the  world ! 

"  But  this  is  not  all.  An  institution  thus  allied  must  needs  pay 
honour  to  those  whose  benefactions  it  is  sharing.  There  will  be  a 
place,  and  a  high  place,  at  its  feasts  for  the  men  to  whom  it  owes  so 
much.  Glowing  words  of  eulogy  will  not  be  wanting.  The  young 
men  of  the  institution  who  look  and  listen  will  thus  be  aided  in  form- 
ing their  theories  of  life.  The  whole  world  will  see  who  it  is  that 
these  Christian  scholars  and  leaders  of  the  people  delight  to  honour. 
So  it  is  that  public  opinion  is  formed,  and  that  men  who  are  the 
pirates  of  industry  and  the  spoilers  of  the  state  are  advanced  to  the 
front  rank  in  modern  society ."  .  .  . 

"What  shall  it  profit  a  church  or  a  college  if  it  shall  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  its  own  life  ?  " 

In  an  article  entitled  "  Academic  Freedom  in  Theory  and  Prac- 
tice," published  in  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly,"  1903,  President  Hadley, 
of  Yale,  says :  (  Modern  university  teaching  costs  more  money  per 
capita  than  it  ever  did  before,  because  the  public  wishes  a  university 
to  maintain  places  of  scientific  research,  and  scientific  research  is  ex- 
tremely expensive.  A  university  is  more  likely  to  obtain  this  money 
if  it  gives  the  property  owners  reason  to  believe  that  vested  rights  will 
not  be  interfered  with.  If  we  recognise  vested  rights  in  order  to 
secure  the  means  of  progress  in  physical  science,  is  there  not  danger 
that  we  shall  stifle  the  spirit  of  independence,  which  is  equally  im- 
portant as  a  means  of  progress  in  moral  science  ?  " 

Writing  upon  this  subject  Mr.  Henry  George,  Jr.,  says,  in  his  "  The 
Menace  of  Privilege":  "The  truth  of  the  situation  is  presented  in 
an  incident  that  Mr.  Louis  F.  Post  of  Chicago  relates  as  a  fact. 
'Why  don't  you  endow  a  chair  in  economics  in  our  university?'  a 
distinguished  educator  asked  a  millionaire.  'Well,'  was  the  reply, 
'  I  suppose  it  might  be  because  I  haven't  much  respect  for  the  kind 
of  economics  the  universities  are  teaching.'  'Oh,'  came  the  re- 
joinder, <  that  could  be  easily  arranged  to  suit  you.' 

"The  'touch,'  as  Mr.  Post  calls  it,  was  refused,  for  while  the 
millionaire,  unlike  his  class,  was  one  who  held  extremely  liberal  views 

579 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

on  economic  questions,  he  had  no  more  respect  for  this  kind  of  col- 
lege administration  than  he  had  for  the  regular  brand  of  college 
'  economics/  r' 

Upon  the  same  subject  Prof.  John  Bascom,  holding  the  chair  of 
Political  Economy  at  Williams,  says  in  a  signed  letter  in  the  "  Chi- 
cago Chronicle "  Jan.  8,  1903,  "  The  question  of  trusts  is  an  eco- 
nomic, social  and  civic  question,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  every  college  to 
meet  it  in  all  these  relations.  A  college  that  is  thriving  on  the  money 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Trust  is  precluded  by  courtesy,  by  honour  and 
by  interest  from  any  adequate  criticism  of  its  methods.  It  has  fore- 
closed discussion  on  one  of  the  most  important  questions  which  can 
come  before  it  for  consideration/* 

Can  it  be  doubted  for  a  moment  that  a  large  part  of  the  success 
of  the  Salvation  Army  and  of  Christian  Science  is  due  to  the  in- 
efficiency of  the  church  of  our  fathers?  Strong  and  daily  stronger 
grows  the  feeling  in  the  breast  of  the  poor  man  that,  while  the  church 
may  be  his  heavenly  friend,  it  is  not  to  be  depended  upon  to  ameliorate 
his  earthly  condition.  He  may  not  philosophise  upon  the  fact  that 
that  which  "  binds  back  "  is  naturally  static,  conservative  and  wor- 
shipful of  the  powers  that  be,  but  his  subconsciousness  does  not  miss 
the  results  which  would  follow  such  reasoning.  There  needs  no  ghost 
come  from  the  grave  to  tell  him  that  money  as  well  as  charity  covers, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  modern  church,  a  multitude  of  sins.  It  is  money, 
money,  money  everywhere.  As  a  nation  we  are  money-mad. 

Says  the  Rev.  Washington  Gladden,  in  "  The  New  Idolatry,"  "  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  name  the  god  of  this  present  world. 

'Mammon,  the  least  erected  spirit  that  fell  from  heaven'  Mil- 
ton calls  him.  To  him  the  homage  of  the  multitude  is  given  with 
no  reserve.  The  worship  of  Mammon  is  the  one  stupendous  social 
fact  of  this  generation.  We  must  not  say  that  it  is  universal;  that 
would  be  a  grievous  error.  As  in  the  days  when  idolatry  cursed 
Israel  there  were  thousands,  unknown  to  the  desponding  prophet,  who 
had  not  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal,  so  in  these  days  there  are  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  who  have  not  been  debauched  by  the  worship  of 
Mammon,  but  it  is  the  religion  of  the  multitude.  Men  do  believe 
in  him;  their  faith  is  sincere  and  unwavering;  they  are  ready  to 
prove  it,  every  day,  by  their  works.  They  have  no  doubt  of  his 
power,  of  his  supremacy;  all  things  are  possible,  they  think,  to  those 
who  secure  his  favour.  That  he  holds  in  his  hands  the  real  good  of 
life  for  man,  and  that  there  is  no  real  happiness  for  any  unless  they 
propitiate  him,  is  the  first  article  in  the  creed  of  the  great  majority. 
It  is  not  the  rich  or  the  prosperous  alone  who  hold  this  creed ;  the  poor 
and  the  degraded  are  equally  ensnared  by  it;  their  expectations  of 
good  are  concentrated  upon  the  same  potentate. 

"  Never,  since  time  began,  has  this  worship  been  so  widespread,  so 
nearly  universal  as  it  is  to-day.  It  is  only  within  the  last  one  or 
two  centuries  that  the  way  to  the  altars  of  Mammon  has  been  cleared 
for  the  multitude.  In  slavery  and  in  feudalism  the  opportunities  of 
gain  were  confined  to  a  very  few ;  now  that  freedom  is  the  heritage 
of  all,  this  craving  has  become  the  common  experience  of  mankind. 

£80 


MAMMON    AS    GOD 

Like  every  other  natural  passion  it  is  a  good  servant  but  a  tyrannical 
master.  We  are  suffering  now  from  its  domination. 

:<  To  a  very  large  extent  the  worship  of  Mammon  has  supplanted  the 
worship  of  God.  It  is  not  a  mere  lip  service,  it  is  a  living  allegiance. 
It  is  by  their  works  that  the  devotees  prove  their  faith.  We  know 
that  they  believe  in  Mammon  more  than  in  God,  for  their  lives  give 
clear  and  abundant  testimony.  The  evidences  of  this  devotion  are 
visible  on  every  side.  To  what  other  cause  can  we  attribute  the  evils 
that  infest  the  government  of  our  cities  and  that  fill  many  of  our 
state  capitals  with  the  stench  of  rotten  politics;  that  turn  many  of 
our  railway  systems  into  gigantic  instruments  of  extortion,  and  build 
up  a  mighty  enginery  of  finance  with  power  to  exploit  the  savings  of 
a  nation  for  the  enrichment  of  a  few  ? 

"  What  is  it  that  teaches  men  to  be  hard  and  cruel  in  the  pursuit 
of  their  advantages,  and  ruthlessly  to  crush  all  who  stand  in  the  way 
of  the  building  of  their  fortunes?  What  is  it  that  dulls  the  sense  of 
honour  and  the  impulse  of  probity  and  makes  men  faithless  to  their 
trusts?  How  shall  we  explain  such  a  ghastly  exhibit  as  that  which 
is  now  in  sight  in  the  great  New  York  insurance  companies;  such 
continental  extortions  as  those  which  the  government  is  now  trying 
to  unearth,  and  such  eruptions  of  graft  and  boodle  as  every  news- 
paper chronicles?  Are  not  all  these  convincing  proofs  of  a  prevail- 
ing faith  in  the  supremacy  of  Mammon  ?  Many  of  the  men  who  are 
engaged  in  such  operations  as  these^say  with  their  lips  that  they  be- 
lieve in  God,  but  it  cannot  be.  Their  actions  prove  that  the  real 
object  of  their  faith  and  allegiance  is  Mammon.  In  their  hearts 
they  believe  that  Mammon  is  stronger  and  greater  than  God ;  that  he 
is  a  better  protector  and  friend  than  God;  that  he  can  do  more  for 
them  than  God  can  do.  When  the  claims  of  Mammon  and  of  God 
conflict,  their  conduct  makes  it  perfectly  clear  in  whom  they  put  their 
trust. 

"  But  these  instances  which  I  have  mentioned  are  not  exceptional. 
They  are  striking  illustrations  of  tendencies  which  we  see  at  work  on 
every  side.  They  are  symptoms  of  a  constitutional  malady.  Love 
of  money,  faith  in  money,  devotion  to  material  things,  has  become  the 
prevailing  distemper  of  the  time.  It  was  doubtless  true  when  the 
apostle  said  it,  but  it  is  probably  ten  times  truer  now  than  it  was 
then,  that  the  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  every  kind  of  evil."  .  .  . 

"  It  seems  to  be  a  time,  just  now,  for  some  pretty  serious  thinking 
on  the  part  of  Christian  people,  respecting  this  form  of  idolatry. 
None  more  debasing  has  yet  appeared  before  men;  its  devastations 
threaten  the  life  of  the  nation. 

"  It  is  producing  social  and  political  disintegration.  It  is  sowing 
dishonesty,  suspicion,  enmity.  It  is  hurrying  us  on  in  the  paths  that 
lead  to  anarchy.  For  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Mammon  cannot 
rule.  Rule  implies  orderly  governance,  and  what  Mammon  inevitably 
brings  is  disorder  and  strife  and  social  chaos.  A  society  in  which 
the  love  of  money  is  the  ruling  principle  can  have  no  end  but  de- 
struction. Even  now  it  may  be  seen  that  the  throne  of  the  usurper 
is  unstable;  it  is  tottering  to'its  fall.  We  may  worship  this  false  god, 

581 


but  the  worship  can  bring  only  degradation  to  ourselves  and  over- 
throw to  the  nation." 

Most  timely  are  these  earnest  words  of  warning,  and  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  the  Christian  Church  has  not  more  men  like  the  Kev. 
Washington  Gladden  who  value  character  and  true  nobility  above 
every  accident  of  life.  Never  has  there  been  a  time  in  the  history 
of  this  country  when  we  have  stood  in  such  dire  need  of  earnest,  in- 
corruptible and  able  men  with  good  red  blood  in  their  veins.  The 
apostle  of  the  white  corpuscle  is  abroad  on  every  hand.  He  is  a 
temporising  optimist  with  so  little  real  sense  of  proportion  that  in 
deceiving  others  he  deceives  himself.  His  measures  are  all  half 
measures.  To  him  anything  radical  or  fundamental  is  as  a  threat  of 
hell-fire.  He  believes  that  the  social  machine,  decrepit,  ramshackle, 
rusted  in  corruption  and  falling  to  pieces  bit  by  bit,  is  to  be  per- 
fectly rehabilitated  and  made  as  new,  with  a  splendid  strength,  by  a 
little  sweet-oil  on  this  bearing,  a  little  felting  of  that  shrieking  joint, 
and  a  bit  of  thread  bound  round  this  broken  lever.  Let  one  but  sug- 
gest a  fundamental  repair  of  any  part  and  this  albino-natured  opti- 
mist brands  him  as  a  pessimist,  alarmist  and  calamity  howler.  God 
give  us  men!  The  democratic  principle  of  government  is  on  trial. 
The  officers  who  man  the  American  Ship  of  State  have  mutinied 
against  the  captaincy  of  our  forefathers  and  are  to-day  ruthlessly 
steering  the  vessel  into  the  narrows  of  imperialism  and  on  to  the 
rocks  of  plutocracy.  Had  we  an  American  Pitt  he  would  to-day  be 
saying :  "  There  is  not  an  hour  to  be  lost,  every  moment  is  big  with 
danger." 

When  a  country  begins  to  show  a  moral  degeneracy  so  wide-spread 
as  that  which  the  United  States  exhibits  to-day  it  is  high  time  that 
all  those  who  have  its  grander  interests  at  heart  should  call  a  halt  and 
do  everything  in  their  power  to  stem  the  tide  of  corruption.  The 
imperialism  which  has  been  rampant  for  so  long  has  left  a  stigma  and 
a  scar  which  will  never  be  fully  effaced.  If  we  return  to  the  path  of 
virtue  it  can.  only  be  as  a  repentant  sinner.  Our  transgressions  may 
be  forgiven,  they  can  never  be  forgotten.  Nourished  in  the  lap  of 
liberty,  fed  from  the  breasts  of  freedom,  we  have  foresworn  our 
early  precepts  for  a  mess  of  thin  pottage.  With  hypocrisy  on  our 
lips,  trickery  in  our  minds  and  greed  in  our  hearts,  we  have  gone  into 
the  business  of  forging  human  chains.  That  this  attempt  to  enslave 
another  people  should  have  reacted  upon  and  corrupted  our  own  na- 
tion was  but  the  poetic  justice  of  the  inevitable.  No  nation  can  be 
one  jot  freer  than  the  most  enslaved  individual  living  under  its  laws. 
By  an  ethical  gravitation  which  will  not  be  gainsaid  the  status  of  the 
most  degraded  and  most  enslaved  by  the  law  is  the  status  of  the  high- 
est and  freest  as  well.  When  we  became  an  Empire  with  subjects 
whose  passports  in  effect  described  them  as  persons  "  owing  allegiance 
to  the  United  States  but  not  citizens  thereof,"  we  inverted  the  torch 
of  our  own  liberty  and  wrote  many  a  question  in  our  charter  of  free- 
dom. What  we-  are  now  reaping  is  but  what  we  have  sown,  and  the 
only  question  now  to  be  considered  is  whether  we  shall  plough  in  our 
thistle  and  dog-grass  before  they  go  to  seed,  or  forever  give  over  all 

582 


MAMMON   AS    GOD 

idea  of  raising  the  particular  crop  for  which  our  forefathers  so  care- 
fully prepared  this  soil. 

For  years  the  American  people  have  been  deliberately  cajoled  and 
cozened  by  paid  makers  of  public  opinion,  but  at  last  they  are  moving 
uneasily  in  their  long  sleep,  as  if  they  were  about  to  wake  up. 
Whether  they  will  merely  yawn  and  turn  over,  lulled  by  the  Siren-song 
of  the  anti-muck-rakers  which  the  grafter  element,  in  the  belief  that 
the  opportune  time  has  come  to  catch  the  fickle  public  on  the  re- 
bound, are  now  turning  loose  upon  the  press,  is  a  question  which  only 
time  can  determine.  The  hope  of  the  country  is  now,  as  it  ever  has 
been,  in  the  masses,  and  these  masses  are  beginning  to  show  signs  of 
demanding  their  just  recognition.  Class-consciousness,  originally 
practically  unknown  in  this  country,  now  exists  on  every  hand  as 
caste  exists  in  India.  The  higher  education,  instead  of  breaking 
down  this  artificial  barrier,  accentuates  it.  Our  modern  education 
for  the  most  part  makes  against,  rather  than  for,  the  dignity  of 
labour.  We  think  to  fit  a  young  man  for  active  duties  in  life  by  en- 
tirely lifting  him  out  of  social  utility  for  four  or  five  of  the  most 
formative  and  best  years  of  his  life,  just  as  we  hope  to  teach  young 
boys  and  girls  how  properly  to  comport  themselves  in  each  other's 
society  by  educating  them  in  unmixed  schools  where  scholars  of  dif- 
ferent sexes  never  come  in  contact.  Our  college  students  by  the  time 
they  have  finished  their  course  have,  in  far  too  many  cases,  acquired 
an  introspective  habit  which  leads  them  much  to  prefer  working  in 
their  minds  to  labouring  with  their  hands.  As  the  result  of  this 
there  grows  up  a  feeling  that  the  college  man  is  "  above  •"  the  more 
menial  avocations,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  that  he  be- 
longs to  a  class  by  himself.  This  condition  would  not  be  so  unfortu- 
nate were  it  not  for  a  sad  mistake  which  the  general  public,  as  well 
as  the  college  man,  is  all  too  prone  to  make.  This  error  is  the  re- 
sult of  psychological  ignorance  upon  a  matter  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance. To  explain  by  an  illustration:  The  Castilian  horse  is 
slow  and  heavy,  the  Andalusian  light  and  swift.  Training  will  ma- 
terially increase  the  speed  of  both  these  breeds,  but  after  you  have 
done  the  best  you  can  for  the  Castilian,  the  untrained  Andalusian 
will  easily  outrun  him.  So  we  often  find  intellects  untrained  in  col- 
lege lore  and  even  unequipped  with  the  book-man's  tools  which  can 
easily  out-think  the  Castilian  breed  of  intellect,  even  after  the  higher 
education  has  done  its  utmost  for  it.  We  know  college-bred  lawyers 
and  the  like  who  will  be  less  likely  to  arrive  at  a  sound  judgment 
upon  any  vital  matter  than  certain  untutored  stone-masons  and  day- 
labourers  we  could  mention. 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  most  of  our  education  is  mere  ac- 
quirement. As  such  it  amounts  to  little  or  nothing,  or  worse.  Only 
when  knowledge  becomes  culture,  when  it  is  absorbed,  as  it  were, 
into  the  very  fibre  of  the  man,  does  it  become  of  any  value.  Unas- 
similated  facts  merely  produce  intellectual  dyspepsia.  The  appetite 
becomes  disordered  and  fictitious,  and  the  more  facts  that  are  swal- 
lowed the  less  are  assimilated.  Until  a  fact  is  properly  correlated 
with  every  other  fact  upon  the  mental  horizon,  it  does  not  assist  cul- 
ture, and  is  of  little  use.  The  worst  indictment  which  can  be  brought 

583 


against  our  present  educational  system  inheres  in  the  fact  that,  for  the 
most  part,  students  are  taught  to  accept  and  to  memorise  the  thoughts 
of  text-book  authorities  rather  than  to  think  their  own  thoughts 
for  themselves.  Sound  reasoning  should  be  based  upon  perceptions, 
upon  experience,  and  not  upon  a  transmitted  record  of  some  other 
man's  experiences.  The  utter  futility  of  attempting  to  transmit 
our  experiences  to  our  children  should  have  taught  us  this  lesson  long 
ago,  but,  despite  the  fact  that  the  ablest  of  our  educators  have  in- 
sistently called  the  matter  to  our  attention,  our  school-committees, 
school-boards  and  college-faculties  have  yet  the  lesson  to  learn.  Of  all 
classes  of  labour  in  the  United  States  perhaps  none  is  more  poorly 
paid  than  teachers,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  proper  exercise 
of  this  profession  demands  a  high  order  of  ability.  When  we  realise 
the  starvation  wage  of  instructors  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
so  many  teachers  are  mere  text-book  parrots,  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
basic  principles  underlying  many  of  the  subjects  they  are  called  upon 
to  teach.  One  of  the  greatest  advantages  of  the  Greek  peripatetic 
system  of  instruction  was  that  it  was  practically  free  from  this  slavery 
to  the  text-book.  When  an  instructor  explains  a  subject  in  his  own 
words  and  from  his  own  knowledge,  he  will  naturally  group  his  divi- 
sions thereof  in  the  order  of  their  importance,  and  he  will,  perforce, 
omit  an  immense  mass  of  unessential  detail  with  which  text-books  ar5 
•cumbered.  The  result  is  that  the  student,  taught  by  the  peripatetic 
or  equivalent  method  learns  principles,  acquires  a  grasp  of  the  broad 
generalities  of  life  and  a  true  sense  of  the  proportion  which  facts 
sustain  to  each  other.  The  text-book  victim,  on  the  contrary,  ac- 
quires a  hodge-podge  of  facts  unrelated  to  each  other  or  to  anything 
else,  so  far  as  he  knows,  and  is  for  the  most  part  quite  innocent  of 
the  fact  that  all  truths  even  are  not  of  the  same  size,  but  that  there 
are  increasing  orders  of  generality  which  must  be  understood  before 
life  and  its  multifarious  factors  can  be  viewed  at  its  proper  angle  and 
seen  in  its  just  proportion. 

The  immense  advantage  of  generalising  from  one's  own  experience 
rather  than  from  the  recorded  experiences  of  others  is  succinctly 
stated  in  this  sage  paragraph  from  the  pen  of  Elbert  Hubbard : 
"  The  facts  we  get  out  of  our  work  have  glue  on  them ;  but  the  facts 
we  get  out  of  books  are  greased." 

In  this  connexion  we  cannot  refrain  from  mentioning  another 
grave  defect  of  present  educational  methods.  An  examination  of  the 
system  in  vogue  leads  one  to  mistrust  that  our  educators  are  quite  ig- 
norant of  the  fact  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  intellectual  inertia. 
There  is  not  power  enough  in  the  world  to  mobilise  a  pin  without 
consuming  a  certain  length  of  time  in  the  act.  It  is  also  common 
knowledge  that,  if  we  are  to  change  the  course  of  any  moving  body, 
we  must  consume  power  in  so  doing.  Many  a  rapidly  rotating  ma- 
chine would  quickly  beat  itself  to  pieces  were  it  altered  so  as  to  per- 
form its  functions  by  reciprocating  motions.  All  these  physical  facts 
so  well-known  have  their  perfect  analogues  in  the  intellectual  domain. 
It  takes  a  certain  length  of  time  to  mobilise  the  most  active  mind 
upon  the  simplest  subjects.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  has  pointed  out 
that  the  chief  dictum  of  good  literary  style  is  economy  of  attention. 

584 


MAMMON    AS    GOD 

He  objects  to  the  use  of  English  words  of  Latin  derivation,  where 
shorter  ones  of  Saxon  origin  can  be  used,  upon  the  ground  that  there 
is  a  wastage  of  intellectual  force  and  a  slight  diversion  of  attention 
incident  to  determining  the  meaning  of  these  longer  Latin-English 
words,  much  of  which  can  be  avoided  by  the  shorter  Saxon  words. 
Not  only  does  it  take  time  to  mobilise  the  most  active  brain,  but  it 
also  creates  intellectual  friction  and  causes  a  wastage  of  brain-energy 
to  change  the  course  of  a  moving  intellect,  just  as  it  consumes  energy 
to  change  the  direction  of  a  moving  molar  mass.  The  laws  which 
govern  molar  bodies  are  but  the  replica  of  those  which  obtain  in  the 
molecular  and  atomic  realms.  The  present  method,  practised  in  so 
many  of  our  schools,  of  changing  the  work  of  the  pupil  every  few 
minutes  is  as  ill-advised,  as  unscientific,  and  as  sorry  in  its  results  as 
would  be  the  attempt  to  convert  a  high-speed  electric  generator  into 
a  reciprocating  machine,  when  the  entire  mass  of  its  armature  would 
have  to  be  stopped  and  started  some  thousands  of  times  a  minute. 
All  brain-workers  who  are  gifted  with  any  power  of  concentration 
know  full  well  what  this  mobilising  of  the  intellect  means,  though 
they  may  refer  to  it  as  "getting  into  the  spirit"  of  their  subject. 
This  playing  battledore  and  shuttlecock  with  the  school-child's  brain 
is  one  of  the  severest  indictments  to  be  brought  against  our  school- 
boards.  Better  far  would  it  be  if  a  child  were  given  but  one 
study  a  day,  or  even  one  a  week,  instead  of  following  the  present 
system  of  ricochetting  like  an  eager  bullet  from  one  thing  to  another. 
The  instructor  notices  that  when  the  period  for  drawing  comes  on, 
some  time  is  lost  in  getting  together  materials  for  the  work,  and  the 
mystery  is  that  he  does  not  see  that,  in  an  exactly  similar  way,  it 
takes  time  to  get  the  mind  ready  for  each  new  subject.  Nor  is  this 
all.  The  rapid  shifting  from  one  thing  to  another  undermines  the 
child's  concentration  until  he  is  impatient  of  anything  which  confines 
his  attention  for  more  than  a  few  moments.  The  habit  of  going 
from  subject  to  subject,  like  a  butterfly  flitting  from  flower  to  flower, 
has  fastened  itself  upon  him  perhaps  for  life,  precisely  as  the  habit 
of  newspaper-reading  renders  a  large  part  of  our  population  unfit  for 
any  consecutive  intellectual  effort  and  impatient  of  any  knowledge 
which  cannot  be  expressed  with  headline  brevity  and  the  spiciness  of 
slang,  italics  and  exclamations.  It  is  a  question  if  most  of  our  school- 
committees  and  school-boards  do  not  need  educating  quite  as  much 
as  the  pupils  who  suffer  under  the  ingeniously  bad  systems  they  have 
devised. 

In  the  history  of  the  race  the  ornamental  precedes  the  useful  in 
many  instances.  The  skirt  is  an  evolution  of  the  girdle  of  orna- 
mental teeth  or  the  like,  and  this  "  useful "  evolved  product  is  about 
as  close  to  a  sane  utilitarianism  as  are  some  of  the  tendencies,  methods 
and  practices  of  our  modern  educational  systems.  The  desire  for  the 
ornamental  leads  us  to  study  forejgn  tongues  before  we  have  measur- 
ably mastered  our  own,  and,  for  the  most  part  then,  to  give  to  Latin 
a  pronunciation  which  robs  it  of  the  major  part  of  its  utility  as  a  help 
to  English.  In  our  desire  to  seem  erudite  we  grasp  the  tree  of  learn- 
ing by  its  branches  rather  than  by  its  trunk.  Logic,  which  should 
be  begun  in  the  Kindergarten  as  the  basis  of  all  healthful  knowledge, 

585 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

is  left  until  late  in  school-life  when  the  pupil  has  for  the  most  part 
ceased  to  realise  that  facts  are  of  different  sizes  and  degrees  of  gener- 
ality. The  criticisms  which  have  been  brought  against  our  educa- 
tional systems,  by  the  ablest  educators  the  world  has  produced,  have 
in  many  oases  passed  for  little  or  nought.  We  recall  one  instance 
within  our  own  observation  when  the  educational  views  of  Spencer, 
Bain,  Tyndall  and  like  eminent  authorities  were  brought  before  our 
school-committee  and  were  roundly  assaulted  as  the  hobby  and  per- 
sonal crotchet  of  the  person  referring  to  them.  They  did  not  even 
know  that  they  rested  upon  unimpeachable  authority,  but  thought 
them  the  over-night  invention  of  their  fellow  townsmen.  Such  edu- 
cators are  very  busy  inoculating  children  with  a  spurious  patriotism 
and  raising  the  death-rate  on  the  plea  of  raising  the  school  standard, 
their  one  idea  being  that  the  boy  who  is  best  fitted  for  college  is  best 
fitted  for  life.  The  emancipated  brain  of  the  country  exploded  this 
bubble  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  but  the  report  of  the 
explosion  has  made  no  impression  upon  these  thick  pedagogic  ears. 


586 


CHAPTER  III 
THE    SHADOW   OF   THE   DOLLAR 


587 


The  plague  of  gold  strikes  far  and  near, 

And  deep  and  strong  it  enters: 
This  purple   chimar  which   we   wear, 

Makes  madder  than  the  centaur's: 
Our  thoughts  grow  blank,  our  words  grow  strange, 

We  cheer  the  pale  gold-diggers, 
Each  soul  is  worth  so  much  on  'Change, 

And  marked,  like  sheep,  with  figures. 

Be  pitiful,  O  God! 

Mrs.  Browning. 

Accursed  thirst  for  wealth  to  what  do  you  not  drive  the  minds  of  men! 

Virgil. 

Once  poor,  my  friend,  still  poor  you  must  remain, 
The  rich  alone  have  all  the  means  of  gain. 

Martial. 

Riches  endless  is  as  poor  as  winter, 
To  him  that  ever  fears  he  shall  be  poor. 

Shakespeare. 

President  Harper,  of  the  Chicago  University,  the  establishment  to  which 
John  D.  Rockefeller  has  given  something  like  $8,000,000,  stood  up  in  the 
Auditorium  at  the  quarterly  convocation  and  said  that  three  students 
had  died  of  starvation.  Of  the  five  deaths  which  have  occurred  in  five 
years  at  the  university  three  are  directly  traceable  to  starvation. 

New  York  World. 

Whilst  that  for  which  all  virtue  now  is  sold, 
And  almost  every  vice,  almighty  gold. 

Ben  Jonson  —  Epistle  to  Elizabeth. 

"  It  would  make  a  man  scratch  where  he  doth  not  itch  to  see  a  man 
live  poor  and  die  rich." 

I  would  rather  be  a  hog  than  an  ignorant  rich  man. 

Bishop  Hall. 

They  are  neither  man  nor  woman; 

They  are  neither  beast  nor  human; 

They  are  ghouls. 

Who?  The  wealthy  interests,  the  big  rich.  They  are  typified  best  in 
their  attitude  in  San  Francisco,  where  they  are  fattening  upon  the 
unfortunates  of  the  burned  city,  battening  upon  the  misery  of  its  people. 
.  .  .  It  has  been  published  that  the  total  relief  fund  raised  for  the 
city  in  the  United  States  was  more  than  $21,000,000.  That  is  a  big  sum. 
But  San  Francisco  has  only  seen  thus  far  six  million  dollars.  Where 
have  the  other  sixteen  millions  gone?  The  relief  subscriptions  were 
"  padded  "  in  various  cities,  or  there  has  been  a  lot  of  money  wasted  — 
or  stolen.  These  funds  were  handled  in  all  the  subscribing  communities 
by  representatives  of  the  most  respectable  citizens.  .  .  .  We  have  seen 
what  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  did.  It  took  the  money 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  during  the  first  days  of  the  fire  to 
send  telegrams  which  it  knew  it  could  not  deliver.  A  despatch  from  San 
Francisco  to  anywhere  costs  a  good  piece  of  money.  The  company  pock- 
eted the  money  and  then  sent  the  telegrams  by  mail,  at  a  cost  of  two 
cents,  when  the  average  price  collected  for  each  telegram  must  have  been, 
at  the  very  lowest  calculation,  fifty  cents.  This  was  a  clean  steal  of  a 
whole  cart-load  of  money.  And  the  telegraph  company  didn't  contribute 


588 


one  cent  to  the  city's  relief.  The  telegraph  company  is  composed  of  none 
but  the  most  wealthy  and  respectable  people.  But  they  must  get  their 
full  share  of  everything  in  sight,  even  in  the  midst  of  misery.  .  .  . 

We  read  in  the  earlier  reports  of  the  cataclysm  of  soldiers  and  police 
taking  looters  and  men  who  exacted  exorbitant  prices  for  food  and 
standing  them  up  and  shooting  them  down.  These  poor  looters  were 
drink-crazed  wretches  from  the  slums  on  the  water-front.  They  deserved 
their  fate. 

Pity,  then,  the  San  Franciscans  cannot  take  and  shoot  the  eminently 
respectable  representatives  of  the  interests  that  are  now  grafting  upon 
the  destruction,  the  desolation,  the  courage,  the  pride,  the  faith,  the  hope 
of  the  stricken  community.  The  looting  by  the  interests  is  worse  than 
that  of  the  robbers  of  bodies  of  the  dead.  The  men  who  are  taking 
every  business  advantage  of  San  Francisco  are  no  more  worthy  of  con- 
sideration than  would  be  so  many  mad  dogs. 

The  criminal  big  rich  are  "  the  mad  dogs  of  society."  They  are  the 
real  anarchists,  the  "  fiends  in  human  shape."  But  they  are  so  respecta- 
ble; oh,  yes,  so  very  respectable. 

William  Marion  Reedy,  in  St.  Louis  Mirror. 

I  feel  no  pride,  but  pity, 
For  the  burdens  the  rich  endure; 

There  is  nothing  sweet  in  the  city 
But  the  patient  lives  of  the  poor. 

John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 


589 


CHAPTER  III 
THE    SHADOW   OF   THE    DOLLAR 


UR  lesser  educators  seem  to  comport  themselves  upon 
the  assumption  that  no  engines  have  ever  yet  been 
devised  or  ever  can  be  devised  which  will  cause  a  boy 
to  do  more  school-work  than  is  good  for  him.  As  if, 
in  acting  in  obedience  to  this  as  an  unwritten  law, 
they  are  using  every  means  in  their  power  to  push 
the  developing  child  to,  and  far  too  often  beyond,  the  intellectual 
breaking-point,  until,  in  a  great  many  cases,  he  is  so  surfeited  and 
cloyed  that  school-work  becomes  to  him  a  sort  of  mental  castor-oil,  the 
mere  thought  of  which  causes  his  intellectual  stomach  to  turn  in- 
side out. 

Apropos  of  this  subject,  in  an  excellent  article  entitled  "  THE 
OVERWORKED  SCHOOLBOY,"  and  published  in  the  "Boston  Evening 
Transcript"  of  June  16,  1906,  Mr.  Nixon  Waterman  says  in  part: 
"  And  now  it  transpires  that  the  boy  who  for  years  and  years  has 
been  telling  us  that  his  school  lessons  are  too  hard  and  his  school 
hours  too  long,  has  been  speaking  the  truth  all  the  while.  Leading 
physicians  and  educators  of  this  country  and  of  Europe  who  are  most 
competent  to  examine  the  subject  honestly  and  intelligently,  have 
been  looking  into  this  very  important  matter,  and  their  composite 
conclusion  is  that  the  boy  has  been  asserting  sound,  sorry  facts.  They 
declare1  that  among  the  school  children  of  to-day  there  is  an  astonish- 
ing amount  of  ill-health  which  is  caused  chiefly  and  primarily  by  too 
much  study  and  confinement. 

"  The  boy  has  known,  all  the  while,  just  what  he  was  talking  about. 
He  could  feel  it  in  his  bones.  He  has  based  his  diagnosis  of  the 
trouble  on  inside,  first-hand  facts  and  from  private  and  direct  sources 
of  information.  Now  the  correctness  of  his  deductions  is  being  ap- 
plauded on  both  sides  of  the  sea,  until  there  is  a  strong  likelihood  that 
a  radical  revision  will  be  made  of  the  formula  now  so  popularly 
employed  in 

MAKING  A  MAN. 

"  Hurry  the  baby  as  fast  as  you  can, 
Hurry  him,  worry  him,  make  him  a  man. 
Off  with  his  baby-clothes,  get  him  in  pants, 
Feed  him  on  brain-foods,  and  make  him  advance. 
Hustle  him,  soon  as  he's  able  to  walk, 
Into  a  grammar  school;  cram  him  with  talk. 
Fill  his  poor  head  full  of  figures  and  facts, 
Keep  on  a-jamming  them  in  till  it  cracks. 
Once  boys  grew  up  at  a  rational  rate, 
Now  we  develop  a  man  while  you  wait. 

590 


THE    SHADOW   OF   THE    DOLLAR 

Rush  him  through  college,  compel  him  to  grab 

Of  every  known  subject  a  dip  and  a  dab. 

Get  him  in  business  and  after  the  cash 

All  by  the  time  he  can  grow  a  moustache. 

Let  him  forget  he  was  ever  a  boy, 

Make  gold  his  god  and  its  jingle  his  joy. 

Keep  him  a-hustling  and  clear  out  of  breath, 

Until  he  wins  —  Nervous  Prostration  and  Death!"    .    .    . 

"  Let  us  examine  blunt  statistics  for  a  moment.  There  are  about 
twenty  millions  of  school-children  in  the  United  States.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  '  school  diseases '  are  as  prevalent  in  this  country  as  they 
are  in  Europe  where  much  fuller  statistics  along  this  line  of  investi- 
gation have  been  made.  If  this  be  true,  twenty-nine  of  every  hundred 
of  our  boys  and  forty-two  of  every  hundred  of  our  girls  are  afflicted 
with  some  '  school  disease/  brought  on  by  study  and  confinement. 
The  list  of  afflictions,  as  prepared  by  the  eminent  men  who  have  made 
investigations  along  this  line  of  reform,  is  a  long  and  formidable  one, 
but  as  one  of  their  number  puts  it,  '  Of  all  the  so-called  '  school  dis- 
eases,' however,  those  affecting  the  nervous  system  are  of  the  greatest 
interest  to  Americans,  and  in  no  other  field  is  the  connexion  between 
the  morbid  state,  as  a  result,  and  school  life  as  a  cause,  so  clear  and 
intimate,  and  nowhere  else  is  progressive  deterioration  so  closely  re- 
lated to  the  demands  made  upon  the  scholar.'  One  writer  asserts 
that  in  five  cities  of  the  United  States  16,000  pupils  between  eight 
and  fourteen  years  of  age  were  taken  out  of  the  public  schools  within 
one  term,  because  of  ill  health. 

"  In  the  current  number  of  the  '  North  American  Keview,'  Dr. 
George  Woodruff  Johnston  concludes  a  carefully  written  article  on  this 
topic  of  over-study  and  'school  diseases'  with  this  very  significant 
paragraph : 

*  The  remedy  for  conditions  which  we  know  to  exist  in  Europe  and 
which  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  are  met  with  in  the  same  or 
even  greater  degree  in  this  country,  lies  not  in  the  almost  professional 
athleticism  which  is  now  the  vogue;  for  in  this  it  is  evident  we  are 
merely  substituting  for  one  form  of  fatigue  another  no  less  injurious, 
but  rather  in  a  complete  comprehension  of  the  school  child  as  a  young 
animal  at  work  and  at  play,  and  a  rational  adaptation  of  work  and 
play  to  its  capacities  and  needs.  In  this  way  only  can  he  be  made 
fit  for  the  real  struggle  awaiting  him,  and  become  in  the  community 
in  which  his  lot  is  cast  a  valuable  economic  unit/ 

"  Notwithstanding  the  present  unsatisfactory  condition  of  affairs,  it 
looks  as  if  there  are  brighter  days  ahead  for  the  over-worked  school 
child.  It  is  the  undisputed  truth  that  in  many  cities  where  limited 
schoolhouse  capacity  has  made  half-day  sessions  necessary,  teachers 
have  been  astonished  to  find  that  twice  as  much  work  was  accom- 
plished as  under  the  old  plan  of  all-day  study. 

"  Cheer  up,  boys  and  girls !  Maybe  the  lessons  will  be  fewer  and 
the  hours  shorter  by-and-by.  Our  present  educational  system  has 
many  good  features,  but  it  tries  to  accomplish  too  much.  It's  '  smat- 
ter'  is  what's  the  matter  with  it." 

The  most  essential  thing  which  education  has  to  do  is  to  build  up 
the  character  of  the  student.  As  Elbert  Hubbard  very  wisely  says, 

591 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

in  "  The  Philistine  "  for  June,  1906 :  "  It  is  qualities  that  fit  a  man 
to  live,  not  the  mental  possession  of  facts.  The  school  that  best  helps 
form  character,  not  the  one  that  imparts  the  most  information,  is 
the  college  the  future  will  demand. 

"  I  do  not  know  of  a  single  college  or  university  in  the  world  that 
focuses  on  qualities.  The  Kindergarten  does  and  so  do  the  grade 
schools,  just  in  proportion  to  the  extent  that  they  introduce  Froebel 
methods."  .  .  . 

"  At  all  our  great  colleges,  gymnasium  and  iiseful  work  are  optional. 
Instead  of  physical,  culture  there  are  athletics,  and  those  who  need 
gymnasium  the  most  are  ashamed  to  be  seen  there. 

"  How  would  the  scientific  cultivation  of  these  do  ? 

BODILY  QUALITIES:—  Health  of  digestion,  circulation,  breath- 
ing, manual  skill,  vocal  speech,  and  ease  in  handling  all  muscles. 

MENTAL  QUALITIES: —  Painstaking,  patience,  decision,  perse- 
verance, courage,  following  directions,  tact,  logic,  concentration,  in- 
sight, observation,  mental  activity,  accuracy  and  memory. 

MORAL  QUALITIES:—  Putting  oneself  in  another's  place  or 
thoughtfulness  for  -others,  which  includes  kindness,  courtesy,  good 
cheer  and  honesty,  fidelity  to  a  promise  —  self-control,  self-reliance 
and  self-respect. 

"  If  you  knew  of  a  college  that  made  a  specialty  of  Qualities,  where 
the  teachers  were  persons  of  Quality,  would  you  not  send  your  boy 
there?  And  if  you  would  send  your  boy  to  such  a  school,  would  not 
others  do  so,  too?  These  things  being  true,  will  we  not  as  a  people 
soon  decide  to  pay  teachers  enough  to  secure  Quality  —  which  is  not 
presuming  to  say  we  have  none  now  —  and  will  not  such  a  school  thus 
evolve  thru  the  law  of  Supply  and  Demand,  a  college  that  approxi- 
mates the  ideal  ?  " 

Passing  now  to  the  matter  of  art,  we  find  the  general  infection  has 
been  busy  here,  too.  We  have  seen  instances  enough  and  to  spare,  where 
a  Puritanical  eroticism,  masquerading  in  the  guise  of  sentiment  and 
morality,  has  corrupted  the  public  taste.  The  recent  hysterical  out- 
cry against  Maxim  Gorky  well  illustrates  the  class  of  mind  from 
which  proceed  these  maniacal  shriekings.  One  is  moved  to  wonder 
if  these  people  are  sex-mad  —  if  they  really  think  that  all  the  virtue, 
.nobility  and  grandeur  of  human  character  count  for  nothing.  If 
there  be  any  occasion  where  one  would  expect  fair  and  honourable 
treatment,  certainly  a  competitive  art-exhibition  would  seem  to  assure 
it.  We  are  wont  to  look  upon  art  as  something  above  sordid  com- 
mercialism, yet  that  such  is  not  always  the  case,  that  "  the  trail  of 
the  serpent"  is  over  this,  too,  was  well  instanced  not  very  long  since 
in  Boston,  when  the  judges  of  an  Art  Association,  giving  an  alleged 
competitive  exhibit,  awarded  the  prizes,  without  regard  to  merit,  to 
certain  New  York  artists,  with  the  understanding  that  a  New  York 
Association,  of  which  these  artists  were  members,  should  reciprocate 
in  like  kind  at  a  forthcoming  New  York  exhibition.  So  unworthy 
were  most  of  the  pictures  which  were  awarded  prizes  that  an  old 
lady  asked  an  attendant  in  charge  if  he  thought  it  would  be  possible 
to  get  the  judges  together  and  exhibit  them. 

We  need  only  refer  to  the  "  gentlemanly  blackmail "  which  is  levied 

592 


THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  DOLLAR 

in  the  musical  trade.  The  testimonials  secured  by  manufacturers  as 
well  as  by  artists  are  by  no  means  to  be  taken  without  large  allow- 
ances of  salt.  The  same  and  more  may  be  said  of  musical  criticism. 
It  is  of  much  more  avail,  in  many  cases,  to  have  a  good  press-agent 
than  a  fine  technique. 

The  farce  of  dramatic  and  literary  criticism  is  too  patent  to  need 
more  than  a  mention.  Dramatic  "critics"  very  frequently  criticise 
plays  which  they  have  not  seen.  They  frequently  "  criticise  "  actors 
who  were  ill  and  did  not  play,  and  have  been  known  upon  occasion 
to  give  able  and  painstaking  critiques  of  performances  which  did  not 
occur.  Of  course  the  book-critic  is  unable  to  read  the  works  he  criti- 
cises, and,  if  he  were,  his  opinion  would  be  worthless  if  he  read  them 
for  the  express  purpose  of  criticising,  for  the  simple  reason  that  art 
is  only  art  when  viewed  in  the  ensemble,  while  the  critic  will  inevi- 
tably regard  it  in  the  particular,  if  he  reads  it  for  purposes  of  review. 

In  treating  the  sorry  effects  of  Mammon  worship,  at  least  a  passing 
mention  should  be  made  of  its  effect  in  professional  circles.  The 
ease  with  which  doctors'  diplomas  may  be  secured  and  the  illicit  prac- 
tices of  a  goodly  number  of  doctors  in  every  city  have  had  recent 
emphasis  by  current  events.  The  Boston  public  would  have  been 
shocked  beyond  expression,  a  few  years  ago,  to  learn  that  a  suburban 
church  member,  influential  in,  and  liberal  to,  her  church  was  amassing 
a  considerable  fortune  by  an  elaborate  system  for  the  transaction  of 
a  malpractice  business.  Now  this  special  knowledge  is  swallowed  by 
the  larger  generalisation  that  a  similar  thing  is  true  of  every  large 
city. 

The  extortionate  charges  of  some  doctors  is  a  matter  of  common 
knowledge,  but  the  frequency  with  which  these  trench  upon  rank  dis- 
honesty may  not  be  so  well  known.  As  an  example  in  point,  we  refer 
to  the  case  of  a  Boston  physician,  formerly  doing  business  in  the 
West  End,  but  now  a  resident  at  the  Back  Bay.  He  was  called  in  to 
attend  a  lady,  and  kept  on  calling  after  she  was  well.  These  calls 
were  made  when  she  was  away  from  home,  so  that  she  did  not  realise 
the  necessity  of  formally  discharging  him.  He  charged  for  all  the 
visits  and  collected  his  bill  by  legal  action,  the  law  being  obligingly 
suited  to  such  cases. 

There  are  many  noble  and  self-sacrificing  men  in  the  medical  pro- 
fession, men  who  are  tender  and  merciful  to  the  poor  and  the  afflicted. 
The  more  honour  to  them,  because  they  have  withstood  the  corrupting 
tendency  of  a  money-mad  age  which  has  hardened,  perverted  and  de- 
praved so  many  of  their  fellow-craftsmen. 

The  conditions  which  obtain  in  the  legal  profession  can  be  studied 
to  such  advantage  in  the  United  States  Senate,  the  Boston  State 
House  and  in  legislatures  and  courts  generally,  that  any  attempt  to 
treat  them  would  seem  like  an  attempt  to  prove  a  self-evident  propo- 
sition. 

In  considering  the  effect  upon  the  church  we  must  content  ourselves 
with  referring  the  Eeader  to  the  tainted-money  controversy  and  its 
outcome,  and  to  the  very  moderate  efficiency  of  our  religious  organi- 
sations as  evidenced  by  actual  results  attained  and  as  indicated  by 
the  general  sentiment  of  the  masses. 
38  593 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

We  will  permit  ourselves,  however,  the  following  quotation  from 
the  great  Eussian  painter,  Verestchagin.  In  his  "  Realism  "  he  says : 
"  You  are  not  the  Christians  you  assume  yourselves  to  be.  You  are 
not  representatives  of  Christian  societies,  of  Christian  countries. 

"  Those  that  kill  their  kind  by  the  hundred  thousand  are  no  Chris- 
tians. 

"  Those  that  are  always  moved,  in  private  as  well  as  in  public  life, 
by  the  principle  of  'eye  for  eye,  and  tooth  for  tooth/  are  no  Chris- 
tians. 

"  Those  that  spend  many  hours  of  their  lives  in  churches,  yet  who 
give  nothing,  or  nest  to  nothing,  to  the  poor,  are  no  Christians. 

"  What  have  you  done  with  the  decree  of  the  Saviour  concerning 
Christian  humility  and  to  help  such  as  are  in  real  need  ? 

"What  is  the  stand  taken  now,  let  us  ask,  by  those  two  great 
branches  of  the  administration  of  Christ's  Church,  that  call  them- 
selves the  Roman  Catholic  and  the  Orthodox  churches,  which  have 
once  separated,  thanks  to  their  inability  to  agree  as  to  whether  the 
Holy  Ghost  proceeded  from  the  Father  and  the  Son  or  from  the 
Father  alone  ?  Is  it  possible  that  they  have  not  come  yet  to  an  under- 
standing, and,  blinded  by  mutual  hatred,  are  neglecting  the  loftiness 
of  their  mission  on  earth? 

"  What  is  the  stand  taken  by  those  new  churches  originated  of  late, 
comparatively  speaking,  on  the  plea  of  a  more  realistic  understand- 
ing of  the  connexion  of  life  with  its  Originator?  Is  it  possible  that, 
having  concluded  the  fight  with  their  great  adversary,  those  churches 
have  also  drifted  into  a  sweet  nap  over  the  existing  order  of  things, 
and  have  also  renounced  taking  a  hand  in  any  further  reforms? 

"  Well  if  it  be  so,  let  men  of  talent  shake  the  strong  and  the  powerful 
out  of  the  somnolence  into  which  they  have  fallen ;  a  difficult  task  it 
will  be,  but  a  noble  one.  And  if  we  are  refused  a  hearing,  or  attempts 
are  made  to  muzzle  us,  why,  the  worse  it  will  be  for  society.  Rouse 
itself  it  shall ;  but  it  will  be  too  late  —  the  '  Vandals  will  have  burned 
Rome '  once  again.  We  may  be  assured  that  no  churches,  no  bankers' 
offices  will  then  be  spared. 

'If  any  man  have  ears  to  hear,  let' him  hear."; 

The  corruptive  interplay  between  the  church  and  the  state  demands 
at  least  passing  mention.  On  February  23,  1904,  a  Boston  paper 
printed  a  report  of  a  conversation  between  President  McKinley  and 
Mr.  Hanna,  in  which  the  latter  said :  "  The  day  is  coming  when 
.  .  .  Socialism  will  become  rampant,  and  in  that  hour,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, (and  I  am  not  afraid  to  say  it  here  and  elsewhere),  the  flag 
must  rely  on  its  stanch  friends ;  and  among  them,  in  my  opinion,  our 
greatest  protectors  will  be  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church." 

On  another  occasion  the  same  representative  of  the  monopolistic 
class  is  reported  to  have  said  to  Mr.  'P.  J.  O'Keefe  of  the  "  New 
World"  (Catholic):  "I  believe  the  best  friend  and  protector  the 
people  and  the  flag  of  our  country  will  have  in  its  hour  of  trial  will 
be  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  always  conservative,  and  fair  and 
loyal.  That  is  the  power  I  look  to  to  save  the  nation." 

If  now  we  but  remember  that  by  "  the  flag "  and  "  the  nation " 

594 


THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  DOLLAR 

Mr.  Hanna  really  meant  the  capitalistic  class  of  which  he  was  the 
open  and  sincere  expression,  we  shall  have  little  difficulty  in  under- 
standing the  real  drift  of  his  remarks.  In  this  light  we  may  appre- 
ciate why  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  who,  we  believe,  holds  the  highest  lay- 
office  in  the  Episcopal  Church, —  which  disputing  as  it  does  the  apos- 
tolic succession  with  the  Catholic  Church  is  inherently  antagonistic 
to  it, —  has  donated  $10,000  to  the  Catholic  University  at  Washington. 
In  like  manner  we  may  see  why  Nelson  W.  Aldrich,  Senator  from 
Rhode  Island,  and  Stephen  B.  Elkins,  Senator  from  West  Virginia, 
have  each  donated  $2,500.  In  return  for  these  and  other  favours, 
to  which  they  are  as  nothing,  the  Catholic  Church  is  expected  to 
stand  as  a  solid  wall  against  every  phase  of  that  Socialism  which  is 
the  nightmare  of  the  monopolistic  class.  It  is  really  a  case  of  you 
scratch  my  back  and  I'll  scratch  yours.  The  party  in  power  has  been 
perpetrating  a  fraud  to  the  end  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
should  be  improperly  paid  into  the  coffers  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
In  this  connexion  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  is  a  radical 
distinction  between  Catholicism  and  clericalism.  Commenting  upon 
this  distinction,  Mr.  Franklin  H.  Wentworth,  Staff  Correspondent, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  says,  in  an  article  entitled  "  Influence  of  the 
Catholic  Clergy  in  American  Politics,"  published  in  "  The  Appeal 
to  Reason  "  for  March  25,  1906 :  "  Catholicism  is  an  organised  reli- 
gious society;  clericalism  is  a  cabal  of  men  who  use  the  cloak  and 
organisation  of  the  church  to  further  political  design.  The  great 
body  of  Catholics  are  not,  and  have  never  been,  in  favor  of  clerical- 
ism; and  when  clericalism  has  gained  possession  of  the  powers  of  the 
church,  there  has  never  failed  to  come  a  movement  like  that  of  St. 
Francis,  to  rescue  the  faith  from  men  who  were  degrading  it  to  pri- 
vate uses. 

"  Ignorant  Protestants  are  commonly  assuming  that  the  disruption 
of  the  Concordat  and  the  consequent  divorce  of  church  and  state  in 
France  is  the  result  of  a  warfare  waged  by  Socialists  against  the 
Catholic  church.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth. 

"  It  is  a  warfare  against  clericalism,  in  which  the  majority  of  Cath- 
olics in  France  are  in  hearty  sympathy.  The  Catholics  themselves 
are  among  the  strongest  supporters  of  the  policy  of  disruption.  They 
feel  the  church  should  be  purged  of  politicians,  that  it  may  follow  its 
proper  vocation  as  a  teacher  of  faith  and  morals. 

"  It  is  this  thing  which  the  people  of  Catholic  nations  are  striving 
to  be  rid  of,  that  the  American  republic  bids  fair  to  take  on,  unless 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  Catholics  unite  in  preventing  it,  as  their 
fellows  in  the  faith  are  doing  in  France." 

Referring  to  the  present  party's  shady  sectarian  transactions,  Mr. 
Wentworth  says:  "The  diversion  of  Indian  Trust  funds,  by  dis- 
honest and  tricky  methods,  to  the  support  of  Catholic  missions,  to 
which  the  President  of  the  United  States  was  so  easily  led,  marks 
the  open  entry  of  clericalism  into  national  politics ;  and  if  not  promptly 
arrested  it  will  bring  ki  its  train  a  multitude  of  evils  which  history 
shows  lies  in  store  for  a  nation  which  once  gets  into  the  toils  of  priestly 
influence. 

"  Briefly,  the  circumstances  were  these : 

595 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

"  A  dozen  years  ago  the  government  announced  that  payments  to 
sectarian  missionary  societies  for  carrying  on  boarding-schools  among 
the  Indians  would  be  reduced  a  certain  percentage  each  year  till  the 
system  disappeared.  All  denominations  doing  missionary  work  were 
getting  this  money  —  not  Catholics  alone.  The  Episcopalians  had  a 
number  of  extensive  plants,  and  when  the  government  purse-strings 
were  pulled,  howled  as  loud  as  anybody.  But  the  policy  prevailed  and 
the  funds  diminished.  The  Episcopalians  threw  up  the  sponge.  But 
the  clericals  in  the  Catholic  church  made  up  their  minds  to  do  a  little 
lobbying  at  Washington." 

This  Catholic  influence  at  Washington  was,  we  are  told,  denomi- 
nated "an  eccelsiastical  lobby"  by  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott.  Mr.  Went- 
worth  continues :  "  Senator  Bard  of  California,  a  Republican,  de- 
clares Prof.  Scharf  promised  that  if  Congress  would  continue  sec- 
tarian appropriations  of  $200,000  for  two  years,  the  Catholics  would 
support  the  Eepublicans  in  twenty  doubtful  Congressional  districts. 
Prof.  Scharf  also  threatened  Congressman  John  H.  Stephens  of  Texas 
with  defeat  by  Catholic  votes  if  he  did  not  cease  his  opposition.  The 
professor  also  flooded  the  third  Congressional  district  of  Wisconsin 
with  circulars  to  Catholics  urging  the  reelection  of  Congressman  Bab- 
cock,  and  succeeded  in  making  good  the  latter's  return  to  Washing- 
ton, where  he  had  been  of  great  service,  as  the  circular  states,  in 
getting  local  appropriations  for  the  Catholic  hospital  in  the  District 
of  Columbia. 

"  But  Congress  did  not  undo  the  settled  policy  of  discontinuing  ap- 
propriations and  the  bill  was  rejected. 

"  So  the  *  ecclesiastical  lobby '  found  a  way  to  beat  the  game  by 
using  the  President  himself  for  their  purpose.  They  aimed  to  get  the 
Indian  trust  fund  by  a  little  Jesuitical  guile;  and  if  the  President 
caught  on  to  their  method,  he  never  told  anybody. 

"  They  sent  out  to  the  reservations  and  got  the  Indians  to  sign  peti- 
tions asking  that  their  trust  money  be  given  over  to  the  Catholic  mis- 
sion schools.  They  were  given  loaves  of  bread  and  other  small  things 
for  signing  the  paper  which  few  of  them  understood.  Most  of  them 
signed  with  a  cross,  and  the  petitions  in  any  event  represented  but  a 
handful  of  each  tribe.  As  an  illustration,  money  belonging  to  a  tribe 
of  5,000  Indians,  held  in  trust  for  them  at  Washington,  was  paid 
over  to  the  clericals  on  a  petition  bearing  only  150  signatures.  The 
Indians  were  plainly  buncoed  by  the  clericals,  as  the  subsequent  pro- 
tests clearly  show.  But  through  the  courtly  instrumentality  of  Mr. 
Charles  J.  Bonaparte  the  petitions  were  properly  shoved  up  to  the 
President,  who  did  the  needful,  and  the  clericals  got  the  money." 

We  are  then  told  that,  when  these  transactions  were  criticised,  "  Mr. 
Eoosevelt  met  them  with  his  usual  diplomacy.  He  ignored  the  fact 
that  he  had  morally  no  right  to  permit  the  diversion  of  the  funds  in 
any  quantity,  particularly  as  Congress  had  taken  a  decided  stand  to 
end  the  whole  business.  He  did  not  undertake  to  explain  why  he 
should  assume  responsibility  for  the  sequestration  of  the  common 
property  of  a  tribe  in  thus  honouring  so  suspicious  and  discreditable  a 
draft.  He  merely  remarked  that  care  must  be  taken  to  see  that  the 
petitions  were  genuine,  and  that  money  appropriated  for  any  given 

596 


THE    SHADOW   OF   THE    DOLLAR 

school  should  represent  only  the  pro  rata  proportion  to  which  the  In- 
dians making  the  petition  were  entitled.  How  impressively  '  careful ' 
the  transactions  proved,  may  be  noted  in  the  report  of  the  Indian 
Rights  Association. 

"Under  this  'pro  rata'  plan  the  Holy  Rosary  Roman  Catholic 
school  at  Tine  Ridge  would  be  entitled  to  $700.  It  gets  this  year 
$21,600,  out  of  the  funds  of  the  whole  tribe. 

"The  Catholic  schools  at  Pine  Ridge,  Rosebul  and  Crow  Creek, 
would  be  entitled  to  but  $1,803.  They  receive  $55,620.  This  is  a 
clear  steal,  morally,  of  $53,817  from  the  poor  Indians  who  are  now 
protesting. 

"  In  brief,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  favour  his 
Catholic  constituents,  stands  by  and  sees  the  perpetration  of  one  more 
crime  against  the  wretched  '  children  of  the  White  Father/  " 

Mr.  Wentworth  informs  us  that  in  1902  Congress  made  a  free  gift 
of  $50,000  to  the  Providence  Hospital,  a  Catholic  institution.  In 
1903,  he  tells  us,  another  quiet  appropriation  of  $50,000  slipped 
through  Congress,  while  in  1904  the  gift  to  this  institution  was  $100,- 
000.  "And  the  District  bill  now"  (March  11,  1905),  "before  Con- 
gress," Mr.  Wentworth  continues,  "  contemplates  a  further  gift  to  the 
Catholic  hospital  of  $130,000.  If  this  is  allowed,  and  it  may  be,  now 
that  the  Sisters'  prayers  have  prevailed  and  Mr.  Babcock  has  come 
back,  this  Catholic  institution  will  have  received  in  three  years  $330,- 
000  of  public  money  for  its  private  use.  To  look  at  the  plant,  one 
wonders  how  as  much  as  $150,000  could  have  been  spent  upon  it; 
but  as  the  appropriations  are  for  '  land  and  buildings  '  it  may  be  that 
the  government  is  helping  the  Catholic  church  to  extend  its  landlord- 
ism, merely." 

The  article  goes  on  to  show  in  a  most  painstaking  way  the  exact 
manner  in  which  the  Catholic  organisation  was  used  to  further  the 
election  of  the  Republican  party.  Mr.  Wentworth  gives  signed  cor- 
respondence in  which  it  is  stated  that  this  campaign  was  conducted 
with  the  knowledge  and  approval  of  President  Roosevelt  and  Mr. 
Cortelyou,  to  whom  the  matter  circulated  was  submitted. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  about  the  time  the  lay  lobby  is  disap- 
pearing from  Washington  because  it  has  been  found  more  advan- 
tageous for  corporations  to  own  Senators  outright  than  to  attempt 
to  control  them  by  lobbying,  the  "ecclesiastical  lobby"  is  assuming 
menacing  proportions.  WThen  asked  what  stood  between  Russia  and 
liberty,  the  late  Verestchagin  replied,  "  The  monarch,  priest  and  the 
soldier.  Our  sage  monopolists  determine  to  resist  every  effort  which 
may  be  made  to  unseat  them  from  the  back  of  labour."  Paraphrase 
this  as  follows :  The  Supreme  Court  —  our  real  autocrat  —  the  Cath- 
olic church  and  the  army.  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  or  not  the 
American  people  will  long  tolerate  this  ever-accentuating  Russian 
condition  of  affairs. 

By  no  means  the  least  corruptive  of  modern  influences  is  to  be  men- 
tioned, the  American  press.  Apart  from  Captain-of-Industry  articles 
and  the  like  which  must  be  charged  to  our  magazines,  most  of  the 
harm  done  by  the  press  has  been  effected  by  the  newspapers.  The 
habit  of  newspaper  reading  is  in  itself  perversive  of  literary  taste  and 

597 


artistic  excellence.     The  individual  addicted  to  newspapers  soon  be- 
comes unfit  for  any  consecutive  intellectual  effort. 

In  connexion  with  this  subject,  we  quote  the  following  from  "  The 
Philistine  "  of  April,  1906 :  "  I  began  life  as  a  printer's  devil  and 
still  have  a  few  of  that  worthy's  virtues.  I  have  reported  things  that 
never  happened ;  written  solemn,  pellucid,  pescud  editorials  by  the  yard 
about  nothing;  sat  in  the  managing  editor's  uneasy  chair,  and  I  have 
checked  the  receipts  from  advertisements  and  chuckled  over  the  bal- 
ance in  the  bank. 

"  I  know  the  taste  of  glue  rollers,  the  mysteries  of  the  waiting 
galleys,  the  slap-dash,  biliy-be-damned  quality  of  the  editorial  room. 

".Some  of  the  best  men  on  earth  are  newspaper  men  —  journalists 
are  different.  The  newspaper  man  works  for  the  paper  that  hires 
him;  hates  the  people  the  owner  hates;  caps  the  paper's  game  and 
partakes  of  its  prejudices;  and  wears  out  his  life  in  loyal  service  for 
a  management  that  does  not  give  a  tinker's  tool  for  him  or  anybody. 

"  The  owner  of  the  paper  has  no  opinions  on  anything  —  no  ideals 
—  he  has  only  a  thirst,  and  a  lust  to  own.  What  he  wishes  is  to  make 
money  —  have  a  big  circulation,  wield  an  influence,  and  ride  in  a 
red-devil  automobile.  He  has  certain  bulldog  qualities  which  the 
writing  men  have  not,  otherwise  they  would  own  the  paper  and  he 
would  be  working  in  J)old's  packing-house  —  a  member  of  the  Meat 
Cutter's  Union  —  or  running  a  saloon.  But  as  for  honour  and  intel- 
lect, he  is  a  bankrupt. 

"  There  may  be  exceptions,  nothing  is  impossible  with  God. 

"  The  daily  newspaper  is  the  supreme  corrupter  of  the  life  and  mor- 
als of  the  people.  It  familiarises  the  young  with  vice  and  crime,  and 
emphasises  everything  that  should  be  forgotten.  Not  long  ago  the 
owner  of  the  Indianapolis  '  Star '  was  in  Washington  making  a  plea 
before  the  Senate  Committee  in  behalf  of  certain  newspaper  privi- 
leges. He  argued  that  the  daily  newspaper  was  the  educator  and  en- 
lightener  of  the  people.  A  member  of  the  committee  produced  a  copy 
of  the  '  Star '  and  showed  that  one-third  of  the  entire  space  was  given 
up  to  advertising  pelvic  diseases  and  men-only  abominations,  and  that 
four-fifths  of  the  news  items  related  to  elopements,  defalcations,  se- 
ductions and  unnamable  crimes. 

"  The  daily  newspaper  the  educator  of  the  people  ?  That  Senate 
Committee  should  have  adjourned  to  laugh  —  aye,  or  to  weep. 

"  The  daily  newspaper  the  educator  of  the  people !  No  newspaper 
man  ever  had  the  effrontery  to  say  so  —  only  a  fat  and  crinkle-necked 
proprietor,  lachrymose  with  red  rum,  dare  put  forth  such  an  asser- 
tion. 

"  Take  the  papers,  say  in  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Indianapolis,  Toledo 
and  Omaha,  do  any  of  them  stand  for  higher  endeavour,  art,  educa- 
tion and  human  betterment?  Do  any  of  them  make  it  their  policy  to 
encourage  that  which  is  excellent  and  true?  On  the  contrary,  do  they 
not  all  feature  the  base,  the  wrong,  the  trifling  and  the  transient? 
Are  not  the  men  who  own  them  without  exception,  chuckle-headed 
ignorami,  fawners  and  trucklers  for  place  and  power,  boosting  this 
grafting  bigwig  and  that,  and  smothering  the  worthy  with  silence  ? 

"  Eealising  the  vileness  of  their  so-called  news  some  of  them  print 

598 


THE    SHADOW   OF   THE    DOLLAR 

mushy  sermons  by  persons  of  literary  notoriety,  so  as  to  make  us 
believe  the  press  is  the  agent  of  morality.     A  half  page  of  the  trite, 

the  true  and  the  '  unco  gude '  can  never  season  the  barrell  of  swill 

it  is  a  daily  newspaper  just  the  same."     .     .     . 

"  Newspapers  are  business  ventures  run  to  make  money,  and  the 
money  is  made  thru  the  sale  of  advertising  space.  In  order  to  sell 
this  space  the  paper  must  have  a  circulation,  and  to  boom  this  circu- 
lation the  paper  resorts  to  sensation,  and  panders  to  the  weak,  the 
depraved,  the  vicious,  the  immoral  and  the  prurient.  It  panders  to 
the  worst  people,  and  it  panders  to  the  worst  in  the  so-called  good 
people. 

"  We  are  all  in  degree  corrupted  thru  the  daily  newspaper. 
"  We  are  obsessed  with  the  hallucination  that  we  must  read  the  daily 
paper  in  order  to  keep  informed  on  the  news  of  the  day.     We  allow 
our  brains  to  be  used  as  a  sieve  for  sewage,  in  the  hope  of  finding  a 
grain  of  corn. 

'"'  The  Newspaper  Habit  is  upon  us,  and  we  crave  the  salacious 
morsel  as  a  tumble  bug  turns  to  his  dessert. 

:t  The  insignificant  price  —  one  cent  —  makes  it  deadly  easy  to  suc- 
cumb, as  the  waiter  at  supper  or  the  boys  in  the  street  thrust  at  us 
the  latest  issue,  printed  at  three  o'clock,  and  marked  'Six  o'clock 
Edition/ 

"  The  newspapers  employ  an  army  of  children  in  the  streets  who  cry 
their  wares.  Very  many  of  them  are  beggars  and  we  buy  to  get  rid 
of  them  —  to  salve  our  conscience  with  the  thought  that  we  are  doing 
charity;  and  the  Proprietor  fosters  the  charity  idea  with  Thanks- 
giving dinners  and  donations  to  Newsboys'  Homes,  proclaiming  his 
own  goodness  in  flaring  headlines. 

"  We  speak  sometimes  of  the  '  Yellow  Journals  ' —  they  are  all  yel- 
low —  only  some  are  deeper  tinted  than  others. 

"  When  you, read  a  newspaper  and  are  not  reading  scandal  you  may 
be  reading  paid-for  telegrams  about  the  McCurdys.  A  straight 
'  Special  Telegram '  in  most  of  the  newspapers  last  week  reads  this 
way :  *  The  largest  bottle  order  ever  given,  etc/  It  was  from  Mil- 
waukee and  cost  the  malt  man  two  dollars  a  line  in  each  of  a  hun- 
dred '  high-class  newspapers/ 

"  A  week  before  Miss  Eoosevelt's  marriage  an  Associated  Press  dis- 
patch from  Washington  flashed  the  news  around  the  world,  '  Alice 
Eoosevelt's  Monkey  is  Dead/  At  first  glance  we  all  thought  the  wed- 
ding was  off,  but  on  reading  the  precious  news  we  were  informed 
that  a  pet  monkey  presented  to  Miss  Eoosevelt  in  the  Philippines 
had  succumbed  to  pneumonia  after  a  painful  illness,  where  the  best 
of  medical  counsel  failed  and  everything  but  Osteopathy  and  Christian 
Science  were  tried !  Alas ! 

"  The  daily  newspaper  the  educator  of  the  people !  God  help  us,  it 
may  be  so!  It  educates  into  inattention,  vacuity,  foolishness,  folly 
and  sin.  It  saps  concentration,  dissipates  aspiration,  scrambles  gray 
matter  and  irons  out  convolutions." 

In  "  The  Cost  of  Competition,"  Mr.  Sidney  A.  Eeeve  says :  "  The 
degeneration  of  the  newspaper  arises  from  a  single  corrupting  force: 

599 


profit-seeking.  This  operates  detrimentally  both  from  within  and 
from  without,  but  especially  from  without."  .  .  . 

"  Turn,  for  instance,  to  the  man  who  wrote  too  well  to  be  a  jour- 
nalist :  Kipling.  In  his  '  Light  that  Failed '  he  has  Dick  preach  a 
sermon  to  Maisie,  to  the  effect  that  good  work  can  only  be  done  while 
one  is  unconscious  of  self  and  of  success.  But  the  competitive  system 
forces  every  striver  in  artistic  lines  to  have  one  eye  cocked  always  for 
success,  since  only  by  success  can  he  live.  He  is  not  awarded  an  in- 
come by  the  art-loving  public  according  to  the  quality  of  his  work; 
he  must  abandon  quality  in  order  to  produce  quantity.  He  must 
appeal  to  the  greatest  numbers ;  for  his  managers,  operating  commer- 
cially, choose  their  programmes  solely  according  to  the  audience  which 
they  will  gather,  to  the  profits  which  they  will  return.  No  attention 
is  paid  to  an  auditor's  taste;  it  may  be  good  or  atrocious;  if  he  has 
a  dollar  ready  to  pay,  that  settles  the  question;  he  shall  be  served 
with  what  he  prefers.  So  the  artist  must  play  to  the  galleries,  be- 
cause the  galleries,  thumbs  up  or  thumbs  down,  declare  literally 
whether  he  shall  feed  or  starve,  live  or  die/'  .  .  . 

"  When  the  prostitution  of  literature  to  the  manufacture  of  books 
comes  in,  the  inspiration  being  measured  in  terms  of  the  amount  of 
copy  it  will  produce,  the  man's  fate  is  sealed.  Out  of  the  ashes  of 
the  murdered  muse,  if  the  writer  learns  and  repents,  may  arise  the 
incarnation  of  a  new  one;  otherwise  his  art  and  his  fame  are  dead 
forever. 

"  This  is  what  is  the  matter  with  journalism.  The  muse  is  not,  in- 
deed, impaled  upon  the  copy-hook.  Space  is  usually  in  demand  more 
than  copy.  But  she  is  outraged  by  the  scareheads  and  the  sensational 
and  sporting  news  which  is  relied  upon  to  catch  the  taste  of  the  public 
majority;  for  no  regard  is  paid  to  the  quality  of  the  clientele.  The 
two  cents  of  the  newsboy  is  as  good  as  that  of  the  Academician.  And 
as  the  lowest  tastes  and  tendencies  are  the  ones  which  open  the 
pockets  most  promptly  upon  excitation,  those  are  the  ones  to  which 
constant  appeal  is  made.  The  more  sensational  the  matter  the  greater 
the  profits.  Only  the  extremity  of  public  opinion  and  the  law  bars 
out  sheer  obscenity."  .  .  . 

"  No  news  must  be  printed,  no  editorial  attitude  taken,  which  may 
offend  large  advertisers  or  large  bodies  of  subscribers.  The  news 
and  its  manner  of  presentation,  in  scareheads  and  sensational  con- 
tents, must  be  debased  to  the  task  of  securing  circulation;  the  edi- 
torials to  that  of  currying  favour.  ,0ur  journals  have  exactly  the 
same  problem  of  intellectual  independence  invaded  by  need  of  pe- 
cuniary endowment  which  threatens  the  proper  usefulness  of  our  uni- 
versities, our  theatres,  and  our  churches. 

"  In  such  negative  fashion  does  the  competitive  system  inspire 
man's  highest  literary  efforts !  Is  this  the  honoured  Muse,  .triumph- 
ant, in  a  waggon  hitched  to  a  star?  Is  not  rather  the  rider  before  the 
cart,  the  Muse  harnessed  as  a  draft-animal,  with  blinders,  that  she 
may  not  see  how  unhappy  is  her  own  plight ;  and  in  the  waggon  behind 
the  blinders  a  very  mundane  burden :  a  golden  calf,  heavy  and  unin- 
spiring ? 

"  Taking  up  the  numbered  list  seriatim,  effort  in  the  first  discretion 

600 


THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  DOLLAR 

is  purely  commercial  in  its  nature:  unalloyed  barter,  the  acquisition 
of  influence  over  men. 

"  Effort  in  the  second  direction  is  the  same ;  but  it  masquerades  very 
successfully  as  reportorial  work.  It  consists  in  publishing  spicy  re- 
ports of  sensational  local  incidents,  in  embellishing  them  with  the 
most  startling  of  scareheads.  No  man  of  literary  taste  would  ever 
think  of  presenting  facts  in  such  a  manner  except  for  hire.  Yet  it 
gets  to  be  an  unconscious  habit.  For  instance,  a  local  sheet  furnishes 
these  headlines : 

'AGED  LADY  DEAD/ 

'Was  One  of  M bury's  well  known  Residents/ 

'  STENCH  SOMETHING  AWFUL/ 

"  To  be  sure,  in  this  case  the  sensational  becomes  prominent  from 
an  unfortunate  juxtaposition,  of  the  news  of  the  death  of  an  estimable 
citizen  and  that  of  a  break  in  the  town-sewer;  but  its  unconsciousness 
illustrates  the  carefully  cultivated  tendency  to  shout  out  something 
terse,  coarse  and  incisive,  as  the  newsmonger's  first  duty,  better  than 
would  a  more  deliberate  offence.  It  typifies  the  explanation  of  why 
it  is  that,  in  a  million  cases,  our  better  taste  is  jostled  and  jarred  by 
the  coarse  and  incongruous.  It  makes  plain  why  it  is  that  even  in 
the  journals  furthest  removed  from  the  'yellow/  there  is  no  effort, 
made  or  pretended  even,  to  give  news  prominence  in  proportion  to 
its  real  importance.  It  is  displayed  with  sole  regard  to  its  probable 
influence  over  the  purchasers  of  the  paper.  In  this  it  addresses  the 
millions." 

The  following  poem  by  Bertrand  Shadwell,  published  in  the  "  New 
Age  "  of  London,  is  a  fair  characterisation  of  newspaper  methods : 

"YELLOW  NEWS." 

"  A   CHICAGO  SONG." 

"  They're  mostly  '  Dagos '  in  the  trade; 

But  '  some  o'  the  guys  is  Jews;  ' 
And  this  is  the  way  the  money's  made; 

And  this  is  the  sort  of  news: 
They  know  the  stuff  the  public  likes; 

It's  blood  the  penny  brings; 
So  this  is  the  note  the  newsboy  strikes, 

And  this   is  the  song  he  sings. 

Chorus  (Shouted): 

"  'Ere  y'ur! 
Paper-ur! 

Extree  one  o'clock  murder! 
Bloody  riots! 

Dreadful  axdents! 
Many  lives  lost! 

"They're  piping  hot  from  the  pictured  Press, 

In  blathering  blue  and  red, 
A  simpering,  smirking  murderess, 
Her  dupe  and  victim  dead, 
601 


Some  'bandit-boys'  and  a  Beast  or  two; 

(A  sickener  sure  to  sell:) 
All  Vice  and  Villainy's  Vile  Review, 
With  the  yellowest  yell  to  yell. 

Chorus  (Yelled): 

"'Ere  y'aw! 
Paper-aw! 

Extree  three  o'clock  murdaw! 
Dreadful  'oldups! 
Bloody  suicides! 

Many   lives   lost! 

"The  scarlet  sunset  steeps  the  sky, 
And  smears  the  smoke  with  blood; 
Now,  swift  the  yellow  newsboys  fly 

Through  the  suggestive  mud: 
They  flip  the  fleeting  cable-car; 
They  dive   among  the  throng; 
While,  shrieked  above  the  roar  and  Jar, 
Soars  their  seductive  song. 

Chorus  (Shrieked): 

"  'Ere  y'arr! 
Paper-arr! 

Extree  five  o'clock  big  double  family^—* 
murder  and  suicide! 
Dreadful    pictures!! 

Bloody  supplement!!! 

Many  lives  lost! ! ! !  " 

We  quote  the  following  from  the  "  Springfield  Republican  "  and  the 
"  Mexican  Herald "  as  fairly  characteristic  of  much  of  our  present 
"  journalism." 

"'YELLOW  JOURNALISM  :  —  Sensationalism,  big  scare  headlines, 
crude  display,  faked  illustrations,  comic  supplement  vulgarities  and 
botched  presswork  are  the  hall  marks  of  a  rudimentary  form  of  jour- 
nalism which  is  an  anachronism  in  this  modern  era  of  enlightenment. 
They  belong  to  the  stone  age  of  intelligence.  Yellow  journalism  will 
undoubtedly  continue  to  hold  a  place  until,  in  some  remote  futurity, 
an  educated  people  shall  demand  of  the  whole  public  press  intelligence, 
decency,  and  good  taste/*  Springfield  Republican. 

"THE  YELLOW  JOURNAL  EVIL:  —  It  would  be  well  if  the  great 
Sunday  papers  in  the  United  States  would,  in  their  supplements, 
try  to  cultivate  the  artistic  taste  of  the  young  instead  of  serving  up 
coloured  horrors  and  sketches  of  impossibly  brutal  men  and  youths. 
In  their  great  art  supplements,  the  Buenos  Ayres  papers  are  true  edu- 
cators of  the  masses.  If  Italy  still  remains  a  country  where  the  com- 
mon people  love  art  and  have  the  artistic  faculty,  it  is  because  the 
youth  of  the  land  are  familiar  from  childhood  with  beautiful  objects. 
The  brutality  of  the  coloured  supplements  is  evident.  Children  whose 
sole  notions  are  derived  from  the  adventures  of  Happy  Hooligan  and 
Bad  Boys  will  surely  grow  up  lacking  in  fine  feeling  and  good  man- 
ners. Mexican  Herald. 

602 


THE    SHADOW   OF   THE   DOLLAR 

Writing  of  the  newspaper-reader,  Mr.  Sidney  A.  Reeve  says,  in  the 
work  already  referred  to :  "  Those  who  run  as  they  read  do  not  pre- 
tend to  digest  or  reflect  They  do  not  even  care  to  absorb.  *  In  one 
ear  and  out  the  other '  is  the  motto  of  the  newspaper-reader. 

"  Ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  reading  done  of  daily  journals  is  of 
the  same  hideous  sort  of  debauchery  of  the  mind  that  the  degenerate 
Romans  used  to  exercise  with  the  stomach :  gluttony  relieved  by  artifi- 
cial, unnatural  rejection,  and  carried  on  from  the  lowest  of  motives : 
the  overtitilation  of  sensory  nerves  finally  become  too  tired  to  respond 
to  ordinary  wholesome  excitation.  Only  let  the  matter  be  graphic  and 
sensational  enough  to  arrest  and  divert  the  weary  attention  for  a  mo- 
ment from  the  grim  demands  of  the  daily  struggle !  Only  let  it  not 
be  a  thing  to  stay  by  one,  demanding  serious  consideration,  effort  at 
understanding,  digestion,  reflection,  offering  its  addition  to  life's  ac- 
cumulation of  wisdom !  For  there  is  no  time  nor  strength  for  such 
things  in  the  competitive  campaign.  He  who  preserves  them  must 
give  up  all  economic  hope  and  drop  resignedly  into  the  ranks  of  the 
unpaid :  the  labourers,  the  scholars  and  the  artists. 

"  It  is  to  such  an  audience  as  this  that  journalism  necessarily  caters 
to-day  and  by  the  verdict  of  which  it  lives  or  dies.  The  survival  of 
the  sensational  is  inevitable.  To  contemn  the  '  yellow '  journals  from 
a  platform  of  superior  morality  is  at  once  specious,  futile  and  hypo- 
critical. They  are  not  only  doing  just  what  every  other  business  man 
in  the  country  is  doing:  seeking  trade,  without  too  fine  a  question  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  means  or  of  the  incidental  results,  but  they  are 
doing  it  because  he  is  doing  it.  They  cannot  possibly  stop ;  they  must 
inevitably  get  worse  and  worse,  until  he  stops.  So  let  him  who  has 
not  sinned  to  the  extent  of  seeking  trade  and  profit,  in  ways  not  lend- 
ing to  the  glory  and  improvement  of  his  native  land,  cast  at  fallen 
journalism  the  first  stone.  When  he  has  purified  himself  he  will 
find,  mirabile  dictu,  that  her  garments  are  already  clean. 

"  Let  barter  be  but  abolished  and  journalism  will  rise  from  its  pres- 
ent bed  of  mud  as  a  whitened  angel.  Of  advertising  there  will  be  no 
more.  Bulletins  there  will  be,  in  plenty,  but  not  often  of  prices; 
only  of  real  novelties  on  the  market." 

A  little  later  Mr.  Reeve  illumines  his  thought  upon  this  subject 
with  the  following  italicised  passage,  "All  that  is  beautiful  in  our 
community-life  can  be  traced  directly  to  cooperation,  all  that  is  hide- 
ous to  barter" 

Another  of  the  crying  ills  which  results  from  the  present  day 
worship  of  Mammon  has  been  aptly  called  "the  social  price."  In 
the  mad  scurry  for  business  every  endeavour  is  made  on  the  part  of 
Smith  to  undersell  Jones.  This  results  in  a  cheapening  of  quality, 
in  adulterations  and  a  general  lowering  of  the  standard,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  in  a  tendency  to  cut  wages  below  the  point  of  bare  sub- 
sistence, on  the  other.  The  sweat-shop  is  far  too  great  a  factor  in  all 
our  large  department  enterprises. 

My  lady  who  haunts  the  bargain-counters  in  the  hope  to  get  some- 
thing for  less  than  it  cost  to  produce  it,  little  thinks  that  she  is  taking 
the  bread  from  some  baby's  mouth,  or  driving  some  starving  young 
woman  to  a  life  of  wantonness  and  crime. 

603 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

According  to  the  figures  of  Kate  Kichards  O'Hare,  a  Rescue  Mission 
worker  of  many  years'  experience,  there  are  in  the  United  States  ap- 
proximately 600,000  public  prostitutes  and  possibly  as  many  more  who 
eke  out  their  insufficient  earnings  by  the  sacrifice  of  their  chastity. 
This  Rescue  Mission  worker  says  in  an  article  published  in  "  The 
Worker  "  for  Saturday,  May  26,  1906 :  "  From  one  end  of  the  earth 
to  the  other  glows  the  ruddy  glare  of  the  '  Red  Light  District/  Our 
social  world  is  built  upon  the  thin  tottering  crust  between  the  under- 
world and  us.  Here  and  there  great  chasms  yawn,  and  tho'  the  whole 
of  society  is  scorched  by  the  flames  beneath,  tho'  our  ears  are  assailed 
with  the  cry  of  the  damned,  we  hypocritically  close  our  eyes  and  ears 
and  if  we  recognise  the  volcano  on  which  we  stand  we  modestly  call 
it  the  '  social  evil '  and  relegate  it  to  the  things  of  which*  it  is  not 
respectable  to  converse."  .  .  . 

"  When  poverty  forces  the  girl  out  of  the  home  to  struggle  for  her 
livelihood,  she  finds  that  the  law  of  business  competition  has  fixed  all 
wages  at  the  bare  cost  of  existence.  The  purchasers  of  women's  labour 
have  taken  into  consideration  the  fact  that  she  can  eke  out  her  earn- 
ings by  the  sale  of  her  sex,  and  therefore  have  placed  her  wage  below 
the  cost  of  existence,  and  necessity  compels  that  they  sell  their  virtue 
for  the  bread  their  wages  will  not  supply. 

"  Ninety-nine  per  cent,  of  the  fallen  women  are  those  who  have 
toiled  long  and  earnestly  in  the  endeavour  to  sustain  life  by  labour 
and  in  the  end  have  been  forced  to  sell  their  sex  as  well  as  their  la- 
bour-power to  the  men  who  control  the  machinery  of  production." 

Our  social  system  is  so  organised  that  everything  which  tends  to 
increase  productiveness  inures  to  the  advantage  of  the  landlord.  As 
the  output  of  labour  becomes  yearly  greater  the  returns  to  labour 
become  yearly  less;  nor  is  this  condition  to  be  accounted  for  upon  the 
assumption  that  capital  gets  the  difference.  Frantic  efforts  have 
indeed  been  made  to  show  that  wages  have  risen,  and  statistics  have 
been  submitted  to  prove  that  the  labourer  gets  more  dollars  to-day 
for  his  week's  work  than  he  formerly  received.  This  may  deceive  the 
unthinking,  but  those  who  look  below  the  surface  know  that  wages  are 
not  a  matter  of  dollars  but  of  purchasing  power.  Men  do  not  live  by 
eating  dollars  but  by  eating  bread,  and  if  their  larger  number  of 
dollars  buys  fewer  pounds  of  bread  they  know  that  wages  have  fallen, 
despite  what  politicians,  anxious  for  votes,  may  say  to  the  contrary. 
As  competition  grows  keener  and  keener  the  labourer  and  the  con- 
sumer, which  is  also  to  say  the  labourer  as  the  consumer,  as  well  as  the 
labourer  as  the  worker,  will  be  ground  finer  and  finer  between  the 
upper  and  nether  millstone. 

The  constant  tendency  of  this  competitive  pressure  will  be  to  force 
the  purchasing  power  of  wages  lower  and  lower.  We  have  seen  in  the 
last  few  years  how,  when  it  becomes  infeasible  because  of  labour  organ- 
isations or  for  political  reasons  to  further  reduce  wages  in  terms  of 
dollars,  the  price  of  commodities  is  advanced  so  that  the  labourer 
sustains  a  cut  in  real  wages,  often  without  knowing  it,  and  without 
affecting  his  allegiance  to  the  political  party  which  was  directly  or 
indirectly  largely  responsible  for  it.  Nor  is  this  all.  At  the  same 
time  that  the  price  of  commodities  is  forced  up  their  quality  is  de- 

604 


THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  DOLLAR 

teriorated,  so  that  no  only  does  the  labourer's  dollars  purchase  much 
less  food  than  formerly  but  what  it  does  purchase  is  growing  yearly 
poorer  and  poorer  in  quality.  If  you  wished  to  buy  a  pound  of  sausage, 
Hamburger  steak,  a  can  of  meat,  a  bottle  of  catsup,  a  pint  of  olive  oil 
or  a  bottle  of  flavouring  extract  and  be  sure  that  the  article  was  pure, 
wholesome  and  unadulterated,  in  short  just  what  it  was  advertised  to 
be,  you  are  more  fortunate  than  the  average  if  you  would  know  where 
to  make  your  purchase.  What,  then,  must  be  the  fate  of  the  ignorant 
poor  who  earn  in  sweat-shops  and  like  blots  upon  20th  century  civilisa- 
tion scarcely  enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together?  Go  through 
the  poor  districts  of  any  of  our  large  cities  and  look  at  the  so-called 
food  exposed  for  sale  in  dark,  dingy,  dirty  cellar  groceries. 

Let  no  one  think  that  these  injustices  stop  here.  The  woman  who 
fights  her  way  through  the  crowds  around  the  bargain  counter  in 
order  that  she  may  get  something  at  a  price  which  starves  its  maker, 
is  creating  a  debt  which  society  cannot  escape  paying. 

This  social  price  will  be  exacted  to  the  last  drachma  in  houses  of  ill- 
fame,  prisons,  alms-houses,  hospitals,  and  in  general  racial  deteriora- 
tion. It  is  high  time  that  the  well-to-do  awoke  to  the  realisation  that 
the  iniquity  or  inequity  which  he  practises  to-day  upon  some  less  for- 
tunate fellow-being  will,  with  the  slow  certainty  of  the  cancer,  ulti- 
mately reach  him  and  his.  There  is  but  one  psychic  atmosphere,  and 
rich  and  poor  must  breathe  it.  Subtle  as  the  hypothetical  ether,  it 
permeates  all  would-be  barriers,  and,  like  an  impalpable  contagion,  it 
tends  to  subdue  us  all  to  its  own  tint.  How  important,  then,  is  it 
that  we  should  purify  to  the  utmost  our  psychic  environment;  that 
we  should  realise  that,  just  as  a  foul  small-pox  district  is  a  menace  to 
our  physical  health,  so  every  injustice  practised  upon  our  fellow- 
beings  threatens  our  national  life  and  degrades  our  psychic  well-being. 

The  moral  regeneration  which  will  follow  the  adoption  of  the  Gil- 
lette System  'can  scarcely  be  imagined,  so  fundamental  and  far- 
reaching  are  its  salutary  influences.  It  will  seem  like  the  dawn  of 
an  ethical  day  beside  which  all  other  days  are  as  nights. 


605 


BOOK  XI 

CHAPTER  I.  COMPETITION — THE  WAR  OF  PEACE.    PART  I 

CHAPTER  II.  COMPETITION — THE  WAR  OF  PEACE.     PART  II 

CHAPTER  III.  THE  PRESSURE  OF  SOCIETY  UPON  THE  INDIVIDUAL 

CHAPTER  IV.  SOME  CAUSES  AND  KESULTS  OF  SOCIAL  PRESSURE 


607 


The  consumer  is  between  the  upper  and  nether  millstone. 

Walter  O.  Cooper  —  Fate  of  the  Middle  Classes. 

Our  wonderful  productive  methods  waste  enough  to  build  homes  for  a 
million  families  a  year.  IMd. 

In  order  to  learn  what  trusts  are  for,  we  must  study  the  conditions 
which  give  rise  to  them.  Corn  was  burned  as  fuel  on  the  plains  when 
people  went  hungry  in  cities.  Coal  miners  were  on  a  strike  for  living 
wages  at  a  time  when  people  in  a  neighbouring  city  were  shivering  for 
lack  of  something  to.  burn. 

One  morning  in  the  winter  of  1884,  when  the  temperature  was  near 
zero,  I  saw  in  the  railroad  yards  of  Cincinnati,  a  delicate  girl  in  a  cal- 
ico dress  and  cotton  stockings,  with  only  a  thin  shawl  thrown  over  her 
shoulders,  trying  with  blue  and  benumbed  fingers  to  pull  from  the  frozen 
mud  a  few  scattered  lumps  of  coal  which  had  fallen  from  the  cars.  At 
the  same  time  the  miners  of  the  Hocking  Valley  were  out  because  the 
price  of  coal  was  so  low  that  the  operators  could  not  pay  them  enough  to 
keep  families  comfortable. 

Bread  and  coal  were  drugs  in  the  market  while  people  went  hungry  and 
cold. 


608 


CHAPTER  I 

COMPETITION— THE  WAR  OF  PEACE 

PART  I 

"  Statisticians  of  repute  tell  that  of  all  business  enterprises  undertaken 
over  95  per  cent,  ultimately  fail." 

Oliver  R.   Trowbridge  in  Bisocialism  —  Economics. 

TTNDREDS  of  thousands  of  years  ago,  long  anterior 
to  the  Neolithic  age,  two  primitive  beings  suddenly 
came  face  to  face  in  the  thick  jungle.  This  was  the 
first  time,  perhaps,  that  either  of  these  hairy  savages 
suspected  there  was  another  strange  man  upon  his 
earth.  The  information  doubtless  came  to  him  in  the 
nature  of  a  shock.  It  is  probable  that  his  first  thought  was  that  he 
had  discovered  a  new  animal  which  he  should  kill  and  eat.  The  per- 
ception, however,  that  this  animal  was  very  like  himself  must  have 
followed  the  first  shock  to  his  sluggish  faculties.  Treading  close 
upon  the  heels  of  this  observation  would  naturally  have  come  the 
thought  that  the  presence  of  this  other  being  might  interfere  with 
his  own  absolute  freedom  of  action,  on  the  one  hand,  at  the  same  time 
that  it  divided  his  means  of  sustenance,  on  the  other.  It  was  no 
easy  matter  in  those  days  to  kill  game  with  the  crude  implements  at 
his  disposal,  and  it  would  be  still  harder  were  some  other  savage  to 
hunt  the  same  territory.  The  thoughts  which  passed  through  the 
mind  of  one  savage  would  naturally  at  the  same  time  pass  through 
that  of  the  other.  Each  would  come  to  reason  that  the  presence  of 
the  other  was  a  menace  to  his  well-being.  So  far  as  either  could 
see,  there  was  but  a  certain  amount  of  good  things  to  be  had.  If 
they  were  to  be  shared  by  two,  instead  of  wholly  possessed  by  one, 
there  would  only  be  half  as  many.  Right  here  was  the  idea  of  com- 
petition first  born,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  essential 
principle  of  competition  inheres  only  in  a  condition  where  there  is  an 
insufficiency  of  some  commodity  to  supply  all  desires,  or,  what  amounts 
to  the  same  thing,  where  such  is  feared  to  be  the  case.  If  there  be  an 
over-plus  of  a  certain  article  resulting  in  a  competitive  struggle  to 
exchange  it,  the  result  is  the  same.  There  is  still  an  insufficiency, 
actual  or  feared,  of  the  available  commodity  sought  by  exchange. 
Money  is  merely  the  common  denominator  of  all  desires,  the  facile 
tool  which  can  be  at  once  converted  into  any  article  within  the  circle 
of  exchange.  The  very  essence  of  the  competitive  idea,  therefore,  is 
the  sense  of  a  struggle  to  secure  some  desired  thing  under  conditions 
which  make  it  inevitable  that  some  are  to  fail  in  the  struggle. 

To  make  our  thought  clear,  let  us  take  for  an  illustration  some- 
39  609 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

thing  with  which  all  are  familiar.  When  a  popular  dramatic  star 
plays  an  engagement,  there  is  a  keen  desire  on  the  part  of  a  goodly 
number  of  play-goers  to  witness  the  performance.  The  theatres  fre- 
quently advance  the  rates,  so  that  many  of  the  poorer  class  are  obliged 
to  forego  the  pleasure  of  reserved  seats  and  to  take  their  chances  with 
what  are  known  as  "rush  seats."  Observe,  now,  what  happens.  An 
hour  or  so  before  the  performance  there  is  a  dense  crowd  before  the 
door  of  the  second  gallery  where  the  "  rush  seats  "  are  located.  The 
main  entrance  to  the  theatre  is  still  comparatively  deserted.  The 
members  of  this  crowd  push  and  jostle  each  other  for  preferred  posi- 
tions near  the  door.  Whenever  any  sound  leads  them  to  believe  the 
door  is  about  to  be  opened  the  crush  increases,  and,  when  finally  the 
door  is  opened,  there  is  a  wild  stampede  up  the  stairs,  in  which  women 
and  children  are  frequently  severely  injured.  The  main  entrance  to 
the  theatre  is  still  deserted,  and  half  or  three  quarters  of  an  hour  later 
people  begin  to  stroll  leisurely  in.  There  is  no  jostling,  no  excite- 
ment, no  mad  rush  for  the  entrance.  Everything  is  quiet  and  orderly. 
What  is  the  cause  of  this  wide  difference  in  behaviour?  It  is  this. 
In  the  case  of  the  "  rush  seats "  there  is  competition.  In  the  case 
of  the  reserved  seats  there  is  none.  There  are  not  enough  desirable 
"rush  seats"  to  go  around.  There  are  sure  to  be  enough  reserved 
seats.  This  is  what  makes  the  difference.  That  there  should  be  those 
who  aver  that  there  is  such  zest  in  rushing  up  the  stairs  in  a  game 
where  some  are  bound  to  lose  that  they  infinitely  prefer  it  to  having 
a  reserved  seat  where  there  are  bound  to  be  seats  enough  for  all,  is  a 
sad  comment  both  upon  the  intelligence  and  morality  of  the  20th 
century. 

Bearing  in  mind,  then,  that  the  essence  of  competition  is  strife 
resulting  from  insufficiency  of  desirables,  let  us  glance  for  a  mo- 
ment at  its  present  good  repute.  We  have  been  told  again  and  again 
that  competition  is  the  life  of  trade,  and  to-day  a  large  portion  of 
our  people  believe  that  all  our  social  ills  results  from  the  fact  that 
competition  is  not  free.  We  do  not,  of  course,  forget  that  there  is  a 
large  and  constantly  growing  faction,  who  believe  in  the  abolition  of 
competition  altogether,  but  for  the  moment  we  are  interested  in  see- 
ing how  so  many  have  come  to  make  a  veritable  fetish  of  this  economic 
factor.  The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  With  very  few  and  insig- 
nificant exceptions,  the  whole  civilised  world  has  for  many  decades 
had  to  choose  between  competition  and  monopoly,  and  it  is  not  so 
very  long  ago  when  a  great  many  even  lacked  the  power  of  choice, 
monopoly  being  forced  upon  them.  Now,  as  between  competition  and 
monopoly  there  can,  of  course,  be  but  the  one  choice  for  the  people 
and  the  other  choice  for  the  monopolists.  If  it  can  be  shown  that 
this  is  the  only  alternative  —  that  if  we  do  not  have  competition,  we 
must  have  monopoly, —  then  it  would  seem  clear  to  us  that  we  should 
struggle  to  our  utmost  to  bring  our  present  competitive  system  to  its 
most  savage  state  of  virility,  until  the  last  vestige  of»  monopoly  is 
driven  from  the  land  and  we  all  of  us  are  fighting  the  economic  fight 
with  equal  weapons  and  a  fair  apportionment  of  ammunition. 

If  a  man's  inherent  greed  can  be  checked  only  by  that  counteracting 
inherent  greed  of  his  fellow,  which  we  call  competition,  by  all  mean.8 

610 


THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

let  it  be  cheeked  in  that  way,  since  in  monopoly  it  is  not  checked  at 
all,  but  runs  riot. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  in  this  chapter  to  consider  at  any  length,  or 
with  any  degree  of  thoroughness,  what  can  be  said  either  for  or 
against  competition  in  its  last  analysis,  but  rather  to  invite  the  Read- 
er's attention  to  certain  patent  factors  bearing  upon  the  case.  We 
believe  that  a  little  argument  will  convince  any  searcher  for  truth, 
that  any  ordinary  commercial  competition  becomes  a  factor  in  trade 
only  when  there  is  a  lack  of  balance,  real  or  apparent,  between  supply 
and  demand,  which  is  to  say  that  competition  becomes  active  just  in 
the  ratio  that  commercial  conditions  become  undesirable. 

Space  does  not  permit  us  to  elaborate  the  corollaries  of  these  propo- 
sitions at  this  juncture,  as  the  matter  is  to  be  treated  at  some  length 
upon  another  occasion,  but  we  believe  the  close  reasoner  will  deduce 
for  himself  the  fact  that  competition,  when  it  is  competition  par 
excellence,  reaches  equity  only  when  it  is  equally  balanced  on  both 
sides  of  a  transaction,  and,  therefore,  mutually  annihilatory.  A  word 
will  explain.  A  seller  asks  all  he  can  get.  A  purchaser  buys  as  cheap 
as  he  can  procure.  The  seller  would  demand  exorbitant  prices  if 
not  checked  by  competition  of  other  sellers.  The  buyer  would  offer 
ruinous  prices  if  not  checked  by  the  competition  of  other  buyers.  If 
the  competition  on  both  sides  of  the  transaction  is  just  balanced,  an 
equitable  price  will  result.  If  there  are  more  sellers  than  buyers, 
down  goes  the  price  below  an  equitable  figure.  If  buying  competition 
outweighs  selling  competition,  up  goes  the  price  toward  extortion. 
The  point  we  make  is  simply  this,  that,  under  a  competitive  system, 
justice  results  only  when  competition  is  balanced  equal  and  opposite 
on  both  sides  of  the  transaction  and,  therefore,  mutually  annihilatory. 
If  such  be  the  case  it  must,  of  course,  be  wasteful.  In  algebra,  when 
we  have  the  same  quantity  on  both  sides  of  the  equation,  the  first 
thing  we  do  is  to  eliminate  it  by  cancellation.  Having  submitted  the 
proposition  that  competition  is  wasteful,  we  will  now  proceed  to 
consider  to  what  degree  this  waste  is  costly. 

In  his  "  Fate  of  the  Middle  Classes/'  Walter  G.  Cooper,  Secretary 
of  the  Atlanta  Chamber  of  Commerce,  says :  "  Sociologists  tell  us 
that  there  comes  a  time  in  the  history  of  governments,  when  the 
militant  type,  having  done  its  work,  gives  place  to  the  cooperative 
type."  .  .  . 

"  The  same  evolution  has  brought  industrial  institutions  to  the 
point  where  the  militant  type,  characterised  by  competition,  has 
reached  the  danger  point.  By  the  survival  of  the  fittest  we  have 
industries  so  great  and  so  powerful  that  they  would  destroy  each  other 
and  pull  down  the  whole  framework  of  business  if  competition  between 
them  went  on  without  restriction.  For  example:  the  big  railway 
systems  have  to  put  buffer  combinations  called  traffic  associations  be- 
tween themselves  to  prevent  mutual  destruction  by  cut-throat  compe- 
tition. When  the  courts  dissolve  the  buffers,  the  next  thing  is  a 
consolidation  on  a  larger  scale,  or,  if  that  is  defeated,  a  community  of 
interest  and  a  kind  of  unwritten  working  arrangement  which  serves 
as  a  modus  Vivendi. 

"  Competition  unrestrained  becomes  destructive  under  modern  con- 

611 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

ditions,  and  the  strong  crush  or  capture  the  weak.  Thus  competition 
tends  to  destroy  itself,  and  to  establish  monopoly  in  its  place.  The 
ranks  of  industry  are  thinned  by  this  warfare,  but  the  survivors  are 
great  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  their  victims." 

Says  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer:  "From  war  has  been  gained  all  that  it 
had  to  give.  The  peopling  of  the  earth  by  the  more  powerful  and 
intelligent  races  is  a  benefit  in  great  measure  achieved,  and  what  re- 
mains to  be  done,  calls  for  no  other  agency  than  the  quiet  pressure  of 
a  spreading  industrial  civilisation  on  a  barbarism  which  slowly 
dwindles." 

In  the  work  already  referred  to,  Mr.  Cooper  says,  in  a  chapter  en- 
titled "  The  Misfit  of  Industry  " :  "  The  ill-adjusted  production  by 
which  so  much  of  the  world's  energy  has  been  wasted  is  the  inevitable 
result  of  the  division  of  labour. 

"  The  difference  between  the  blind  energy  of  numerous  and  widely 
separated  competitors  and  the  same  units  organised  and  combined  for 
concerted  action  is  the  difference  between  a  mob  and  an  army. 

"  The  effectiveness  and  economy  of  energy  in  the  army  is  no  greater 
than  it  is  in  the  army  of  industry,  which  combines  in  a  few  compact 
organisations  all  the  establishments  of  that  line.  For  example,  we 
have  the  army  of  iron  and  steel  producers,  composed  of  several  great 
combinations  which  correspond  to  army  corps. 

"  The  early  history  of  consolidated  industries  is  not  altogether 
peaceful.  Their  path  is  not  strewn  with  roses.  Until  some  kind  of 
federation  takes  place,  destructive  warfare  is  always  a  possibility  for 
them. 

"  In  proportion  as  the  conflict  of  armies  is  more  deadly  and  destruc- 
tive than  the  incoherent  outbreak  of  mobs,  so  the  conflict  of  industrial 
combinations  is  more  destructive  than  ordinary  competition.  When 
the  conflicts  become  international,  they  will  be  embittered  by  national 
antipathies  and  sustained  by  governmental  policy. 

"  The  contemplation  of  industrial  warfare  under  these  conditions 
will  tend  to  make  less  frequent  such  destructive  conflicts.  But  when 
they  do  come  the  waste  of  wealth  will  be  frightful,  and  will  by  its  con- 
sequent suffering  provoke  such  a  protest  from  the  toilers  of  the  earth 
that  eventually  a  truce  will  be  declared. 

"  It, is  to  that  ultimate  stage  of  industrial  development  that  we  must 
look  for  the  best  results  of  consolidation,  for  when  industrial  warfare 
in  nations  has  been  succeeded  by  worse  conflicts  between  them,  and 
these  in  turn  have  given  place  to  international  cooperation,  with  a 
free  and  fair  exchange  of  the  best  fruits  of  earth  and  the  best  products 
of  toil,  we  shall  have  reached  an  era  in  which  the  murder  of  men  by 
wholesale  will  be  no  longer  tolerated,  and  the  unspeakable  horrors  of 
war  will  give  place  to  generous  emulation  in  the  helpful  works  of 
industry." 

In  the  case  of  Kellogg  vs.  Larkin,  (3  Pinney  150,)  the  Court  said, 
in  relation  to  the  subject  we  are  discussing:  "I  apprehend  that  it 
is  not  true  that  competition  is  the  life  of  trade.  On  the  contrary, 
that  maxim  is  one  of  the  least  reliable  of  the  host  we  may  pick  up  in 
every  marketplace.  It  is  in  fact  the  shibboleth  of  mere  gambling 
speculation,  and  is  hardly  entitled  to  take  rank  as  an  axiom  in  the 

612 


THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

jurisprudence  of  this  country.  I  believe  universal  observation  will 
attest  that  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  competition  in  trade  has 
caused  more  individual  distress  than  the  want  of  competition.  Indeed, 
by  reducing  prices  below  or  raising  them  above  value  (as  the  nature  of 
the  trade  permitted)  competition  has  done  more  to  monopolise  trade,or 
to  secure  exclusive  advantages  in  it,  than  has  been  done  by  contract. 
Eivalry  in  trade  will  destroy  itself,  and  rival  tradesmen  seek  to  remove 
each  other,  rarely  resorting  to  contract  unless  they  find  it  the  cheapest 
mode  of  putting  an  end  to  the  strife." 

Of  a  similar  character  was  the  pronouncement  of  Justice  Grey  of 
the  New  York  Court  of  Appeals  in  the  case  of  Leslie  vs.  Lorrilard 
(110  N".  Y.  519),  to  wit:  "I  do  not  think  that  competition  is  in- 
variably a  public  benefit ;  for  it  may  be  carried  on  to  such  a  degree  as 
to  become  a  general  evil." 

In  "  The  Social  Unrest,"  Mr.  John  Graham  Brooks  says,  in  refer- 
ring to  the  inevitableness  of  the  social  question :  "  The  labourer  is 
not,  however,  left  alone  with  his  doubts.  The  world  is  full  of  very 
wise  people,  who  tell  him  with  great  frankness  that  labour  does  not 
in  any  sense  get  its  fair  share.  They  tell  him  that,  through  the 
manipulating  of  a  thousand  chartered  privileges,  labour  is  defrauded 
of  a  formidable  portion  of  its  product.  There  are  no  abler  economists 
than  dozens  who  make  this  declaration. 

"  As  for  the  competitive  wage  system  with  its  '  free  contract/  a 
troop  of  eminent  men  denounce  it  in  unmeasured  terms.  They  de- 
nounce it  economically,  because  of  its  wastfulness  through  unnecessary 
duplication  of  rival  plants,  with  the  orgy  of  advertising  which  this 
rivalry  occasions.  They  denounce  it  morally  with  even  more  confident 
disapproval.  They  see  in  it  the  teeming  source  of  the  self-seeking 
which  delights  to  take  every  advantage  of  another's  weakness  or  igno- 
rance, to  '  best '  him  in  the  bargain.  They  see  in  it  the  chief  stimula- 
tor of  the  universal  hunger  for  quick  riches  which  spreads  among  us 
the  methods  and  the  spirit  of  the  gambler.  They  charge  it  with  set- 
ting such  a  premium  upon  mere  sharpness  and  cunning  that  this  type 
of  success  becomes  the  attractive  idol  for  general  worship." 

In  his  work  entitled  "  The  Trusts,"  the  Hon.  William  Miller  Col- 
lier says:  "  The  most  noticeable  fact  in  the  industrial  history  of  the 
times  is  the  complete  lack  of  anything  like  efficient  organisation  of 
industry  at  large.  Our  advance  in  general  business  organisation  has 
not,  until  within  recent  years,  kept  pace  with  our  wonderful 
inventions  and  discoveries.  Our  productive  agencies  have  been 
mightily  improved,  but  the  marshalling  of  our  industrial  forces  has 
not  received  the  study  that  it  deserves.  Trusts  are  in  some  instances, 
at  least,  attempts  at  better  organisation.  The  evils  of  the  system, 
which  such  trusts  combat,  are  the  evils  of  unregulated  competition. 
Professor  John  Graham  Brooks  in  his  address  at  the  Chicago  Trust 
Conference  declared  that  one  of  the  most  successful  business  men  in 
the  East  had  said  to  him :  '  If  people  generally  knew  how  stupidly 
and  wastefully  much  of  the  large  business  is  carried  on  we  should 
become  objects  of  ridicule ; '  and  yet  the  trusts,  which  are  designed  to 
correct  these  faults  and  to  save  these  wastes,  are  the  objects,  to-day, 
of  popular  suspicion,  reproach,  and  hatred.  The  Chairman  of  the 

613 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Interstate  Commerce  Commission  is  quoted  as  saying,  in  substance, 
that  if  the  worst  enemies  of  the  railroads  had  charge  of  the  great 
means  of  transportation,  they  would  never  dare  to  do  the  reckless  and 
indecent  things  which  the  managers  of  the  railroads  themselves  have 
done  in  their  attempts  at  competition.  Professor  Brooks  is  also  the 
authority  for  the  statement  that  in  the  business  of  insurance,  which 
has  been  considered  a  marvel  of  organisation,  there  is  such  waste  by 
reason  of  unregulated  competition  that  one  of  the  foremost  men  in 
the  insurance  business  said  to  him :  '  It  would  not  be  safe  to  have  it 
known  how  extravagantly  things  are  managed,  or  to  what  sorry  shifts 
we  are  driven;'  and  that  when  Professor  Brooks  asked  another 
prominent  insurance  man  if  this  criticism  were  just,  he  replied :  '  Oh, 
competition  has  got  us  now  where  the  only  dress  we  ought  to  wear  is 
the  cap  and  bells/  Trusts,  when  organised,  as  they  often  are,  merely 
as  unions  of  producers  to  secure  the  advantages  of  such  a  union  in 
producing,  are  attempts  to  regulate  business  with  some  degree  of 
wisdom  and  judgment;  but  trust  organisers  are  almost  invariably 
denounced  as  foes  to  industry  and  to  society. 

"  The  wastefulness  of  unrestrained  competition  is  the  great  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  cheap  production.  It  is  ruinous  to  the  competitors ;  it  is 
disastrous  even  to  the  community.  It  not  only  absolutely  prevents 
cheap  production ;  it  necessitates  high  prices.  What  are  the  incidents 
to-day  of  competition  ?  They  are  known  to  every  one ;  personal  obser- 
vation and  experience  make  us  all  cognisant  of  them : —  duplication 
and  multiplication  of  effort  to  obtain  a  single  result,  several  salesmen 
striving  to  secure  a  single  order,  selling  agencies  uselessly  multiplied 
and  selling  expenses  necessarily  increased,  sales  without  a  profit  in 
order  to  prevent  rivals  from  selling,  sales  upon  terms  of  credit  that  are 
in  themselves  a  mere  dissipation  of  capital,  cut  prices  and  bankrupt 
sales, —  these  are  the  methods  of  modern  business  life.  Competition 
is  said  to  be  the  life  of  trade ;  but  competition,  as  it  is  practised,  is,  in 
fact,  frequently  *  war  to  the  knife  and  knife  to  the  hilt/  It  is  busi- 
ness committing  suicide.  Can  men  be  blamed,—  are  they,  in  fact,  to 
be  condemned  or  criticised, —  for  endeavouring  to  stop  this  senseless, 
useless,  and  debasing  warfare,  this  fatuous  self-destruction  ?  " 

Mr.  Collier  contends  that  one  of  the  greatest  ills  from  which  we  are 
suffering  is  the  over-production  which  comes  from  the  use  of  machin- 
ery. He  evidently  belongs  to  the  old  school  of  political  economists  — 
or  should  we  say  that  he  adheres  to  the  college  brand  of  political  econ- 
omy? Mr.  Walter  G.  Cooper,  the  author  of  "Fate  of  the  Middle 
Classes/'  from  which  we  have  quoted,  holds  a  similar  view.  It  is  most 
regrettable  that  writers  upon  such  subjects  will  adopt,  apparently  with- 
out thought,  the  ancient  nomenclature  of  their  forefathers.  That  Mr. 
Cooper  all  but  sees  the  fallacy  of  his  own  terms  is  abundantly  evident, 
but  Mr.  Collier  does  not  seem  to  be  equally  fortunate  in  this  regard. 
Here  is  what  he  says  upon  the  matter,  in  his  attempt  to  show  the 
advantages  of  trusts :  "  But  the  greatest  benefit  is  not  the  saving  of 
the  insurance,  the  storage,  the  interest,  or  the  shop-wear,  but  that 
which  comes  from  the  lessening  of  the  evil  of  over-production, —  an 
evil,  the  crushing  pressure  of  which  is  daily  being  felt  more  and  more 
by  ail  the  industrial  nations  of  the  world.  There  is  not  an  industry  in 

614 


THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

which  machinery  has  been  perfected  which  is  not  being  endangered 
by  over-production.  The  machines  which  the  skill  and  the  cunning 
of  men  have  invented,  are  becoming  Frankensteins  that  now  threaten 
to  crush  us.  The  eighty  millions  of  Americans  now  have  a  productive 
capacity  that  is  equal  to  the  consumptive  power  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty  millions  of  Americans ;  and  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
Americans  are  the  greatest  consumers  of  the  world.  It  has  been  esti- 
mated that  the  machines  in  this  country  will  enable  its  inhabitants 
to  produce  as  much  as  four  hundred  millions  of  people  could  produce 
without  labour-saving  machines.  There  is  not  a  single  industry  in 
which  the  evil  of  over-production  does  not  exist  to-day.  Those  in 
which  it  was  first  most  acutely  felt  were  the  first  to  form  trusts." 

Mr.  Cooper  points  out  how  the  over-production  of  cotton  glutted 
the  market  until  the  growers  received  less  in  total  payment  for  a  big 
crop  than  they  had  formerly  received  for  a  smaller  one,  and  he  tells 
how  much  better  it  would  have  been  had  they  restricted  the  production 
by  devoting  a  portion  of  their  land  to  some  other  crop.  He  points  out 
that  then  they  would  have  had  a  commodity  which,  not  being  a  drug 
on  the  market,  would  have  had  a  ready  exchange  value,  and,  like  Mr. 
Collier,  he  calls  this  evil  over-production.  At  the  risk  of  a  slight  di- 
gression we  cannot  refrain  from  showing  how  absurd  is  such  a  con- 
tention. Farmer  Smith  has  put  all  his  land  into  cotton.  He  has  a 
thousand  bales.  It  is  a  drug.  He  cannot  sell  it,  therefore,  it  might  as 
well  be  soap-bubbles.  If  he  had  raised  but  500  bales  and  other 
growers  had  followed  the  same  proportion  and  had  put  the  rest  of  his 
land,  say,  into  sweet  potatoes,  we  are  told  that  his  cotton  would  have 
had  an  exchange  value,  besides  which  he  would  have  had  a  saleable 
crop  of  sweet  potatoes;  not  having  been  wise  enough,  however,  to  do 
this,  we  are  told  that  he  is  now  a  victim  of  "  over-production,"  and 
that  he  is  greatly  hardshipped  thereby.  Just  how  a  man  can  be  poor 
by  having  too  much  of  a  given  desirable  thing,  other  things  equal, 
is  a  trifle  hard  to  understand.  Do  either  of  these  gentlemen  contend 
that  if  Farmer  Smith  had  his  thousand  bales  of  cotton  and  his  crop 
of  sweet  potatoes  besides,  he  would  be  worse  off  than  if  he  had  five 
hundred  bales  and  the  same  crop  of  sweet  potatoes?  He  need  offer 
for  sale  but  five  hundred  bales,  and  then  the  market,  so  far  as  he  is 
concerned,  would  be  just  the  same  as  in  the  other  case.  If  his  trouble 
is  over-production  per  se  he  ought  to  be  the  more  hardshipped  the  more 
he  has  of  the  article  which  is  a  drug,  without  regard  to  how  much  or 
how  little  he  has  of  any  other  commodity.  Manifestly  this  is  not  the 
case,  and  we  are  brought  to  see  that  the  evil  accredited  to  "  over-pro- 
duction "  is  not  chargeable  to  a  surplus  per  se  of  a  given  commodity 
but  rather  to  the  dearth  of  other  commodities  which  is  the  inevitable 
corollary  of  the  aforesaid  surplus.  We  see,  therefore,  that  men  are 
not  made  poor  by  having  too  much  of  any  commodity,  but  that  they 
are  made  poor  and  hardshipped  by  having  too  little  of  some  other 
commodity,  and  that  where  the  one  channel  runs  over,  the  other 
channel  tends  naturally  to  run  dry.  At  first  blush  this  may  seem  to 
the  casual  Eeader  like  a  distinction  without  a  difference,  but  we  beg 
to  assure  him  that  such  is  not  the  case.  It  makes  a  great  difference 
whether  or  not  we  explain  an  unfortunate  commercial  condition  by 

615 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

charging  it  against  an  entirely  innocent  factor,  simply  because  the 
guilty  factor  is  an  inevitable  concomitant  thereof.  To  charge  poverty 
to  over-production  conveys  no  intelligible  image  to  the  mind's  eye.  To 
charge  it  to  misapplied  or  wrong  production  is  quite  another  thing. 
We  are  not  poor  because  we  have  too  much  of  what  we  can't  exchange, 
but  because  we  have  too  little  of  what  we  can  exchange.  The  distinc- 
tion is  a  vital  one,  and  if  it  were  adhered  to  we  should  not  find  writers 
expecting  to  usher  in  the  millennium  simply  by  decreasing  production. 
We  are  not  advocating  a  disturbance  of  exchange  values  by  glutting 
the  market,  nor  are  we  denying  that  hardship  follows  that  dearth  of 
a  readily  exchangeable  commodity  which  usually  follows  a  plethora  of 
some  commodity  which  is  a  drug.  We  are  only  contending '  that 
poverty  is  lack  of  possession  rather  than  plentitude  of  possession. 

"  Both  parties  to  an  exchange,"  •  says  John  M.  Gregory,  "  will  be 
benefited  if  the  utility  which  each  gains  is  larger  to  him  than  the 
utility  which  he  parts  with ; "  and  Mr.  William  Smart  is  the  authority 
for  the  assertion  that  "  The  constant  striving  of  economic  progress  is 
toward  taking  commodities  out  of  the  categories  of  values,  and  making 
them  utilities  like  the  rain  and  sunshine." 

If,  however,  a  man  have  rain  to  sell  he  will  find  it  a  serious  drug 
during  a  freshet,  and  his  sunshine  will  not  be  marketable  during  a 
drought.  The  utility  which  he  would  like  to  acquire  by  an  exchange 
of  his  drug  commodity  may  be  so  much  superior  to  the  infinitesimal 
utility  with  which  he  would  part  in  said  exchange  as  to  render  the 
exchange  impossible.  Something  like  this  condition  of  affairs  always 
obtains  when  the  cry  of  over-production  is  raised. 

Speaking  further  of  competition,  Mr.  Collier  says :  "  Potential 
competition  is  also  an  imperfect  remedy,  because,  when  called  into 
activity,  it  so  frequently  is  the  struggle  of  the  weak  .against  the 
strong.  The  competitors  are  not  on  a  level  footing,  and  the  contest, 
•besides  being  unequal,  is  unscrupulously  conducted. 

"  There  is  competition  and  competition ;  first,  that  competition 
which  seeks  to  attract  purchasers  by  better  goods  and  lower  prices,  but 
at  prices  that  mean  fair  profits  and  a  continuance  in  business;  and, 
second,  that  competition  which  lowers  prices  below  the  fair  profit 
mark,  and  the  purpose  of  which  is  not  to  secure  custom  for  the  one  so 
lowering  the  price,  but  to  drive  it  away  from  a  competitor.  The  one 
form  of  competition  is  healthful  rivalry;  the  other  is  a  war  of  ex- 
termination. One  is  the  life  of  business;  the  other  its  death-blow. 
Competition  favours  the  strongest  competitors.  The  big  usually  sur- 
vive. It  is  the  survival  of  the  biggest  rather  than  the  fittest  that  fre- 
quently results  from  competition  as  it  is  practised.  *  Cut-throat ' 
competition  is,  in  no  sense,  a  practice  peculiar  to  trusts.  But  when 
employed  by  trusts  it  is  a  menace  to  the  public,  for  the  great  trusts 
have  the  power  to  withstand  the  effects  of  competition  longer  than 
their  small  rivals.  In  so  far  as  this  is  the  result  of  their  ability  to 
produce  or  market  more  cheaply,  which  is  frequently,  if  not  generally, 
the  case,  we  cannot  find  fault  with  the  competition,  for  the  community 
wants  cheapened  production,  provided  it  is  not  secured  by  a  degrada- 
tion of  the  working  classes;  and  the  community  wants  lower  prices, 
provided  they  are  not  inconsistent  with  fair  profits.  But  competitors 

616 


THE   WAR   OF    PEACE 

do  not  confine  themselves  within  these  limits.  They  are  merciless  in 
their  methods.  Prize-fighters  do  not  hit  below  the  belt,  but  the  methods 
of  business  competitors  are  usually  more  brutal  than  prize-fighting. 
With  business  competitors,  it  is  war  to  the  death.  Trusts  are  prob- 
ably no  worse  than  individual  competitors  in  this  respect;  but  their 
powers  are  greater,  and  the  result  of  acts  done  by  them  is  more 
injurious  than  when  done  by  feeble  individuals. 

"  In  an  earlier  chapter  we  showed  that  competition  was  the  mother 
of  trusts.  Trusts  are  born  of  competition,  conceived  for  the  purpose 
of  killing  competition;  and  yet  they  use  competition  as  a  method  of 
exterminating  competitors.  This  paradox  calls  to  mind  the  story  of 
the  minister  who(  once  preached  two  sermons  as  a  candidate  for  a 
certain  church  which  was  without  a  pastor.  His  morning  discourse 
was  from  the  passage :  '  Ye  are  of  your  father,  the  devil.'  His  even- 
ing text  was :  *  Children,  obey  your  parents/  When  it  comes  to  the 
struggle  of  getting  business  or  killing  off  a  rival  in  trade,  the  methods 
of  the  trust  reflect  credit  upon  its  mother,  cut-throat  competition.  A 
good  deal  depends  upon  whether  the  new  competitor  is  another  giant 
trust  or  a  struggling  individual  enterprise.  If  it  is  a  case  of  rival 
trust,  there  may  be  keen  and  intense  competition ;  but  if  it  is  a  case 
of  the  trust  against  the  weak  and  struggling  individual  producer, 
there  will  be  the  rankest  of  unfair  methods.  When  Trust  meets  Trust, 
'  then  comes  the  tug  of  war ; '  but  when  the  Trust  meets  an  individual 
competitor,  then  the  Trust  conducts  itself  like  a  thug  of  the  slums. 

"  Small  competitive  concerns  will  spring  up  more  quickly  than  will 
great  ones.  Oftentimes  the  results  of  careful  individual  attention  to 
a  small  business  will  offset  the  advantages  of  greater  capital  managed 
by  agents  and  subordinates.  Such  new  small  concerns  can  succeed 
against  extortionate  prices,  and  sometimes  even  where  prices  are  at  the 
fair  profit  mark.  But  what  do  they  meet  with  from  trusts?  Cut- 
throat competition.  What  is  the  action  of  trusts  in  such  cases  with 
regard  to  prices?  It  is  a  lowering  of  them  in  the  particular  locality 
where  the  small  hand  of  competition  has  arisen, —  lowering  them  below 
the  fair  profit  mark,  lowering  them  sometimes  below  actual  cost  of 
production,  lowering  them  at  any  rate  to  a  point  where  the  small 
competitors  will  eventually  be  driven  from  business.  Why  ?  Because 
they  have  dared  to  compete.  For  what  purpose  ?  In  order  to  kill  the 
competition  and  restore  the  old  prices,  or  even  to  exact  eventually, 
higher  prices  that  will  compensate  for  the  enforced  decrease  that  was 
made  to  kill  competition.  The  community  is  interested  in, —  yes, 
is  benefited  by  low  prices;  but  it  is  injured  by  sacrifice  sales,  by 
v  slaughters/  by  cut-throat  competition.  Sales  at  a  loss  soon  absorb 
the  limited  capital  of  the  weak  competitor,  but  the  loss  of  the  trust  on 
this  fractional  portion  of  its  business  is  more  than  made  up  by  its 
extortionate  prices  in  other  localities.  Sometimes  the  trust  reduces 
its  price  below  cost  in  all  localities.  It  is  the  party  with  the  largest 
purse  that  can  stand  this  cut-throat  competition  the  longest,  and  that 
party  is  always  the  trust. 

"The  kind  of  competition  just  outlined  is  in  its  nature,  at  least, 
conspiracy.  It  is  the  use  of  one's  property  not  directly  for  one's  own 
benefit  but  for  the  injury  of  another.  It  violates  the  spirit,  if  not 

617 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  letter,  of  the  law  against  conspiracy.  There  should  be  no  doubt 
as  to  whether  or  not  it  does.  If  doubt  exists,  statutes  should  be 
enacted  so  as  to  express  in  no  ambiguous  terms  their  prohibition  of 
such  competition.  It  should  be  declared  criminal,  so  that  the  strong 
arm  of  the  state  could  punish  the  wrong/' 

This  last  point  made  by  Mr.  Collier  is  of  vital  import,  and  should 
be  carefully  considered  by  those  who  hold  that  the  only  danger  which 
can  result  from  large  aggregations  of  capital  comes  from  the  special 
privileges  which  they  acquire,  and  that  if  competition  were  free,  pri- 
vate individuals  with  far  less  capital  could  successfully  hold  their  own. 
For  example,  we  find  even  so  clear  a  thinker  as  Bolton  Hall  saying,  in 
his  "  Free  America  " :  "  The  alleged  ability  of  trusts  to  charge  higher 
prices  merely  through  their  control  of  huge  capital  has  little  founda- 
tion in  fact.  The  great  department  stores,  with  investments  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars  each,  not  being  protected  by  class  legislation,  sell  goods 
cheaper  and  at  less  rates  of  profit  than  small  firms  doing  one-tenth 
as  much  business.  Without  the  protection  against  competition  af- 
forded by  various  special  privileges,  the  trusts  would  have  no  other 
advantage  than  that  of  greater  economy  and  efficiency  through  lessened 
expense  of  management  and  increased  business.  This  advantage 
would  enable  them  to  drive  out  smaller  competitors  only  when 'they' 
could  supply  goods  cheaper;  which  would  increase  the  demand  for 
labour,  increase  wealth  and  greatly  benefit  the  masses  who  consume 
things.  If  there  were  no  monopoly  (and  under  free  conditions  there 
could  be  none),  as  soon  as  a  trust  put  up  prices  new  competitors  would 
start  up,  and  prices  would  fall  to  near  the  cost  of  production. 

"  Trusts  are  able  to  extort  high  prices,  when  the  individuals  or  the 
corporations  composing  them  are  given  a  partial  or  complete  monopoly 
of  some  particular  industry.  This  is  always  through  some  law- 
granted  privilege,  such  as  a  public  franchise,  patent  right,  protection 
against  foreign  competition,  or,  most  important  of  all,  the  right  to 
hold  out  of  use  lands  from  which  rivals  might  produce  competing 
commodities. 

"  There  is  the  secret  of  the  trusts'  power.  Not  their  huge  aggrega- 
tions of  capital,  but  the  exclusive  privileges  given  to  some  trusts  make 
them  dangerous  and  oppressive." 

That  the  major  part  of  what  Mr.  Hall  says  in  this  quotation  is  true 
is  not  to  be  denied,  but  the  point  raised  by  Mr.  Collier  is  vital  and 
has  to  be  reckoned  with.  Again  and  again  have  small  concerns  been 
nailed  like  dried  beetles  to  the  wall  by  trusts  dropping  their  prices 
below  a  living  margin  of  profit,  and  in  some  cases  even  below  cost  of 
production.  Nor  is  this  all.  The  knowledge  that  it  can  and  will  be 
done  acts  as  a  powerful  deterrent  to  that  capital  which  otherwise 
might  compete.  During  the  great  coal-strike  the  duty  was  tempo- 
rarily removed  from  a  certain  grade  of  coal,  and  it  was  thought  by 
many  that  this  would  bring  the  trust  to  its  knees,  inasmuch  as  they 
believed  that  American  capital  would  immediately  secure  ships  and 
start  the  importation  of  foreign  coal.  Nothing  of  the  sort,  however, 
occurred  to  any  considerable  degree.  To  have  prepared  for  this  im- 
portation would  have  necessitated  a  very  considerable  outlay  of 
capital,  and  this  capital  had  not  the  slightest  guarantee  that  the  duty 

618 


THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

would  not  be  almost  immediately  reimposed.  The  result  was  as  the 
politicians  doubtless  foresaw  at  the  time,  that  the  coal-barons  would 
not  be  in  the  least  affected  by  it  in  their  nefarious  exploitation  of  the 
suffering  public.  A  duty  which  thus  raises  the  cost  of  a  commodity 
to  the  importer  and  so  handicaps  him  in  competing  with  home-pro- 
duced goods,  has  the  same  economic  effect  upon  the  importer  that 
would  be  experienced  by  a  domestic  producer  who  found  his  competi- 
tors able  to  make  goods  much  cheaper  than  he.  Thus  we  see  that  the 
ability  of  a  trust  to  enter  the  market,  establish  a  cut-throat  competi- 
tion and  sell  below  the  cost  of  production  for  the  purpose  of  ruining 
competitors  must  inevitably  act  as  a  deterrent  to  capitalists  who 
might  otherwise  compete  with  them.  It  is  all  one  to  the  would-be 
competitor  whether  a  duty  is  liable  to  tax  him  out  of  the  field,  whether 
his  business  rivals  can  actually  produce  the  goods  cheaper  than  he, 
or  whether  they  have  sufficient  financial  resources  to  sell  below  the  cost 
of  production. 


619 


CHAPTER  II 
THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

PART  II 


621 


'  Of  course,  our  Jay  Goulds  and  Commodore  Vanderbilts  are  exceed- 
ingly valuable  members  of  society.  But  even  their  genius  is  not  so  uni- 
versal but  that  we  may  find  occasional  employment  for  a  Washington  or 
a  Lincoln.  And,  let  me  assure  you  that  these  types  are  not  absolutely 
interchangeable.  If  you  are  seeking  a  great  soul  to  guide  you  through 
a  national  crisis,  or  to  uplift  you  in  noble  self-sacrifice,  it  is  barely  pos- 
sible that  you  may  be  disappointed  in  Jay  or  the  Commodore.  While, 
on  the  other  hand,  if  you  are  seeking  all  that  the  traffic  will  bear,  it  is 
possible  that  you  might  overlook  some  very  comfortable  dividends  by 
relying  too  much  upon  George  or  Abraham. 

'  But  it  has  been  shown  by  one  of  our  most  popular  orators,'  said 
Judge  Docket,  '  that  Shakspere  frittered  away  his  genius  on  Hamlets 
and  King  Lears  because  he  had  the  misfortune  to  live  before  the  days 
of  promoting  and  stock-jobbing,  and  that  if  born  a  few  centuries  earlier 
even  such  great  men  as  Mr.  Gates  and  Mr.  Schwab  might  have  been  re- 
stricted to  writing  epics  or  preaching  crusades.' 

'  There  is  something  in  that  view,'  said  Colonel  Lumpkin,  '  but  we 
must  not  push  it  too  far.  I  have  always  contended  that  '  Paradise  Lost ' 
and  the  balance  sheet  of  a  Trust  are  both  works  of  imagination;  but  I 
have  never  proposed  to  interpret  them  by  exactly  the  same  standards  of 
criticism.' 

John  M.  Palmer — The  Morals  of  Mammon,  McClure's,  July,  1906. 

'Should  we  resign?'  cries  old  Tom  Platt  — 

He  was  dining  with  old  Depew. 
'  No  I  will  cling  like  an  old  Torn  cat 

If  you  will  stick  like  glue.' 

And  a  song  they  sang,  these  senators  gray, 

It  was  short  and  sad  and  sere: 
'  We're  here,  because  we're  here,  because 

'  We're  here,  because  we're  here.' 

,  Creswell  McLaughlin  —  "  Song  of  the  Centurions." 

Life. 


622 


CHAPTEE  II 
COMPETITION— THE  WAR  OF  PEACE 

PAET  II 


N  "Our  Benevolent  Feudalism,"  Mr.  W.  H.  Ghent 
says  in  his  chapter,  "  Utopias  and  Other  Forecasts ; " 
"  We  have  also  the  Single-Taxers,  the  followers  of 
the  late  Henry  George,  who  are  quite  as  fertile  in 
prophecy  as  in  polemics.  They  dream  of  a  millen- 
nium through  the  imposition  of  a  tax  on  the  economic 
value  of  land,  and  the  abolition  of  all  other  taxes  and  duties  of  what- 
ever kind.  Free  competition  is  their  shibboleth;  and  it  is  no  less  the 
shibboleth  of  the  Neo-Jeffersonians,  the  followers  of  Mr.  Bryan. 
Except  for  the  fact  that  these  two  schools  are  somewhat  Jacobinical, 
their  general  notions  of  the  coming  society  do  not  differ  greatly  from 
the  notions  of  the  orthodox  economists.  All  of  these  desire,  or  think 
they  desire,  free  competition.  Arising  out  of  an  era  of  competition, 
Professor  Clark  sees  a  coming  order  wherein  the  rich  '  will  continually 
grow  richer,  and  the  multi-millionaires  will  approach  the  billion-dollar 
standard ;  but  the  poor  will  be  far  from  growing  poorer  ...  It 
may  be  that  the  wages  of  a  day  will  take  him  (the  worker)  to  the 
mountains,  and  those  of  a  hundred  days  will  carry  him  through  a 
European  tour/ 

"  The  dreadful  spectre  of  monopoly,  however,  arises  to  threaten 
these  visions.  Most  of  the  orthodox  economists  acknowledge  a  possi- 
ble danger  from  it,  but  the  Single-Taxers  and  Jeffersonians  are  sure 
it  is  a  real  and  growing  menace.  Says  Professor  Clark,  '  Between  us 
and  the  regime  of  monopoly  there  ranges  itself  a  whole  series  of  pos- 
sible measures  stopping  short  of  Socialism,  and  yet  efficient  enough  to 
preserve  our  free  economic  system.'  It  is  a  '  free  economic  system ' 
which  all  these  are  bent  on  having, —  the  economists  determined  on 
preserving  it,  the  others  on  establishing  it;  for  the  Single-Taxers, 
with  their  bete  noire  of  private  ownership  of  land,  and  the  Jeffer- 
sonians, with  their  betes  noires  of  railroads  and  trusts,  deny  that  our 
economic  system  is  at  present  '  free/  Doubtless  they  are  both  right ; 
but  if  there  be  one  fact  in  the  realm  of  political  economy  fairly  es- 
tablished, it  is  that  the  era  of  competition,  whether  free  or  unfree,  is 
dead,  and  the  means  of  its  resurrection  are  unknown  to  political 
science. 

"  With  old  men  the  dream  of  its  revival  is  warrantable,  for  it  springe 
from  that  retrospective  mood  of  age  which  gilds  past  times,  and  that 
attendant  mood  which  recreates  and  projects  them  into  some  imagined 
future  •  but  with  the  younger  generation  visions  of  free  competition  are 

623 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

but  as  children's  dreams  of  wild  forests  and  shaggy  animals  —  the 
atavistic  reminders  of  experiences  unknown  to  the  individual,  though 
knit  into  the  fibre  of  the  race.  The  subject  is  one  far  better  suited  to 
the  domain  of  a  psychologist  like  Dr.  Stanley  Hall  than  to  the  scope 
of  this  book. 

"  Finally,  we  have  the  Socialists,  with  their  prophecy  of  the  early 
establishment  of  a  cooperative  commonwealth.  It  is  a  noble  picture, 
in  its  best  expression  based  upon  the  extreme  of  faith  in  the  coming 
generations  of  mankind,  however  its  draughtsmen  may  criticise  the 
wisdom  and  justice  of  the  present.  There  is  no  doubt  that  now  a 
ground-swell  of  Socialist  conviction  moves  like  a  tide  '  of  waters  un- 
withstood/  everywhere  one  notices  its  influences.  Even  so  conserva- 
tive a  scholar  as  Professor  Henry  Davies,  lecturer  on  the  history  of 
philosophy  in  Yale  University,  can  write,  '  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
next  form  of  political  activity  to  claim  attention  is  the  socialistic,  as  it 
is  the  most  popular  and  serious  of  any  now  before  the  educated  minds 
of  this  country.'  Its  propaganda  is  carried  on  untiringly,  and  that 
its  results  are  feared  is  evident  from  the  equal  aggressiveness  of  a 
counter-propaganda  maintained  by  the  ingenious  defenders  of  the 
present  regime  against  the  whole  form  and  spirit  of  Socialism." 

From  the  above  quotation  one  would  naturally  infer  that  the  posi- 
tions of  the  Single-Taxer  and  of  the  Socialist  in  this  matter  of  compe- 
tition were  widely  at  variance  with  each  other,  and,  indeed,  such  is 
generally  believed  to  be  the  case.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the 
advanced  Socialists  and  the  ablest  Single-Taxers  have  very  little 
quarrel  in  this  respect.  The  Socialist  says  abolish  competition;  be- 
cause it  is  cruel,  wasteful  and  unphilosophical.  The  Single-Taxer  says 
free  competition,  because  the  thing  now  called  competition  is  cruel, 
wasteful  and  unphilosophical  and  is  not  as  a  matter  of  fact  real  com- 
petition at  all. 

In  Bellamy's  "  Looking  Backward  "  it  was  suggested  that  the  supply 
and  demand  of  labourers  in  the  various  kinds  of  productive  work 
should  be  regulated  by  increasing  the  hours  of  work  in  those  pursuits 
which  were  over-supplied  with  applicants,  or  decreasing  the  hours  in 
those  avocations  which  were  not  otherwise  sufficiently  attractive  to 
labourers,  until  such  time  as  the  supply  and  demand  should  be  equal. 
This  is  a  use  of  the  competitive  principle  in  labour  for  the  purpose 
of  determining  the  just  exchange  value  of  products.  When  an  avoca- 
tion was  so  desirable  that  too  many  labourers  competed  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  engage  in  it,  this  socialistic  writer  advocated  making  it 
progressively  less  desirable  until  the  balance  was  restored.  Thus  we 
see  that  a  certain  use  of  the  competitive  principle  is  not  repugnant  to 
all  Socialists.  The  Single-Taxer,  on  the  other  hand,  denies  that  we 
now  have  real  competition  in  any  sense  which  he  is  willing  to  accept, 
and  when  he  has  carefully  stated  what  the*"  free  competition  "  is  which 
he  desires,  it  is  found  that  its  chief  function  is  as  a  measure  of  values, 
and  that  it  is  shorn  of  all  those  attributes  which  the  Socialist  most 
reprobates. 

Henry  George  said :  "  There  is  no  measure  of  value  among  men 
save  competition  or  the  higgling  of  the  market." 

Speaking  of  this  same  competition,  Mr.  Louis  F.  Post,  one  of  the 

624 


THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

leading  American  Single-Taxers,  says,  in  his  booklet  entitled  "  Mo- 
nopoly and  Competition  " :  "  It  is  only  by  this  means  that  workers 
can  measure  their  work  economically  so  as  to  exchange  it  among 
themselves  fairly  and  justly.  Each  understands  and  can  appraise 
the  irksomeness  of  the  labour  he  himself  does,  better  than  he  can 
understand  or  appraise  that  of  the  person  with  whom  he  contemplates 
an  exchange.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  he  should  endeavour  to 
adjust  his  trades  from  the  view  point  of  the  irksomeness  of  his  own 
labour,  rather  than  from  that  of  the  irksomeness  of  another's  labour. 
Yet  each  is  checked  from  appraising  his  own  labour  exorbitantly, 
by  others  who  would  compete  if  he  demanded  a  larger  return  than 
that  for  which  they  were  willing  to  endure  the  same  degree  of  irk- 
someness. And  if  all  are  free,  with  equal  access  to  natural  and 
social  opportunities,  this  competition  can  produce  but  one  effect  — 
an  equilibrium  of  exchange  at  a  point  at  which  neither  party  to  the 
trade  gets  more  nor  gives  less  than  is  just.  While  it  is  true  that 
parties  to  trades  may  be  actuated  by  selfish  motives  in  their  compe- 
tition, it  is  equally  true  that  they  may  be  actuated  by  unselfish  mo- 
tives. And  be  their  motives  good  or  bad,  the  net  result  of  their  com- 
petition, if  they  compete  in  freedom,  is  a  just  equilibrium  or  value. 
It  is  justice,  not  greed,  to  which  competition  really  ministers. 

"  But  under  existing  arrangements  competition  is  not  free.  This  is 
a  second  reason  why  some  thoughtful  men  have  been  misled  into  sup- 
posing that  competition  is  neither  useful  nor  right.  Monopoly  having 
intervened,  all  competition  is  affected  by  it;  so  that  what  we  are 
accustomed  to  regard  as  competition  is  not  true  competition  at  all, 
but  at  the  best  only  jug-handled  competition."  .  .  . 

"  It  is  monopoly,  not  its  antithesis,  competition,  that  distorts,  dis- 
arranges and  demoralises  our  industrial  system."  .  .  . 

"  Money  obscures  the  fact  that  all  legitimate  trading  —  economically 
legitimate  we  mean  —  consists  essentially  of  exchanges  of  labour  for 
labour;  the  establishment  of  monopolies  enables  some  men  to  get 
money  without  labouring.  Between  the  two,  the  real  character  of 
competition  in  trading  is  completely  hidden  from  common  observa- 
tion, and  also  from  a  good  deal  of  observation  that  is  not  common. 
Trade  comes  to  be  in  appearance  an  exchange  of  something  for  money, 
and  competition  to  be  a  struggle  between  those  who  haven't  money 
to  get  money  from  those  who  have  it  The  whole  social  mechanism 
is  turned  upside  down  and  inside  out.  But  it  is  the  abolition  of 
monopoly,  not  of  its  opposite,  competition,  that  would  correct  this. 
If  monopoly  were  abolished,  we  should  soon  distinctly  see,  in  spite  of 
the  obscurity  which. the  use  of  money  introduces,  that  trade  consists 
essentially  in  exchanges  of  labour  for  labour,  and  that  competition 
is  the  natural  and  only  just  regulator  of  values  in  these  exchanges. 
For  if  monopoly  were  abolished,  none  would  get  products  of  labour 
except  by  labouring,  and  each  would  get  these  products  in  proportion 
to  the  usefulness  of  his  labour. 

"  The  true  work  before  us,  the  work  that  will  count  both  in  the 
doing  and  in  the  fruition,  is  to  abolish  monopoly  and  restore  free- 
dom to  competition.     Where  monopoly  is  inevitable,  as  in  water  pup- 
plies  for  cities  and  the  like,  the  service  that  is  subject  to  it  must  be 
40  625 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

assumed  by  the  public,  to  the  end  that  in  other  vocations  competition 
may  be  freed;  private  monopoly  in  anything  tends  to  destroy  compe- 
tition in  all  things.  Freedom  of  competition  must  be  the  aim  in 
every  movement.  The  other  direction  leads  to  monopoly.  To  these 
two  the  choice  is  confined.  There  is  no  middle  ground.  Instead  of 
trying  to  guard  men  in  their  economic  relations  with  a  legal  net- 
work, let  us  set  men  free  —  free  to  labour  as  they  will,  free  to  trade 
where  they  will,  and  free  to  dispose  of  what  they  earn  as  suits  them 
best  —  so  that  each  can  guard  himself  in  his  economic  relations. 

"  If  that  is  desirable,  and  to  us  it  seems  the  only  thing  worth  fight- 
ing for,  then  we  must  achieve  it  by  making  competition  free.  Free 
competition,  and  that  alone,  can  secure  economic  freedom.  Without  it 
we  must  have  monopoly.  And  an  economic  state  organised  upon 
monopoly  principles  would  be  intolerable,  whether  governed  by  a  trust 
magnate,  a  political  boss,  a  trade -union  leader,  a  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple, or  even  the  most  amiable  altruist  who  ever  loved  his  fellow- 
men." 

Without  at  present  entering  into  the  merits  of  these  views  we  wish 
to  point  out  the  fact  that  competition,  as  re-defined  by  the  Single- 
Taxer,  is  not  at  all  the  thing  which  we  commonly  mean  by  that  term, 
since  we  are  informed  that  real  competition  is  free  competition,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  are  told,  on  the  other,  that  we  have  never  as  yet 
enjoyed  it.  This  is  saying  that  we  have  never  had  competition, 
whereas  the  average  layman  has  long  been  persuaded  that  our  system 
contains  enough  and  to  spare  of  that  article. 

The  Socialist,  on  the  other  hand,  is  in  arms  against  the  present 
competitive  regime  and  cannot,  of  course,  be  in  arms  against  some- 
thing which  does  not  exist,  which  is  to  say  by  implication  that  he 
cannot  be  levelling  at  that  competition  which  the  Single-Taxer  ad- 
vocates. In  short,  the  competition  which  the  Socialist  objects  to,  the 
Single-Taxer  also  repudiates  by  denying  that  it  is  the  real  thing, 
while  the  chief  use  of  the  free  competition  which  the  Single-Taxer 
advocates  has  already,  as  we  have -pointed  out,  been  recognised  by 
Socialists  as  a  serviceable  expedient  for  arriving  at  a  just  estimate  of 
exchange  values. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  the  supposed  great  difference  between  the 
Single-Taxer  and  Socialist  in  regard  to  competition  is  not  much  of  a 
difference  after  all;  in  point  of  fact,  the  whole  controversy  arising 
from  the  Single-Taxer  re-defining  the  term  to  mean  something  quite 
different  from  its  colloquial  signification,  while  the  Socialist  adheres  to 
that  in  common  use. 

In  his  work  entitled  "  The  Cost  of  Competition,"  Sidney  A.  Reeve 
gives  a  somewhat  lengthy  definition  of  the  term  competition.  We 
are  at  a  loss  to  see  why  this  economic  factor  should  require  an  in- 
volved and  intricate  definition.  The  "  Standard  Dictionary  "  is  not  a 
text-book,  but  its  definition  of  this  word  succinctly  states  the  real 
essence  of  the  thing,  to  wit,  "Competition,  the  act  or  proceeding  of 
striving  for  something  that  is  sought  by  another  at  the  same  time ;  a 
contention  of  two  or  more  for  the  same  object." 

In  his  "The  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Adam  Smith,  the  greatest  of 
political  economists,  gives  the  following  clear  exposition  of  the  effect 

626 


THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

of  competition.  "  The  actual  price  at  which  any  commodity  is  com- 
monly sold  is  called  its  market  price.  It  may  either  be  above,  or 
below,  or  exactly  the  same  with  its  natural  price. 

"  The  market  price  of  every  particular  commodity  is  regulated  by 
the  proportion  between  the  quantity  which  is  actually  brought  to 
market,  and  the  demand  of  those  who  are  willing  to  pay  the  natural 
price  of  the  commodity,  or  the  whole  value  of  the  rent,  labour,  and 
profit,  which  must  be  paid  in  order  to  bring  it  thither.  Such  people 
may  be  called  the  effectual  demanders,  and  their  demand  the  effec- 
tual demand;  since  it  may  be  sufficient  to  effectuate  the  bringing  of 
the  commodity  to  market.  It  is  different  from  the  absolute  demand. 
A  very  poor  man  may  be  said  in  some  sense  to  have  a  demand  for  a 
coach  and  six;  he  might. like  to  have  it;  but  his  demand  is  not  an 
effectual  demand,  as  the  commodity  can  never  be  brought  to  market 
in  order  to  satisfy  it. 

"  When  the  quantity  of  any  commodity  which  is  brought  to  market 
falls  short  of  the  effectual  demand,  all  those  who  are  willing  to  pay 
the  whole  value  of  the  rent,  wages,  and  profit,  which  must  be  paid 
in  order  to  bring  it  thither,  cannot  be  supplied  with  the  quantity 
which  they  want.  Bather  than  want  it  altogether,  some  of  them  will 
be  willing  to  give  more.  A  competition  will  immediately  begin  among 
them,  and  the  market  price  will  rise  more  or  less  above  the  natural 
price,  according  as  either  the  greatness  of  the  deficiency,  or  the 
wealth  and  wanton  luxury  of  the  competitors,  happens  to  animate 
more  or  less  the  eagerness  of  the  competition.  Among  competitors 
of  equal  wealth  and  luxury  the  same  deficiency  will  generally  occasion 
a  more  or  less  eager  competition,  according  as  the  acquisition  of  the 
commodity  happens  to  be  of  more  or  less  importance  to  them.  Hence 
the  exorbitant  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life  during  the  blockade  of 
a  town  or  in  a  famine. 

"When  the  quantity  brought  to  market  exceeds  the  effectual  de- 
mand, it  cannot  be  all  sold  to  those  who  are  willing  to  pay  the  whole 
value  of  the  rent,  wages,  and  profit,  which  must  be  paid  in  order  to 
bring  it  thither.  Some  part  must  be  sold  to  those  who  are  willing  to 
pay  less,  and  the  low  price  which  they  give  for  it  must  reduce  the  price 
of  the  whole.  The  market  price  will  sink  more  or  less  below  the 
natural  price,  according  as  the  greatness  of  the  excess  increases  more 
or  less  the  competition  of  the  sellers,  or  according  as  it  happens  to 
be  more  or  less  important  to  them  to  get  immediately  rid  of  the 
commodity.  The  same  excess  in  the  importation  of  perishable,  will 
occasion  a  much  greater  competition  than  in  that  of  durable  com- 
modities; in  the  importation  of  oranges,  for  example,  than  in  that 
of  old  iron. 

"  When  the  quantity  brought  to  market  is  just  sufficient  to  supply 
the  effectual  demand  and  no  more,  the  market  price  naturally  comes 
to  be  either  exactly,  or  as  nearly  as  can  be  judged  of,  the  same  with 
the  natural  price.  The  whole  quantity  upon  hand  can  be  disposed  of 
for  this  price,  and  cannot  be  disposed  of  for  more.  The  competition 
of  the  different  dealers  obliges  them  all  to  accept  of  this  price,  but 
does  not  oblige  them  to  accept  of  less." 

We  see  therefore,  that  Adam  Smith  realised  what  we  have  already 

627 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

pointed  out,  that,  when  competition  secured  justice  by  establishing 
just  exchange  values  for  commodities,  it  did  so  by  such  a  balancing 
of  itself  upon  the  buying  and  selling  sides  of  the  equation  as  to  render 
these  two  parts  of  competition  mutually  annihilatory. 

In  Mr.  Eeeve's  "  The  Cost  of  Competition/'  already  referred  to, 
he  thus  epitomises  the  cost  to  the  community :  "  In  short,  competi- 
tion does  harm  in  three  distinct  ways : 

(1)  It  robs  and  starves,  and  in  that  way  degenerates,  the  individual 
producer. 

(2)  It  perverts  and  corrupts  the  individual  bartered  opportunity 
for  ethical  development. 

(3)  It  establishes  standards  and  customs  within  the  community 
which  react  to  the  detriment  of  every  citizen,  without  regard  to 
whether  he  belongs  to  the  bargaining  or  the  producing  classes." 

Mr.  Reeve  devotes  a  separate  chapter  each  to  "  The  Cost  to  the 
Losers  "  and  "  The  Cost  to  the  Winners."  In  the  former  he  says, — 
"  At  the  first  glance  any  attempt  at  a  proper  measure  of  the  ethical 
cost  of  the  competitive  struggle  to  the  classes  which  lose  in  the  visible, 
economic  sense,  the  classes  of  the  starvation-wage  and  the  submerged 
tenth,  seems  a  hopeless  one.  It  is  not  alone  that  we  have  no  yard- 
stick for  ethical  losses  or  gains.  It  is  that  the  quantities  are  stupen- 
dous, unimaginable,  to  be  appreciated  by  experience  alone.  Let  one 
wander  but  briefly  where  these  classes  are  to  be  found,  not  alone  in 
the  slums,  where  he  who  runs  may  read,  but  in  the  institutional  whirl- 
pools into  which  the  flotsam  of  social  turmoil  is  gathered  a  while 
before  it  disappears.  Let  one  but  glance  into  the  almshouse,  the 
prison,  the  hospital,  the  lunatic  asylum  and  the  morgue.  What  visi- 
ble trace  is  there  of  aught  ethical  except  loss,  of  simple  lack  of  ethical 
impulse  or  of  understanding  of  what  it  may  be,  of  mere  bodily  shell 
from  which  all  moral  life  has  long  since  been  eaten  out,  but  which 
still  carries  the  imprint  of  God's  likeness  until  the  final  collapse. 
That  is  sad  work,  discouraging  to  most  observers.  But  it  is  not  the 
saddest;  for  there  the  struggle  is  almost  over.  For  a  while  life  con- 
tinues, turbulent  or  passive,  as  the  chance  organism  may  dictate ;  but 
the  turbulence  is  not  that  of  striving,  the  passivity  is  not  that  of  peace. 
Mere  bodily  instinct,  of  hunger,  of  resentment,  of  affection,  remains, 
aping  in  phantom  grotesqueness  the  remembrance  of  days  when  de- 
sire and  contest  and  love  and  honour  were  real.  That  is  all.  It  is 
almost  always  repulsive,  sometimes  hideous;  but  it  is  seldom  very 
painful. 

"  But  look  further  and  more  closely,  not  where  poverty  openly 
flaunts  its  begging  needs  or  cloaks  its  shame  in  congested  numbers,  but 
where  it  hides  its  stern  reality  under  a  brave  exterior.  Look  at  the 
unnumbered,  unknown  millions  fighting  for  life  and  pretending  not; 
counting  each  ounce  of  strength  and  each  penny  of  cash  for  its 
weight  against,  not  always  sheer  hunger  and  cold,  but  against  dis- 
ease and  domestic  burden,  against  that  deterioration  which  comes 
from  monotony  of  existence,  against  childhood's  lack  of  opportunity 
or  age's  lack  of  comfort,  against  that  loss  of  self-respect  which  comes 
from  loss  of  good  appearance  and  that  proper  pride  in  social  posi- 
tion which  the  self-satisfied  alternately  appeal  to  for  further  stimulus 

628 


THE   WAR   OF    PEACE 

for  striving  and  condemn  as  extravagantly  wasteful!  There  is  the 
pain!  There  allot 'your  sympathy!  It  is  not  against  the  stunning 
violence  of  sudden  death  that  we  need  to  pray,  0  Lord,  nor  against 
the  comatose  convulsions  of  virulent  disease!  It  is  for  the  long- 
drawn  torture  of  life  without  growth,  the  hopeless  leaden  pain  of 
sensibility  not  yet  killed  nor  yet  permitted  wholesome  outlet,  of 
numberless  days  dragging  into  numberless  weeks  and  months  and 
years,  each  absolutely  alike,  each  denied  the  ear-mark  of  little  tri- 
umphs or  even  of  signal  failure,  devoid  alike  of  the  happiness  of 
love  fed  and  of  the  pleasure  of  hate  gratified.  That  is  the  life  which 
is  worse  than  the  rack,  which  beggars  Tantalus;  and  he  (or  she,  for 
so  many  of  them  are  women,  whom  the  strong  of  the  land  ought  to 
be  proud  of  protecting)  who  walks  its  way  without  impatience  of 
spirit,  or  sin,  or  crime,  walks  indeed  with  beautiful  feet.  They  are 
the  brave  poor  things  who  deserve  the  Victorian  cross.  For  it  is  they 
who  earn  the  true  starvation-wage." 

The  latter  chapter  he  appropriately  heads  with  the  following  quo- 
tations :  "  For  what  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world 
and  shall  lose  his  own  soul  ?  "  Mark  8 :  36. 

"For  I  say,  this  is  death  and  the  sole  death,  when  a  man's  loss 
comes  to  him  from  his  gain."  Browning. 

.Subsequently  he  says :  "  To  succeed  in  business  is  to  make  all  you 
can  out  of  your  neighbour.  *  What  the  traffic  will  bear '  is  the  only- 
limiting  rule  as  to  high  prices  in  the  commercial  world.  There  is 
none  other  voiced  by  either  church  or  state, —  though  the  true  faith 
speaks  up  about  it  in  no  uncertain  tone.  But  then,  that  is  religion, 
and  it  and  business  have  never  been  known  to  mix  well.  The  law 
mumbles  something  about  *  six  per  cent.' ;  about  as  effectively  as 
might  be  expected  from  an  institution  which  has  abandoned  all  pre- 
tense to  foundation  upon  moral  principle  and  has  planted  its  banner 
upon  precedent  and  a  percentage.  Let  one  only  be  so  skillful  as  to 
cause  his  twelve  per  cent.,  or  his  thirty  per  cent.,  to  look  merely  like 
five,  upon  most  superficial  inspection,  and  he  receives  the  plaudits 
of  the  teachers,  the  primates,  the  bench  and  the  well-to-do. 

'  The  court  awards  it  and  the  law  allows  it/  Only  the  dim  multi- 
tudes grow  a  little  more  restive,  murmur  confusedly,  and  feel  about 
their  countable  ribs;  knowing  not  how  the  pound  of  flesh  has  left 
them,  but  only  that  it  is  gone.  Also,  that  more  than  one  drop  of 
life-blood  has  gone  with  it. 

"  But  the  shameful  part  of  it  all  is  that,  in  spite  of  this  wide  belief 
in  the  virtue  of  commercial  competition,  each  actor  in  competitive 
effort  is  conscious,  cannot  help  being  conscious,  to  some  quite  appre- 
ciable degree,  of  what  he  is  doing.  He  knows  that  his  effort  is  to 
get  command  of  the  largest  market  at  the  highest  price  compatible 
therewith,  and  that  any  increment  in  either  comes  from  his  neigh- 
bour's pocket  and  is  to  the  latter  a  loss.  He  knows  that  this  is  the 
antithesis  of  unselfishness,  of  Christianity.  He  either  feels  the  sink- 
ing of  his  self-respect  as  he  does  it  or  else  he  has  grown  callous.  He 
retreats,  very  naturally,  behind  the  defence  that  failure  of  selfish 
effort  would  only  reverse  the  situation,  not  remedy  it;  that  then  the 

629 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

other  man  would  just  as  gleefully  and  just  as  wickedly  pocket  the 
defendant's  loss. 

"The  defence  stands  good  as  an  indictment  of  the  institution  of 
barter,  but  not  as  freeing  the  barterer  from  blame.  He  has  heard, 
perhaps  the  day  before,  the  sermons  of  Him  who  taught  the  return 
of  good  for  evil,  who  taught  a  better  rule  than  the  golden  one: 
Do  to  your  neighbour  better  than  you  would  be  done  by.  It  is  not 
sufficient  to  sing  amens  to  these  doctrines  on  Sunday  and  to  sub- 
scribe to  the  Charity  Ball  on  Monday.  All  through  the  week  let 
him  remember  his  Sunday's  attitude,  which  he  felt  to  be  so  elevating 
and  proper,  in  his  daily  transactions  with  all  men.  He  will,  of 
course,  find  it  impossible  of  incorporation  into  his  business  acts.  But 
it  will  come  well  home  to  him,  if  he  but  try  it  conscientiously,  that 
it  is  impossible,  that  profit-seeking  variation  of  prices  and  the  prac- 
tice of  Christianity  are  hopelessly  incompatible.  If  he  makes  but  the 
slightest  pretence  to  consistency  he  will  see  plainly  the  alternative 
before  him:  To  retire  from  competitive  business  or  to  retire  from 
avowed  Christianity."  .  .  . 

"  All  this  aside,  however,  does  competition  pay,  without  regard  to 
conscience,  even  when  one  wins?  Does  it  bring  peace  of  mind,  or 
health,  or  leisure,  or  insurance  against  any  of  the  physical  or  mental 
ills  of  life?  Does  it  create  a  community-environment,  visible  or 
invisible,  of  the  sort  ideal  in  modern  civilisation,  a  thing  of  peace, 
beauty  and  harmony? 

"  The  business-man  is  always  worried.  He  is  always  overworked. 
His  family  scarcely  knows  him.  He  lacks  leisure  and  the  aesthetic 
appreciation  which  goes  with  it  almost  as  thoroughly  as  does  the 
labourer.  One  of  the  editors  of  one  of  our  best  monthlies  once  re- 
marked :  '  I  never  knew  a  man  truly  lovable,  to  the  core,  but  that 
he  was  a  man  of  leisure/  The  business-man's  leisure  never  comes, 
except  with  competence  and  retirement.  To  many  men  these  never 
come.  When  they  do  they  find  him  broken  in  health,  chained  to  com- 
mercialism of  thought  and  taste  and  lost  forever  to  true  amusement." 

Space  does  not  permit  more  than  a  passing  allusion  to  the  chief 
costs*  inflicted  upon  society  by  our  present  competitive  system. 
Whether  or  not  these  costs  have  counterbalancing  amenities  may 
be  subject  for  argument,  but  that  the  system  inflicts  upon  society 
untold  hardships  cannot  be  denied  by  any  truthful  person  with  eyes 
to  see,  ears  to  hear  and  heart  to  feel. 

The  following  press  note  speaks  for  itself :  "  Fort  Gaines,  Ga., 
Dec.  28,  1904. —  The  farmers  and  merchants  of  Clay  county  met  to- 
day, decided  to  burn  their  share  of  the  2,000,000  bales  of  surplus 
cotton  and  help  restore  prices.  A  starter  was  made  to-day  when  a 
bonfire  was  made  of  cotton  on  the  streets  of  Port  Gaines.  The  object 
is  to  show  that  the  farmers  are  ready  to  sacrifice  a  few  bales  for  the 
benefit  of  the  masses.  Excitement  is  increasing." 

Commenting  on  this  under  the  caption  "  Wanton  Waste,"  "  The 
Vanguard "  says :  "  Such  a  criminal,  such  a  shameful  thing  as  the 
above  could  only  happen  under  the  sanctified  capitalist  system !  The 
people  need  clothes,  but  what  of  that!  The  market  must  be  kept 
strong!  Under  capitalism  cotton  is  not  grown  because  the  people 

630 


THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

need  cotton,  but  simply  because  it  can  be  sold  in  the  market.  You 
ought  to  be  proud  of  such  a  crazy,  criminal  system ! " 

Our  readers  will  remember  a  similar  bit  of  history  which  occurred 
in  Boston  Harbour,  when,  despite  the  fact  that  thousands  of  poor 
were  hungry  and  other  thousands  who  were  sick  and  invalided  were 
unable  to  purchase  fruit,  cargoes  of  oranges  were  dumped  into  Boston 
Harbour  in  order  to  hold  up  the  market-price.  Is  it  any  wonder  in 
view  of  such  facts  that  men  like  Edmund  Kelly,  M.  A.,  of  Columbia 
University,  say:  "Commercialism  makes  Christianity  impossible; 
the  attempt  to  reconcile  them  can  lead  to  but  one  single  result  — 
hypocrisy.  Social-Democracy,  on  the  contrary,  makes  Christianity 
possible ;  moreover,  it  is  the  only  political  system  that  does." 

Leaving  out  of  the  question  all  those  greater  evils  pertaining  to  the 
ethical  plane,  and  coming  down  to  the  sheer  material  wastefulness 
of  the  existing  competitive  regime,  we  need  but  a  moment's  reflec- 
tion to  perceive  how  egregiously  and  hopelessly  foolish  is  the  whole 
scheme. 

John  Smith  pays  out  good  money  to  make  the  public  believe  his 
goods  better  than  Tom  Jones's.  Tom  Jones  buys  expensive  adver- 
tising for  the  purpose  of  creating  precisely  the  reverse  impression, 
and  all  this  is  charged  up  to  the  consumer  who  pays  for  it  as  a  part 
of  the  cost  of  production.  Salesmen  run  up  and  down  the  land  like 
frightened  ants  in  the  wild  hope  to  best  their  competitors.  Whole- 
sale lying  is  indulged  in.  Every  effort  is  made  to  cheapen  the  labour 
cost,  and  when  that  has  been  depressed  to  a  point  which  often  yields 
the  worker  less  than  a  living  wage,  the  avaricious  manufacturer  at- 
tacks the  problem  at  the  other  end  and  begins  to  cut  the  quality.  It 
does  not  matter  in  the  least  how  impure  are  his  goods,  he  will  wave 
his  arms  and  vociferously  shout  through  the  agency  of  the  press, 
bill-boards  and  car  "  ads,"  that  his  goods  are  absolutely  pure,  of  the 
highest  grade  and  "  made  on  honour."  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that 
the  success  of  a  patent  medicine  is  all  but  entirely  in  the  advertising. 
A  Massachusetts  man  has  made  a  considerable  fortune  by  the  sale,  as 
a  specific  for  La  Grippe,  of  what  is  said  on  good  authority  to  be  but 
sugar  and  water,  and  many  other  like  instances  could  easily  be  pointed 
out. 

In  his  "  What's  What,"  Harry  Quilter  says,  regarding  advertising 
in  America  and  England :  "  The  amount  expended  on  advertise- 
ments in  England  and  America  is  infinitely  greater  than  that  of  con- 
tinental nations,  and  Americans,  as  might  be  expected,  are  far  bolder 
and  more  extravagant  in  their  advertisements  than  their  English 
brethren ;  in  fact  they  have  in  many  ways  taught  us  how  to  advertise ; 
taught  us  also  some  lessons  in  advertising  which  we  have  refused  to 
learn.  For  instance,  we  have  at  present  declined  to  paint  the  surface 
of  our  cliffs  with.  Blacking  advertisements;  to  name  towns  'Rasp- 
berry Jam '  or  similar  titles,  to  enhance  the  sale  of  a  certain  maker's 
preserves,  or  to  cut  huge  diagrams  out  of  the  turf  of  our  Downs, 
representing  a  favourite  bicycle  or  an  unparalleled  soap.  We  have 
not  refused  to  spoil  the  fields  near  London  with  huge  boards  recom- 
mending pills,  blacking  and  blue-bag,  but  that  is  a  comparatively 
innocuous  proceeding.  Advertisements  in  newspapers  are  much 

631 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

dearer  in  America  than  in  England,  a  comparatively  small  portion  of 
the  paper  being  devoted  thereto,  and  for  other  reasons.  In  adver- 
tising, the  smaller  the  space  devoted  to  advertisements  by  any  paper 
the  greater  the  cost,  is  a  general  rule.  There  is  a  peculiar  blatancy 
about  American  advertisements,  which  is  rarely  to  be  met  with  in 
England,  and  which,  like  the  indecent  Paris  poster,  is  at  present 
repugnant  to  the  feelings  of  our  people.  The  great  mass  of  English 
advertisers  are  content  to  repeat  a  simple  announcement  of  their 
commodities  a  certain  number  of  times,  or  even  the  name  of  the 
advertising  firm,  as  who  should  say  '  Hudson's  Soap '  without  inter- 
mission for  half  an  hour;  and  the  strange  part  of  it  is  that  this 
idiotic  repetition  does  frequently  effect  its  purpose,  and  after  we 
have  been  told  a  thousand  times,  that  *  Taylor's '  remove  furniture, 
we  are  apt  to  think  that  they  remove  it  better  than  other  people. 
Or  at  all  events  that  we  may  as  well  go  there  as  anywhere  else." 

Since  P.  T.  Barnum  originated  the  use  of  posters  in  1840,  this 
branch  of  advertising  has  been  steadily  growing  to  its  present  pro- 
portions. 

In  "  Modern  Advertising  Methods,"  by  Hrolf  Wisby,  published  in 
"  The  Independent "  for  February  4,  1904,  we  find  the  following : 
"  Few  people  have  any  idea  of  the  power  wielded  by  advertising  at 
the  present  day,  and  fewer  still  are  acquainted  with  the  modern  tend- 
encies that  guide  the  expenditure  of  this  power.  A  conservative 
and  well-qualified  estimate  places  the  total  annual  outlay  for  ad- 
vertising in  the  United  States  alone  at  $500,000,000,  and  of  this 
enormous  sum  no  less  than  75  per  cent,  is  in  payment  for  space  in 
newspapers,  magazines  and  trade  journals.  In  other  words,  we  spend 
as  much  on  advertising  as  Eussia,  Germany,  France,  Austria.-Hun- 
gary  and  .Spain  spend  on  their  armies  every  year.  Huge  as  the  ex- 
penditure is,  it  is  not  in  undue  proportion  to  the  value  of  business 
done,  being  little  less  than  5  per  cent,  of  the  total  annual  sales  of 
the  United  States.  Assuming  that  two  billion  dollars  are  spent  an- 
nually for  advertising  in  all  countries,  it  will  be  seen  that  our  share 
as  the  leading  nation  in  publicity  methods  is  one-fourth  of  the  total 
amount  spent. 

"  The  newspapers  occupy  the  most  prominent  position  in  the  adver- 
tising arena.  Their  phenomenal  growth  from  2,526  modest  speci- 
mens in  1850  to  a  round  25,000  at  the  present  time  does  not,  however, 
give  any  idea  of  the  growth  of  the  advertising  they  contain.  The 
number  of  copies  annually  printed  is  about  4  billions,  and  counting 
an  average  of  100  '  ads '  to  each  copy,  we  face  the  gigantic  number 
of  400,000  billion  impressions  of  '  ads '  made  yearly  by  the  printing 
press.  The  energy  here  put  forth  in  print  is  so  exceptionally  large 
that  we  need  not  consider  the  few  hundred  billion  impressions  taken 
by  the  magazines  and  trade  organs.  Of  this  energy  how  much  is 
wasted  in  unsuccessful  effort  and  how  much  by  competition?  Fig- 
ures will  never  be  able  to  tell  the  story.  It  is.  purely  a  matter  of 
judgment  as  to  what  constitutes  waste  and  what  harmful  competi- 
tive publicity,  but  the  modern  tendency  is  to  have  no  fixed  rules;  to 
make  each  case  a  case  for  itself.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  however, 
competitive  advertising  is  more  likely  to  result  in  waste  rather  than 

632 


THE   WAR   OF   PEACE 

in  benefit,  as  it  only  increases  the  cost  of  putting  the  goods  into  the 
hands  of  customers  without  improving  the  quality  of  the  goods." 

In  another  portion  of  the  same  article  the  author  says:  "While 
2y2  per  cent,  of  the  sales  amount  is  looked  upon  as  being  the  ideal 
rate,  5  per  cent,  is  more  frequently  spent  nowadays,  and  there  are 
instances  when  it  has  paid  well  to  invest  two-thirds  of  the  capital 
in  advertising.  The  data  of  department  stores  are  very  reliable  in 
this  respect.  The  twenty  large  department  stores  in  New  York  City 
spend  a  total  of  $2,000,000  annually  for  advertising,  or  4  per  cent 
of  their  combined  sales  of  $50,000,000.  A  Chicago  house  improves 
upon  this  rate  with  a  half  per  cent.,  giving  $500,000  to  publicity  to 
sell  $15,000,000  worth  of  goods. 

''The  evolution  of  the  advertising  art  has  progressed  so  remarkably 
during  recent  years  as  to  make  the  commercial  traveller  largely  or 
wholly  superfluous  in  many  lines  of  trade  that  were  formerly  de- 
pendent upon  his  efforts.  This  tendency  first  evinced  itself  promi- 
nently in  1898,  during  which  year  twenty-eight  large  concerns  in 
New  York  City,  twenty-one  in  Chicago,  seventeen  in  Boston  and 
probably  a  score  additional  in  other  cities,  discarded  their  travelling 
staff  altogether,  substituting  printed  matter.  Tho'  advertising  is 
making  serious  inroads  on  the  domain  of  the  salesman,  he,  neverthe- 
less, continues  to  be  one  of  the  main  assets  in  the  general  publicity 
scheme.  There  are  some  350,000  commercial  travellers  in  this  coun- 
try, costing  on  an  average  $2,000  per  man,  which  amounts  to  a  total 
expenditure  of  $700,000,000  annually.  As  eadh  man  is  supposed  to 
advertise  his  house  as  well  as  to  solicit  orders  for  goods,  we  may 
safely  place  at  least  one-third  of  his  total  expense  —  a  round  $230,- 
000,000  —  to  the  credit  of  advertising." 

Mr.  Wisby  asserts  that  the  number  of  general  advertisers  has  al- 
most doubled  itself  six  times  between  1898  and  1904.  He  calls  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  Orlando  Bourne,  the  first  advertising  agent, 
hung  out  his  shingle  in  New  York  in  1828,  and  that  even  as  late  as 
1871  one-half  the  agents  in  the  country,  doing  nine-tenths  of  the 
annual  publicity  business  of  the  United  States,  were  domiciled  in 
the  Times  building,  New  York.  He  states  that  magazine  advertis- 
ing, which  began  with  an  "  ad  "  in  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly,"  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1860,  now  averages  five  pages  of  advertising  to  seven  of  read- 
ing in  the  160  leading  monthlies  in  this  country,  having  a  combined 
circulation  of  25,000,000  copies;  nor  is  all  the  outlay  confined  to 
papers  and  magazines.  We  are  told  that  some  insurance  companies 
spend  annually  as  much  as  $20,000  for  calendar  publicity.  Medical 
houses  use  almanacs,  some  houses  circulating  more  than  2,000,000 
per  annum,  while  we  are  informed  that  one  house  claims  an  annual 
edition  of  25,000,000  copies.  Catalogues  represent  another  extensive 
department,  some  of  them  containing  no  less  than  100,000  items  listed 
for  sale.  The  same  article  states  that  the  capital  invested  in  window 
display  amounts  to  750,000  store-fronts  in  the  United  States,  the 
plate  glass  in  which,  at  an  average  cost  of  $100  per  front,  represents 
an  investment  of  $75,000,000,  not  counting  either  the  value  of  the 
goods  displayed  or  the  wages  of  the  men  who  do  the  trimming. 
Regarding  a  branch  of  the  advertising  business  of  which  the  lay- 

633 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

man  knows  hut  little,  Mr.  Wisby  says:  "The  letter  broker  plies  his 
underhanded  trade  of  selling,  buying  and  renting  letters,  received 
in  answer  to  '  ads,'  chiefly  with  unscrupulous  mail  order  houses. 
Few  letters  are  sold  outright,  the  custom  being  to  rent  them  at  the 
rate  of  $4  for  each  hundred  thousand,  with  a  rising  scale  in  price 
governed  by  the  recency  of  the  date  and  the  number  of  originals  in 
the  lot.  In  the  medical,  financial  and  publishing  line  there  are  a 
surprising  number  of  prominent  houses  who  are  in  the  dishonest 
habit  of  publishing  as  testimonials  of  their  own  goods  letters  received 
in  answer  to  the  advertising  of  others.  Letters  from  speculators  in 
response  to  discretionary  pool  *  ads '  are  thought  to  command  the 
highest  rental,  and  sharpers  looking1  for  victims  have  been  known 
to  pay  as  high  as  $1,500  for  50,000  such  copies.  Letters  from  debili- 
tated persons  in  response  to  the  efficacy  of  some  remedy  or  cure  hold 
the  record  for  tenacity  of  usefulness,  and  are  used  over  and  over 
again  by  dozens  of  different  concerns  selling  dozens  of  different  reme- 
dies. The  public  is  to  blame  itself  for  this  shameful  imposition  on  its 
credulity,  since  the  letter  brokerage  business  would  never  have  been 
possible  were  it  not  for  the  silly  testimonial  habit  of  consumers." 

The  following  figures  give  some  idea  of  the  amount  of  effort  which 
is  absorbed  by  competitive  methods.  More  than  $50,000,000,  we  are 
told,  is  annually  expended  in  bill-board  posting  in  the  United  States. 
The  amount  annually  paid  for  new  signs  in  New  York  city  alone  is 
$3,000,000.  Car  "  ads  "  represent  $2,000,000.  New  York  city  sup- 
ports a  regiment  of '  1,200  "sandwich"  men  who  display  "ads." 
Then  there  is  what  is  called  the  "  follow  up  "  system  which  is  re- 
placing travelling  salesmen.  By  this  system  the  prospective  custo- 
mer is  bombarded  through  the  mail  at  stated  intervals  with  all  man- 
ner of  attractive  advertising  matter. 

The  immense  cost  of  all  these  multifarious  advertising  schemes  can 
better  be  imagined  than  accurately  figured,  and  it  all  comes  out  of 
the  consumer  in  the  end.  It  is  as  wasteful  as  a  leaking  spigot  or  a 
sanded  bearing,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  many  efforts  have  been  and 
are  still  being  made  to  eliminate  from  our  social  system  this  insati- 
able Minotaur.  In  the  new  system  which  we  shall  lay  before  the 
Reader  in  due  course  all  this  waste  will  be  done  away  with  once  and 
for  all. 


634 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    PRESSURE    OF    SOCIETY    UPON    THE 
INDIVIDUAL 


635 


There  are  but  two  families  in  the  world,  Have-much  and  Have-little. 

Cervantes. 

All  is  lost  when  the  people  fear  death  less  than  poverty. 

Chinese  Proverb. 

"  Winds  that  have  sainted  her,  tell  ye  the  story 
Of  the  young  life  by  the  needle  that  bled, 
Making  a  bridge  over  death's  soundless  waters 

Out  of  a  swaying,  and  soul-cutting  thread  — 
Over  it  going,  all  the  world  knowing 

That  thousands  have  trod  it,  foot-bleeding,  before: 
God  protect  all  of  us!     God  pity  all  of  us, 
Should  she  look  back  from  the  opposite  shore!  " 

"  I  heah  de  chillun  readin' 

'Bout  de  worl'  a  turnin'  roun', 

Till  my  head  gits  sorter  dizzy 
As  I  stan'  upon  the  groun', 

But  let  her  keep  a  turnin' 

If  'twill  bring  a  better  day, 

When  a  man  can  mek  a  libbin' 

While  his  chillun  learn  an'  play." 

Want  makes  men  misdo;  and  hunger  drives  the  wolf  out  of  the  forest. 

Francois  Villon. 


636 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PRESSURE  OF  SOCIETY  UPON  THE 
INDIVIDUAL 

F  late  years  a  great  deal  has  been  said  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  "race  suicide."  We  are  told  that  there  is 
grave  danger  of  the  annihilation  of  the  native  Ameri- 
can stock.  In  certain  parts  of  the  United  States, 
during  the  last  seventy  years,  the  birth-rate  has  de- 
clined from  one  of  the  highest  in  the  world  to  one 
of  the  lowest.  Nowhere  in  the  civilised  world  has  there  been  such  a 
decline  in  the  birth-rate  during  the  last  century  as  is  exhibited  by 
the  state  of  Massachusetts.  The  native  population  of  this  state  is 
not  increasing  and  this  is  true  of  one  or  two  other  New  England 
states. 

In  reference  to  this  subject  we  quote  the  following  from  "  Poverty," 
by  Robert  Hunter:  "A  writer  in  'The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Eco- 
nomics '  concludes  an  instructive  paper  on  the  subject  by  saying 
that  the  native  stock  actually  '  seems  to  be  diminishing.'  In  the  north- 
.  eastern  division  the  native  birth-rate  has  fallen  so  enormously  that 
the  annual  increase  of  children  of  foreign  white  parents  is  ten  times 
.as  great  as  the  increase  of  the  children  of  native  parentage.  In  the 
several  states  of  Connecticut,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Vermont  the  annual  death-rate  in  1900  of  the 
whites  of  native  parentage  exceeded  the  birth-rate  by  1.5  per  thou- 
sand, while  among  those  of  foreign  white  parents  the  birth-rate  ex- 
ceeded the  death-rate  by  44-5  per  thousand.  In  passing,  it  is  well 
to  note  that  this  birth-rate  among  the  foreign  whites  is  considerably 
greater  than  that  of  Hungary,  which  has  the  highest  birth-rate  in 
Europe,  and  this  would  go  to  prove  that  the  birth-rate  among  immi- 
grants is  increased  as  a  result  of  their  migration,  although  it  might 
be  explained  on  the  ground  of  the  age  distribution  among  the  foreign 
element.  The  main  conclusion,  however,  which  is  to  be  drawn  from 
these  facts,  is  that,  if  this  decrease  in  the  birth-rate  of  the  native 
stock  continues,  the  annihilation  of  the  native  element  is  only  a 
matter  of  time." 

The  cause  of  this  race  suicide  has  been  the  subject  of  much  dis- 
cussion; The  late  Francis  A.  Walker  held  that  immigration  was  the 
cause  of  this  decreased  birth-rate  among  native  Americans. 

Prof.  John  R.  Commons  says :  "  It  is  a  hasty  assumption  which 
holds  that  immigration  during  the  nineteenth  century  has  increased 
the  total  population  of  the  United  States."  The  professor  appears 
to  hold  that,  by  at.  least  as  much  as  immigration  has  added  to  our 
foreign  population,  it  has  acted  to  decrease  the  native  American 

637 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

birth-rate.  The  paradoxical  statement  is  made  that  the  emigration 
from  Europe  of  20,000,000  persons  to  this  country  has  resulted  in 
20,000,000  European  births  which  would  not  otherwise  have  oc- 
curred. The  tendency  of  nature  thus  to  supply  a  social  deficit  is 
one  of  the  marvels  of  her  economy.  It  is  also  stated,  as  we  have 
pointed  out,  that  the  influx  of  these  20,000,000  foreigners  has  quite 
possibly  operated  to  prevent  the  birth  of  20,000,000  Americans  which 
might  otherwise  have  occurred.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in  new 
countries  marriages  occur  early  and  are  very  fruitful. 

Dr.  Franklin,  in  his  "  Observations  Concerning  the  Increase  of 
Mankind  and  the  Peopling  of  Countries,"  reckoned  eight  births  to  a 
marriage  in  America  as  against  four  in  Europe,  and  it  is  also  a  well- 
known  fact  that  dense  populations  where  poverty  rules  are  also 
favourable  to  a  large  birth-rate.  From  these  facts  it  would  appear  that 
Nature  tends  to  increase  the  human  stock  where  its  insufficient  num- 
bers or  adverse  surroundings  threaten  its  annihilation. 

Adam  Smith  says  in  his  "  Wealth  of  Nations  " :  "  Poverty,  though 
it  no  doubt  discourages,  does  not  always  prevent  marriage.  It  seems 
even  to  be  favourable  to  generation.  A  half -starved  Highland  woman 
frequently  bears  more  than  twenty  children,  while  a  pampered  fine 
lady  is  often  incapable  of  bearing  any,  and  is  generally  exhausted  by 
two  or  three.  Barrenness,  so  frequent  among  women  of  fashion,  is 
very  rare  among  those  of  inferior  station.  Luxury  in  the  fair  sex, 
while  it  inflames  perhaps  the  passion  for  enjoyment,  seems  always 
to  weaken,  and  frequently  to  destroy  altogether,  the  powers  of  gener- 
ation. 

"But  poverty,  though  it  does  not  prevent  the  generation,  is  ex- 
tremely unfavourable  to  the  rearing  of  children.  The  tender  plant 
is  produced,  but  in  so  cold  a  soil,  and  so  severe  a  climate,  soon 
withers  and  dies.  It  is  not  uncommon,  I  have  been  frequently  told, 
in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  for  a  mother  who  has  borne  twenty 
children  not  to  have  two  alive."  .  .  . 

"  In  some  places  one-half  the  children  born  die  before  they  are 
four  years  of  age;  in  many  places  before  they  are  seven; .and  in  al- 
most all  places  before  they  are  nine  or  ten.  This  great  mortality, 
however,  will  everywhere  be  found  chiefly  among  the  children  of  the 
common  people,  who  cannot  afford  to  tend  them  with  the  same  care 
as  those  of  better  station.  Though  their  marriages  are  generally 
more  fruitful  than  those  of  people  of  fashion,  a  smaller  proportion 
of  their  children  arrive  at  maturity.  In  foundling  hospitals,  and 
among  the  children  brought  up  by  parish  charities,  the  mortality  is 
still  greater  than  among  those  of  the  common  people. 

"  Every  species  of  animals  naturally  multiplies  in  proportion  to  the 
means  of  their  subsistence,  and  no  species  can  ever  multiply  beyond 
it.  But  in  civilised  society  it  is  only  among  the  inferior  ranks  of 
people  that  the  scantiness  of  subsistence  can  set  limits  to  the  further 
multiplication  of  the  human  species;  and  it  can  do  so  in  no  other 
way  than  by  destroying  a  great  part  of  the  children  which  their 
fruitful  marriages  produce." 

Commenting  on  these  views  of  the  great  economist,  Mr.  Henry 
George,  Jr.,  says,  in  "  The  Menace  of  Privilege,"  that  they  may  well 

638 


THE   PRESSURE   OF   SOCIETY 

be  used  to  describe  present  conditions  in  the  United  States  « In 
the  rural  regions  .and  in  the  poor  quarters  reproduction  is  rapid- 
among  the  classes  of  ease  and  wealth  much  slower.  And  of  those 
children  born  to  the  latter  a  very  much  larger  proportion  are  pro- 
tected from  early  death  than  those  born  among  the  poor.  One  of 
the  most  pathetic  sights  of  a  great  American  city  is  the  number  of 
little  rough  wooden  coffins  to  be  seen  in  the  public  morgues  awaiting 
interment  in  the  public  burying  grounds.  The  last  place  where  the 
poor  will  stint  is  at  a  funeral,  yet  such  is  the  depth  and  extent  of 
poverty  in  Greater  New  York  that  more  than  eight  and  one-half 
per  cent,  of  all  the  people  who  die  in  the  five  boroughs  are  buried 
in  Potter's  Field  at  public  expense.  In  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan 
and  the  Bronx  the  Potter's  Field  interments  approximate  ten  per 
cent. 

"Of  this  ten  per  cent,  a  dreadful  proportion  consists  of  babies, 
whose  flickering  little  lives  are  snuffed  out  in  the  fetid  atmosphere 
of  poor  quarters.  Infancy  and  early  childhood  have  a  heavy  battle 
for  life  in  New  York,  even  under  good  circumstances.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  these  early  deaths  are 
directly  or  indirectly  due  to  poverty. 

"It  is  a  fact  too  well  attested  for  dispute  that  tuberculosis  and 
other  virulent  diseases  of  the  slum  quarters  of  our  cities  have  yielded 
materially  to  the  treatment,  not  of  removing  patients  to  other  places 
and  climates,  but  simply  by  improving  the  physical  environments  to 
which  poverty  had  sentenced  them.  A  very  large  part  of  the  post 
graduate  hospital  work  in  New  York  City  is  along  this  line,  with 
a  remarkably  high  percentage  of  cures. 

"  There  are  some  who  call  themselves  optimists  who  shut  their  eyes 
to  all  this  and  say  that  if  the  rich  are  richer,  the  poor  are  richer,  too. 
They  point  to  the  large  funds  in  the  savings-banks  —  more  than 
$3,000,000,000  and  7,000,000  depositors  for  1903,  averaging  more 
than  $400  to  the  depositor.  But  just  as  the  investigation  made  by  the 
Massachusetts  Labour  Bureau  in  1873  revealed  the  fact  that  persons 
not  wage-earners  were  depositors  to  at  least  one-half  the  total  amount 
in  the  savings-banks  of  that  State  at  that  time,  so  similar  examination 
now  would  reveal  all  over  the  country  a  similar  ownership  of  these 
savings.  As  the  Massachusetts  investigation  showed,  wealthy  people 
use  savings-banks  to  escape  taxation  and  the  care  of  their  investments. 
They  deposit  for  themselves  to  the  full  limit  and  open  accounts  for 
members  of  their  families  and  also  as  trustees/' 

In  a  foot-note  Mr.  George  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  figures 
he  gives  as  representing  the  people  of  New  York  who  are  buried  at  the 
public  expense  do  not  cover  the  whole  case,  since  they  do  not  include 
the  Jewish  dead  who,  though  taken  to  the  morgue,  are  rescued  by  Jew- 
ish societies  and  are  not  interred  in  Potter's  Field.  He  says  further : 
"  Nor  do  they  include  the  large  number  of  public  paupers  who  would 
go  to  Potter's  Field  but  for  the  burial  insurance  placed  on  them  by 
certain  undertakers  who  find  a  profit  between  the  small  amount  of 
such  policies  and  the  still  smaller  expense  to  which  they  are  put  in 
getting  the  dead  bodies  a  private  interment.  Singularly  enough, 
those  almshouse  inmates  who  have  such  burial  insurance  on  them,  mis- 

639 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

erably  small  though  the  sum  be,  regard  themselves  as  superior  to  those 
who  do  not  have  it.  They  draw  attention  to  the  fact.  It  amounts  to 
a  badge  of  aristocracy  among  the  public  paupers. 

"  Of  the  total  of  78,060  deaths  in  the  whole  city  during  1904,  the 
babies  under  one  year  of  age  numbered  16,125,  and  under  five  years, 
25,543." 

There  is  a  vast  amount  of  data  which  shows  conclusively  that  the 
birth-rate  in  all  countries  is  affected  by  economic  changes.  In  his 
"  Vital  Statistics "  Fair  states :  "  War,  abundance,  dearth,  high 
wages,  periods  of  speculation,"  etc.,  have  a  direct  effect  upon  genera- 
tion. Others,  among  them  Von  Mayr,  have  shown  that  the  number 
of  births  varies  with  the  price  of  wheat  or  rye.  This  suggests  the 
fact  cited  by  Victor  Hugo  many  years  ago,  that  crime  varies  as  the 
price  of  bread. 

Prof.  Richmond  Mayo-Smith  says,  in  his  "  Statistics  and  Soci- 
ology," that  where  the  number  of  births  "decreases  suddenly,  it 
shows  the  effect  of  war  or  of  commercial  distress  or  of  economic  dis- 
aster. Where  it  increases,  it  is  generally  a  sign  of  economic  pros- 
perity." 

Mr.  Robert  Hunter,  in  treating  of  this  subject  with  especial  rela- 
tion to  immigration,  says,  in  "  Poverty  " :  "  Hadley,  Marshall,  News- 
holme,  and  others  (not  to  go  back 'as  far  as  Malthus)  have  all  re- 
viewed more  or  less  the  influence  of  economic  conditions  upon  the 
birth-rate.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  theory,  it  is  an  observed  fact  that 
economic  disaster  and  similar  influences  operate  to  decrease  the  birth- 
rate, and  that  prosperity  or  any  improvement  in  economic  conditions 
operates  to  increase  the  birth-rate." 

Benjamin  Kidd  says  that  the  "unwillingness  of  men  ...  to 
marry  and  bring  up  families  in  a  state  of  life  lower  than  that  into 
which  they  themselves  were  born"  is  one  of  the  principal  influences 
which  are  known  to  decrease  the  birth-rate. 

Apropos  of  the  theory  that  immigration  per  se  is  the  cause  of  a 
decreased  birth-rate,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  birth-rate  fre- 
quently decreases  where  immigration  is  not  a  vital  factor,  as,  for 
example,  in  New  South  Wales.  A  recent  number  of  "  The  Inde- 
pendent "  contains  the  following :  "  A  thorough  statistical  study  of 
birth-rates  in  New  .South  Wales  is  one  of  the  most  significant  contri- 
butions to  our  knowledge  of  this  subject  yet  made.  In  1880  the 
Australasian  birth-rate  was  38  per  thousand  inhabitants  and  the 
average  number  of  children  for  each  family  was  5.4.  In  1901  the 
birth-rate  in  New  South  Wales  had  fallen  to  27.6,  an  average  to 
family  of  3.6." 

We  might  cite  the  views  of  different  authorities  upon  this  subject 
almost  indefinitely,  but  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  all  the  au- 
thorities, as  well  as  the  statistics  cited,  do  not  make  toward  the  fa- 
vourite theory  that  race  suicide  on  the  part  of  native  born  Americans 
is  the  result  of  immigration.  Those  who  hold  this  view  for  the  most 
part  contend  that  it  is  the  social  pressure  caused  by  immigration 
which  must  explain  our  decreased  birth-rate.  For  our  own  part,  we 
prefer  to  consider  the  chief  cause  of  race  suicide  to  be  due  to  in- 
creased social  pressure,  to  the  augmenting  difficulty  experienced  in 

640 


THE    PRESSURE   OF   SOCIETY 

making  a  successful  life-struggle  under  a  constantly  degenerating 
social  system,  whether  this  condition  be  the  result  of  immigration  or 
the  result  of  any  other  causes  whatsoever.  It  must  not,  however,  be 
supposed  that  any  one  factor  can  explain  the  observed  condition.  We 
have  seen  that  new  and  sparsely  settled  countries  and  old  and  densely 
populated  and  impoverished  districts  alike  conduce  to  large  birth- 
rates. Contrariwise,  we  know  that  affluence  and  a  rise  in  the  scale 
of  living  tends  in  the  reverse  direction.  This  is  further  compli- 
cated by  the  great  mortality  of  the  very  poor  and  the  better  chances 
of  the  children  of  affluence.  The  breaking  down  of  morality  has 
doubtless  contributed  to  the  removal  of  many  of  those  scruples 
which  were  formerly  held  against  the  prevention  of  conception. 
The  increasing  tendency  to  take  the  dictates  of  the  church  less  and 
less  seriously  might  easily  account  for  a  considerable  change  in  this 
regard,  in  Catholic  communities  if  not  elsewhere.  The  many  in- 
stances of  malpractice  and  the  fewer  cases  of  infanticide  make  a 
total  unpleasant  to  contemplate. 

Some  time  since  it  was  stated  that  the  bodies  of  10,000  newly- 
born  infants  were  annually  taken  from  the  River  Seine,  and  we 
have  been  informed  that  the  bodies  of  six  infants  have  been  taken 
from  the  pipes  of  a  single  Massachusetts  sewer-station  in  one  day. 
The  causes  which  operate  to  restrict  the  birth-rate  among  the  poor 
are  by  no  means  those  which  produce  the  like  result  among  the 
rich.  Abortion  is  frightfully  prevalent  in  the  Congo  for  reasons 
which  are  not  far  to  seek. 

The  following  quotation  from  "  The  Philistine  "  of  February,  1906, 
illustrates  a  phase  of  this  subject  with  regard  to  the  red  man :  "  In 
1871,  there  were  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  thousand  Indians  in 
America.  In  1890,  there  were  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  thousand. 
In  1905,  there  are  not  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  W« 
are  fast  educating  the  Indian  off  the  face  of  the  earth. 

"  Heart-broken  women  do  not  bear  children.  With  many  Indians 
a  baby  is  looked  upon  as  a  tragedy,  inasmuch  as  any  day  it  may  be 
stolen  away  and  only  a  great  sorrow  be  left  in  its  stead. 

'My  boy  has  been  gone  for  three  years,  but  every  night  I  am 
awakened  by  hearing  him  calling  and  crying  for  me/  said  an  Indian 
woman  to  me,  and  the  curious  part  was  that  this  woman  herself  was 
a  '  Carlisle  Indian/  " 

If  the  African  and  the  Indian  mother  refuse  to  give  birth  to  chil- 
dren under  conditions  which  spell  tragedy  to  them,  we  may  easily 
imagine  that  the  American  economic  slave  may  be  dominated  by  simi- 
lar motives.  In  the  case  of  the  rich,  however,  we  must  look  for 
other  causes,  and  we  believe  the  chief  one  of  these  which  reduces 
the  present  birth-rate  even  below  that  level  to  which  affluence  and 
advanced  civilisation  naturally  tend,  to  be  summed  up  in  the  terms- 
selfishness  and  frivolity.  The  human  being  naturally  craves  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  diversion.  If  properly  circumstanced  he  will  take 
pleasure  in  children  and  cheerfully  make  sacrifices  for  them.  Write 
presto  all  over  the  social  score,  however;  let  the  search  for  Mam- 
mon carry  acquisitiveness  through  greed  into  gross  selfishness;  let 
the  power  of  money  react  upon  its  possessor  in  vanity  and  frivolity 
41  641 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

until  he  view  everything  with  a  financial  squint  and  mistake  the 
sun  for  his  own  radiant  photosphere;  let  him  be  caught  in  the 
gauzy  mesh  of  society  and  his  time  filched  from  him  by  the  pink  fin- 
gers of  inanity,  and  he  will  soon  find  himself  giving  his  children 
into  the  hands  of  hirelings.  His  club  will  replace  his  home,  and 
amusements  less  noble  than  those  of  the  fireside  will  become  his 
diversion,  unless  he  be  one  of  those  monstrosities  who  become  intel- 
lectual dust  in  the  dry-rot  of  commercialism. 

With  the  society  woman  the  story  is  similar,  but  worse.  The  chil- 
dren she  has  tumble  her  hair  and  disarrange  her  silks  and  laces 
whenever  they  come  near  her,  and  she  pronounces  them  "  such  a 
care"  that  she  relegates  them  to  servants  and  registers  a  vow  to  spare 
herself  such  trials  in  the  future.  Teachers  in  Kindergartens  for  the 
rich  testify  that  one  of  their  greatest  difficulties  is  in  getting  children 
acquainted  with  their  mothers.  To  this  condition  of  affairs  we  must 
add  the  further  fact  that  inbreeding,  which  is  common  among  the 
rich,  lowers  the  racial  standard,  while  a  toy-life  tends  to  unfit  a  woman 
for  the  duties  of  maternity. 

If  we  wish  to  check  race  suicide  we  have  only  to  establish  social 
conditions  which  will  produce  American  men  and  women  worthy  to 
perpetuate  themselves,  and  a  boceficent  Nature  will  do  the  rest.  The 
present  tendency  toward  natural  annihilation  is  merely  Nature's  way 
of  advising  us  that  we  are  unfit  to  exist,  and  that  unless  we  mend 
our  ways  she  will  see  to  it  that  natural  selection  stops  us  out..  The 
survival  of  the  fittest  is  by  no  means  of  necessity  the  survival  of  the 
best,  but  it  can  easily  be  shown  that  throughout  those  aeons  which  are 
the  minutes  of  eternity  runs  ever  the  constant  tendency  to  make  those 
who  survive  more  and  more  nearly  approach  the  best,  and  the  whole 
effort  of  society  is,  or  at  all  events  ought  to  be,  to  so  alter  conditions 
that  the  survival  of  the  fittest  shall  be  the  survival  of  the  best. 
When  this  is  done,  when  only  the  best  can  survive,  when  the  moral 
gravitation  of  society  is  upward  rather  than  downward,  the  millen- 
nium will  be  here. 

The  pressure  of  society  makes  itself  felt  upon  the  individual  in 
divers  ways.  We  have  seen  the  frightful  increase  in  heart-disease 
which  has  resulted  from  the  feverish  pace  at  which  our  people  live. 
In  1890  the  number  of  deaths  from  this  disease  in  the  United  States, 
including  pericarditis,  was  40,959,  while  we  find  that  in  1900  it  had 
risen  to  69,315. 

Similarly  we  find  an  alarming  increase  of  insanity.  The  following 
table  gives  the  number  of  insane  people,  not  including  idiots,  in 
the  United  States,  together  with  the  total  population  of  the  country 
for  the  same  years. 

NUMBER 
YEAR.  INSANE.     POPULATION. 

1850    15,610         23,191,876 

1860    24,040         31,443,321 

1870    37,430         38,558,371 

1880    91,990  .       50,155,783 

1890    106,485         62,622,250 

1896   (estimated)    145,000 

642 


THE    PRESSURE   OF   SOCIETY 

Regarding  the  figure  given  for  1896,  it  should  be  said  that  this  is 
taken  from  an  estimate  founded  upon  the  reports  of  30  states  to 
the  Committee  on  States  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Correction,  which  showed  for  the  30  states  102,000  insane  per- 
sons in  the  year  1896.  At  this  rate  the  whole  United  States  would 
have  145,000  insane. 

In  order  more  clearly  to  show  the  extent  of  this  alarming  in- 
crease we  reduce  the  above  table  to  a  table  showing  the  number  of 
insane  per  each  100,000  inhabitants. 

NUMBER 
INSANE 
YEAR.  (PER  100,000). 

1850    6,731 

I860    7,645 

1870 9,707 

1880    18,340 

1890    17,004 

That  this  increase  in  insanity  is  not  confined  to  this  country  nor 
to  the  last  few  years  will  be  seen  from  the  following  taken  from 
MulhalPs  Dictionary  of  Statistics:  In  nearly  all  countries  the  in- 
crease is  appalling.  For  instance,  in  Russia  in  1860  there  were  41 
asylums,  containing  3,100  inmates;  in  1882  the  number  of  asylums 
had  increased  to  74  and  the  inmates  to  about  80,000.  In  Belgium 
in  1858  there  were  6,475  insane  people;  in  1868  the  number  had 
increased  to  8,240;  in  1878,  to  10,020,  and  in  1888,  to  10,280. 

In  December  of  1887  the  seven  colonies  counted  10,130  insane 
people,  being  286  per  100,000  inhabitants. 

As  regards  the  causes  of  insanity,  not  including  idiots,  the  aver- 
age returns  for  England,  France,  Denmark  and  the  United  States 
combined  give  this  result: 

PER  CENT.  PER  CENT. 

Hereditary    24     Loss  of  friends 11 

Drink  24     Sickness   10 

Business    12     Various    19 

In  connexion  with  this  subject  we  quote  the  following  from  "  The 
Menace  of  Privilege,"  "Dr.  V.  H.  Podstata  of  the  Dunning 
Insane  Asylum  for  Chicago  is  reported  to  have  stated  that  in  his 
judgment  one  in  every  150  of  that  city's  inhabitants  is  insane.  Dr. 
H.  N.  Moyer,  the  eminent  alienist  of  that  city,  is  more  moderate. 
He  thinks'  that  the  insane  of  Chicago  number  one  to  400  of  the 
population ;  in  New  York,  one  to  340 ;  in  Boston  and  New  England, 
one  to  320.  '  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  cause  of  the  increase  of 
insanity,'  he  observes.  '  Poor  food,  poor  homes,  with  no  sun  and  bad 
air,  improper  clothing,  worrying  about  the  rent,  drive  people  crazy.' 

"  Whatever  will  produce  these  results  on  the  more  sensitive  will 
brutalise  the  more  stolid.  Behold  the  development  of  the  brute  nature 
in  a  long  catalogue  of  manifestations,  ending  with  woman-beaters  and 

643 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  ruthless  trampling  upon  the  weaker  sex  by  men  in  car  and  steam- 
boat accidents." 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  authorities  that  our  official  statistics 
are  in  all  probability  far  below  the  facts  in  their  estimates  of  the 
number  of  insane.  It  often  takes  a  skilled  alienist  to  detect  insanity 
in  its  advanced  stages,  so  that  its  more  incipient  and  less  pronounced 
manifestations  would  easily  escape  detection  in  the  large  per  cent,  of 
cases.  That  this  steadily  increasing  and  widely  diffused  insanity  is 
the  result  of  the  pernicious  social  system  obtaining  in  all  civilised 
countries  who  can  doubt? 

The  overwhelming  majority  of  all  worries  are  in  some  way  con- 
nected with  the  problem  of  maintenance,  and  worry  is  the  mother 
of  insanity  and  the  sister  of  all  other  diseases.  A  similar  story  is  to 
be  told  in  the  matter  of  suicides.  In  an  article  in  "  The  Independ- 
ent" for  April  7,  1904,  entitled  "The  Facts  About  Suicide,"  Mr. 
George  Putnam  Upton,  of  Chicago,  says,  among  other  things :  "  Be- 
tween the  ages  of  ten  and  twenty-five,  suicides  of  women  are  more 
numerous  than  those  of  men.  It  is  one  of  the  saddest  features  of 
the  case  that  suicides  of  women  are  increasing  faster  than  those  of 
men.  Half  a  century  ago  five  times  as  many  men  committed  .suicide 
as  women.  A  quarter  of  a  century  ago  the  proportion  was  three 
men  to  one  woman.  During  the  last  three  years  the  ratio  has  been 
about  2l/2  to  one.  Another  sad  feature  of  the  suicide  situation  is 
the  increasing  number  of  children  who  kill  themselves.  These  sui- 
cides are  almost  without  sufficient  cause,  and  sometimes  without  any." 
Prof.  Frederick  L.  Hoffmann's  investigations,  made  for  the  in- 
formation of  one  of  the  large  insurance  companies,  show  that  sui- 
cide is  far  too  common,  and  is  on  the  increase.  The  suicide-rate  for 
the  eleven  years  1893  to  1903,  inclusive,  in  50  of  the  principal  cities 
of  the  United  States  was  16.30  to  every  100,000  inhabitants.  In 
1903  it  was  18.39.  The  total  number  of  suicides  during  said  period 
was  23,490.  The  ten  cities  included  in  the  numeration  having  the 
highest  rate  per  100,000  population  from  1893  to  1902  are  exhibited 
in  the  following  table: 

No.  OF  RATE  PER 

NAMES  OF  CITIES.  SUICIDES,  100,000 

1893  TO  1902.     POPULATION. 

Hoboken,  N.  J 153  27.14 

St.  Louis,  Mo .' 1,404  25.87 

Chicago,   Ills 3,620  23.64 

Oakland,  Cal 145  23.35 

New  York  City,  N.  Y.    (Boroughs  Man- 
hattan and  Bronx) 4,154  21.60 

Milwaukee,  Wis 543  20.37 

Cincinnati,  Ohio 597  18.75 

Newark,  N.  J 421  18.25 

Brooklyn,  N,  Y. .1,832  17.13 

Haverhill^  Mass. ...      55  .          16.25 

In  European  cities  the  rate  is  in  some  cases  materially  higher 
and  in  others  materially  lower  than  with  us,  as  indicated  by  the  -fol- 
lowing table  showing  the  rate  per  100,000  inhabitants; 

644 


THE    PRESSURE   OF   SOCIETY 

Paris    42     Geneva...,  11 

Lyons  29     Dresden 51 

St.  Petersburg  7     Genoa '   31 

Moscow    11     Brussels 15 

Berlin 36     Amsterdam   14 

Vienna    28     Lisbon   2 

London 23     Christiania    25 

Borne  8     Stockholm  27 

Milan 6     Constantinople    .  .   12 

Madrid 3 

The  following  table  exhibits  the  average  annual  suicide-rate  per 
100,000  in  various  countries  of  the  world,  as  given  by  Barker : 


Saxony   31.1 

Denmark 25.8 

Schleswig-Holstein    24.0 

France 23.6 

Austria   21.2 

Switzerland    20.2 

German  Empire 14.3 

Hanover 14.0 

Queensland  13.5 

England  and  Wales 6.9 

Hungary  5.2 

Italy    3.7 

United   States 3.5 

Ireland   .  1.7 


Prussia   13.3 

Victoria    11.5 

New  South  Wales 9.3 

Bavaria 9.1 

New  Zealand  9.0 

South  Australia 8.9 

Sweden  8.1 

Norway  7.5 

Belgium    6.9 

Tasmania   5.3 

Scotland  4.0 

Netherlands   3.6 

Eussia 2.9 

Spain 1.4 


Of  European  cities  for  which  statistics  are  given  Madrid  and  Lisbon 
show  the  lowest  and  Dresden  the  highest  figures.  The  lowest  rate 
given  in  the  United  States  is  that  for  Newton,  Mass.,  1.96.  For 
the  six  years  1882  to  1887  the  number  of  suicides  throughout  the 
United  States  was  8,296. 

The  American  Year  Book  for  1904  bears  similar  testimony  to 
the  increase  of  suicide,  as  per  the  following  figures  embracing  the 
records  of  50  American  cities. 


YEAB. 

POPULATION. 

1890  10,202,017 

1902 14,456,183 


No.  or 
SUICIDES. 


RATE  PEB 
100,000. 

1,223         12.0 
2,452         17.0 


That  crime  is  on  the  increase  none  who  peruse  the  daily  press 
will  for  a  moment  doubt.  The  arrests  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia 
for  the  year  1903  aggregated  the  enormous  number  of  75,699  cases, 
or  an  average  of  one  person  out  of  every  seventeen  of  the  popula- 
tion; and  we  are  told  that  it  is  seriously  and  'creditably  charged 
that  "  a  great  number  of  most  serious  cases  of  vice  and  crime  were 
overlooked  by  the  police  for  blood-money."  That  many  another 
large  city  could  rival  Philadelphia  in  her  unsavory  criminal  statistics 
is  highly  probable. 

o4o 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

In  "  McClure's  Magazine  "  for  December,  1904,  Mr.  S.  .S.  McClure 
published  a  shocking  summary  of  statistics  on  homicides  and  mur- 
ders throughout  the  country.  These  were  collected  by  the  "  Chicago 
Tribune,"  and  covered  a  period  of  twelve  years  ending  1902.  These 
figures  appear  to  indicate  that  in  1904  there  were,  for  each  million 
of  our  population,  four  and  a  half  times  as  many  murders  and  homi- 
cides as  there  were  in  1881.  Those  whose  race-prejudice  has  led 
them  to  look  upon  immigration  as  the  cause  of  pretty  much  every- 
thing bad  that  has  ever  happened  to  this  country,  will  be  prone  to 
seek  to  explain  this  condition  by  the  single  word  "  foreigner."  That 
this  is  not  an  explanation  of  the  condition  is  clearly  shown  by  the 
article  in  question,  where  it  is  pointed  out  that,  with  the  1900  census 
as  a  basis,  only  one  country  on  the  globe,  Russia,  having  a  higher 
murder  and  homicide  rate  than  the  United  States,  sent  us  emigrants, 
and  the  Eussian  rate  but  slightly  exceeded  our  own.  Add  to  this 
that  of  all  the  emigrants  arriving  that  year  but  1/23  part  of  them 
were  Russians.  And  then  consider  this  conclusive  statement.  The 
remaining  22/23  of  our  immigrants  came  from  countries  no  one  of 
which  has  half  as  many  homicides  and  murders  per  million  of  popu- 
lation as  we  have.  The  following  table  is  compiled  from  statistics 
given  in  Mr.  Frank  Parson's  compendious  work  entitled  "  The  Story 
of  New  Zealand."  It  indicates  the  number  of  criminals  per  one 
thousand  of  the  population  in  the  countries  named. 

United  States 1.32 

Australia 1.50 

New  Zealand 6 

Switzerland    . .» 1.07 

United  Kingdom  (Great  Britain  and  Ireland) 46 

France ...   1.00 

Denmark 8 

Holland 84 

Belgium 7 

Norway  and  Sweden 4 

Austria , 5 

Hungary  4 

Italy    2.37 

Russia  in  Europe 1.55 

Regarding  crime  over  pretty  much  all  the  world,  Mr.  Parsons 
says :  "  The  ratio  of  crime  is  increasing ;  that  is,  convictions  are  in- 
creasing faster  than  the  population  in  nearly  all  countries;  France, 
Germany,  Holland,  Denmark,  Norway,  Russia,  Italy,  Australasia  and 
the  United  States." 

What  is  the  cause  of  this  increase  in  crime,  suicide  and  insanity? 
What  factor  is  there  sufficiently  universal  in  its  application  to  ac- 
count for  this  world-wide  degeneracy?  Is  the  answer  not  to  be 
found  in  'certain  social  and  commercial  conditions  which  everywhere 
obtain?  It  is  the  pressure  of  want,  or  the  fear  of  want,  which  in 
the  last  analysis  is  responsible  for  the  overwhelming  mass  of  crime. 
Here  is  where  we  are  our  brothers'  keepers.  The  question  which 

646 


THE    PRESSURE   OF   SOCIETY 

Sir  Thomas  Moore  asked  several  centuries  ago,  "I  pray  you    what 
other  thing  do  you  than  make  thieves  and  then  punish  them  ?  "'might 
very  pertinently  be  asked  of  us  now.     Men  are  not  naturally  evil 
Under  proper  conditions  they  will  be  good  and  tend  ever  to  grow 
better. 

We  are  told  that  the  average  length  of  life  is  increasing  throughout 
the  world,  the  death-rate  having  fallen  in  almost  every  country  dur- 
ing the  last  ten  years.  The  following  table  compiled  from  data  given 
by  'Prof.  Frank  Parsons,  at  page  726  of  "  The  Story  of  New  Zea- 
land, bears  upon  this  subject. 

DEATHS  PER  YEAR  PER  1,000  INHABITANTS. 

COUNTRY.  1890.  1899_ 

TT   •*  j   a*  *  190°-     1(>  YEARS. 

United  States 19.6  17.8  18.0 

Australia 15.3  12.7 

New  Zealand  10.0  9.4  9  8 

Massachusetts  . . . ., 17.7 

Switzerland    20.8  17^  19.0 

United  Kingdom 19.5  18.3  18.5 

France 22.6  21.1  21.6 

Germany 24.4  21.5  22.5 

Denmark 19.0  17.5  17.7 

Holland    20.5  17.1  18.6 

Belgium 20.6  18.8  19.2 

Sweden 17.1  17.6  16.4 

Norway  17.9  16.8  16.5 

Austria  29.4  25.4  27.1 

Hungary  ^ 32.4  27.0  30.3 

Italy   ... 26.4  22.1  24.6 

The  average  duration  of  life  is  approximately  33  years.  One  quar- 
ter of  all  the  people  on  the  earth  die  before  the  age  of  six,  one-half 
before  the  age  of  sixteen,  while  about  one  in  each  one  hundred  born 
lives  to  the  age  of  sixty-five.  Of  the  cities  of  the  United  States 
having  a  population  above  100,000  the  death-rate  per  1,000  for  1900 
varied  between  9.1,  as  the  lowest,  and  45.5,  as  the  highest,  the 
former  rate  being  that  of  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  and  the  latter  that  of 
Shreveport,  Louisiana.  A  comparative  table  for  the  year  1890  and 
1900  of  some  36  cities,  having  a  population  each  in  excess  of  100,000, 
shows  a  decrease  in  the  death-rate  in  30  of  these  cities  for  the  year 
1900. 

In  the  United  States  in  1900  the  registration  area  comprehended 
nearly  29,000,000  of  the  population.  In  this  registration  area  the 
1900  census  showed  a  decrease  of  1.8  per  1,000  of  population,  which 
amounts  to  a  decrease  of  nearly  10  per  cent,  in  the  death-rate.  In 
the  year  1890  the  average  age  of  death  in  the  United  States  was  31.1 
years.  In  1900  it  was  35.2  years.  The  rate  per  1,000  in  the  regis- 
tration area  in  the  United  States  for  1900  was  17.8.  As  we  ex- 
amine the  table  of  causes  of  death  for  the  years  1900  and  1890  we 

647 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

find  that  the  rate  for  most  of  the  contagious  and  infectious  diseases, 
as  well  as  those  ailments  which  result  from  injudicious  conduct,  care- 
lessness in  the  matter  of  diet  and  the  like,  have  undergone  a  notice- 
able decrease  in  their  death-rate,  while  heart-disease,  apoplexy,  dis- 
eases of  the  stomach  and  some  nervous  diseases  have  undergone  an 
increase  in  some  cases  of  an  alarming  nature.  Consumption  shows 
a  remarkable  decrease,  while  cancer  and  pneumonia  exhibit  an  ap- 
palling increase.  What  is  the  significance  of  all  this?  Does  it  not 
point  clearly  to  a  fact  which  we  are  far,  too  prone  to  neglect,  to  wit, 
that  there  are  two  opposing  forces  operating  upon  the  modern  death- 
rate?  On  the  one  hand,  increased  medical  knowledge,  surgical  skill, 
improved  sanitation  and  anti-toxic  cures  tending  materially  to  curb 
the  ravages  of  all  diseases  and  particularly  of  those  which  are  in- 
fectious and  contagious;  on  the  other  hand,  an  economic  environ- 
ment, a  social  state  which  forces  upon  people  a  feverish  existence 
which  is  rapidly  sapping  the  springs  of  racial  vitality.  We  are  be- 
coming a  nation  of  invalids.  Our  great-grandmothers  were  strong 
in  muscle,  in  character  and  in  brain.  Our  sisters,  though  they  may 
be  mentally  flashy  and  volatile,  for  the  most  part  have  not  an  equal 
sturdiness  of  character,  and  certainly  not  a  comparable  physique.  A 
similar  indictment  is  to  be  brought  against  our  brothers.  We  look 
in  vain  for  more  than  an  occasional  sample  of  that  grand  manhood 
which  was  the  rule  during  the  early  years  of  our  country.  We  are 
simply  repeating  the  history  of  all  the  civilisations  which  thus  far 
the  earth  has  known.  In  all,  the  story  is  the  same.  First,  the 
pioneer  life  close  to  the  earth,  with  its  battle  against  elemental  forces 
which  solidified  the  character  of  the  individual  and  forced  men  for 
mutual  protection  into  a  more  compact  brotherhood.  Then,  material 
prosperity,  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  the  seisure  of  the  earth  by  the 
few,  and  their  exploitation  of  the  many,  the  development  of  mass  and 
class  distinctions,  the  corruption  of  the  classes,  the  ever-increasing 
struggle  of  the  masses,  with  its  resulting  deadening  influence,  the 
accentuation  of  the  house  of  Have  and  the  house  of  Want,  and, 
finally,  the  development,  on  the  part  of  the  classes,  of  an  idleness,  a 
luxuriousness  and  an  effeminacy  which  result  in  their  own  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  degeneracy,  on  the  one  hand,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  debase  the  lives  of  the  masses  through  the  sordid  toil, 
poverty  and  disease  which  are  their  inevitable  correlatives.  We  have 
only  to  look  at  the  history  of  Greece  and  Rome  in  their  days  of  de- 
generacy to  see  ourselves  as  in  a  glass.  The  likeness  is  so  close 
as  all  but  to  amount  to  identity.  The  same  class  consciousness,  the 
same  political  corruption,  the  same  betrayal  by  legislators,  the  same 
luxurious  waste,  on  one  hand,  with  squalid  poverty,  on  the  other,  the 
same  brazen  and  bare-faced  dishonesty  and  the  same  general  breaking- 
down  of  the  moral  tone.  We  are  given  to  understand  by  Tacitus  that 
in  Rome  corrupting  and  being  corrupted  was  flippantly  called  "the 
way  of  the  world,"  and  we  have  heard  the  same  pitiful  excuse  used 
in  our  own  day  time  and  time  again. 


648 


CHAPTER  IV 

SOME    CAUSES    AND    RESULTS    OF    SOCIAL 

PRESSURE 


649 


I  have  listened  to  many  ingenious  persons  who  say  we  are  better  off 
now  than  we  ever  were  before.  I  do  not  know  how  well  off  we  were  be- 
fore; but  I  know  positively  that  many  very  deserving  persons  of  my  ac- 
quaintance have  great  difficulty  in  living  under  these  improved  circum- 
stances; also,  that  my  desk  is  full  of  begging  letters,  eloquently  written 
either  by  distressed  or  dishonest  people;  and  that  we  cannot  be  called 
as  a  nation,  well  off,  while  so  many  of  us  are  living  either  in  honest  or 
in  villainous  beggary.  For  my  own  part,  I  will  put  up  with  this  state  of 
things,  passively,  not  an  hour  longer.  I  am  not  an  unselfish  person,  nor 
an  evangelical  one;  I  have  no  particular  pleasure  in  doing  good;  neither 
do  I  dislike  doing  it  so  much  as  to  expect  to  be  rewarded  for  it  in  another 
world.  But  I  simply  cannot  paint,  nor  read,  nor  look  at  minerals,  nor 
do  anything  else  I  like,  and  the  very  light  of  the  morning  sky  has  be- 
come hateful  to  me,  because  of  the  misery  that  I  know  of,  and  see  signs 
of  where  I  know  it  not,  which  no  imagination  can  interpret  too  bitterly. 

John  Ruskin. 

There  is  something  far  more  injurious  to  our  race  than  poverty;  it 
is  misplaced  charity.  Of  every  thousand  dollars  spent  upon  so-called 
objects  of  charity,  it  is  not  an  over-estimate  to  say  that  nine  hundred  of  it 
had  better  be  thrown  into  the  sea.  It  is  so  given  as  to  encourage  the 
growth  of  those  evils  from  which  spring  most  of  the  misery  of  human 
life.  The  relations  of  human  society  are  so  complex,  so  interwoven,  that 
the  creation  of  a  new  agency  intended  to  benefit  one  class  almost  inevita- 
bly operates  to  the  injury  of  the  other.  The  latter  being  the  growth  of 
natural  causes  is  by  far  the  most  important  to  preserve. 

Andrew  Carnegie  —  The  Gospel  of  Wealth. 

The  "  Mills  Hotels "  have  actually  reduced  wages  in  their  immediate 
vicinity. 

The  very  competition  of  Charities  among  themselves  reduces  the  stand- 
ard of  living 

Gradually  men  have  to  learn  to  live  cheap,  by  using  these  charity  de- 
vices, because  they  cannot  get  wages  enough  to  live  better. 

Charity  deliberately  reduces  wages.  The  Annals  of  the  Dorchester 
(Mass.)  Conference  says:  "  We  strive  to  make  every  applicant  for  aid  feel 
that  work  of  any  kind  is  better  than  idleness,  and  that  to  accept  the 
smallest  compensation  and  to  perform  the  least  service  well,  not  only 
helps  to  supply  present  needs,  but  it  is  the  surest  way  to  something 
better." 

Even  the  charity  and  "  benevolent "  trade  schools  help  in  breaking 
down  the  Trades  Unions  by  supplying  a  generation  of  skilled  "  scabs." 

Bolton  Hall  —  Free  America. 


650 


CHAPTER  IV 

SOME  CAUSES  AND  RESULTS  OF  SOCIAL 
PRESSURE 

AN'S  struggle  for  existence,  from  the  standpoint  of 
health,  may  be  said  to  be  dual  in  its  nature.  The  one 
part  pertains  to  the  normal  forces  operating  within 
himself  as  the  result  of  his  own  natural  functioning. 
This  we  may  call  the  domestic  side  of  the  question. 
The  second  part  pertains  to  resisting  the  invasion 
of  external  enemies,  or  to  annihilating  them  once  they  have  gained 
the  citadel.  The  gains  which  have  been  made  in  increased  longevity 
are  referable  entirely,  it  seems  to  us,  to  this  latter  part  of  the  human 
struggle  for  health.  We  are  much  better  able  to  repel  the  invasion 
of  foreign  enemies. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  question,  however,  we  have  retrograded 
badly,  and  we  make  bold  to  say  that,  in  this  department  of  vital 
statistics,  we  have  been,  and  are  to-day  steadily  losing  ground.  Pause 
a  moment  and  consider  what  this  means.  It  means  that  the  human 
race  is  physically  degenerating,  and  that  we  are,  in  point  of  fact,  far 
less  physically  fit  than  our  forefathers.  What  we  mean  to  say  is 
that,  leaving  contagious  and  infectious  diseases  which  are  being  met 
each  year  by  more  enlightened  methods  entirely  out  of  the  question, 
we  feel  assured  that  we  should  show  a  steady  decline  in  length  of  life. 
Death  by  a  contagious  disease  partakes  largely  of  the  nature  of  an 
accident.  So  far  as  we  know,  any  one  might  die  of  it.  To  attempt, 
therefore,  to  ascertain  the  vigour  of  the  race  from  statistics  which  are 
made  up  in  part  of  plagues,  scourges,  famines  and  epidemics,  is  mani- 
festly futile.  It  is  common  knowledge  that  our  great-grandfathers 
were  hardier  than  our  fathers,  and  that  in  the  early  days  of  our  coun- 
try extreme  longevity  was  much  more  common  than  now,  when  only 
one  person  in  a  hundred  can  hope  to  reach  the  age  of  sixty-five;  nor 
is  this  peculiar  to  our  own  country. 

Suppose,  now,  that  between  the  years  1838  and  1840,  when  cere- 
bral meningitis  took  28  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  Versailles  and 
42  per  cent,  of  that  of  Strasburg,  some  one  had  prepared  tables 
of  vital  statistics,  and  suppose  that,  after  this  epidemic  had  spent  its 
force,  other  tables  were  prepared  and  that  these  were  compared  with 
the  former  tables  in  order  to  demonstrate  that  the  people  of  these 
localities  were  growing  hardier  and  longer  lived.  We  can  readily 
see  the  fallacy  of  such  a  course  in  this  instance,  but  we  are  apt  to 
forget  that  our  own  supposed  physical  betterment,  which  we  deduce 
from  our  tables  of  vital  statistics,  rests  on  no  better  foundation. 
Put  10  000  giants  in  the  Swiss  Mountains  and  10,000  starved  and 

651 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

squalid  pigmies  on  the  parched  and  cholera  stricken  sands  of  India, 
Prepare  vital  statistics  of  these  two  colonies,  and  there  will  be  no 
question  as  to  which  is  the  more  physically  fit.  Now  suddenly  trans- 
fer the  hardy  Swiss  Colony  to  the  plague-stricken  area  of  India  and 
remove  the  pigmy  Indians  to  the  high  altitudes  of  Switzerland. 
Now,  after  the  plague  has  ravaged  the  Swiss  Colony,  prepare  another 
set  of  vital  statistics,  and  if  the  death-rate,  when  it  includes  deaths 
from  epidemics,  scourges  and  the  like,  is  a  fair  measure  of  vitality, 
you  will  see  that  the  pigmy  East  Indians  are  a  hardier  race  than 
the  Swiss  giants. 

The  tremendous  effect  which  epidemics  have  had  upon  mortality 
is  well  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the  Plague  or  Black  Death. 
This  dates  back  to  before  the  time  of  Trajan.  Africa  was  consid- 
ered its  original  home,  where  it  is  supposed  to  have  destroyed  a 
million  persons.  Not  until  the  6th  century  did  the  bubonic  plague 
break  out  in  Europe  as  a  part  of  a  "  great  cycle  of  pestilence,  ac- 
companied by  extraordinary  natural  phenomena  which  lasted  fifty 
years."  In  the  14th  century  came  another  great  cycle  of  epidemics, 
and,  among  them,  the  Black  Death.  Nearly  the  whole  of  Europe 
was  overrun  by  the  pestilence,  and  so  severe  was  it  in  1352  that 
Oxford  lost  two-thirds  of  her  academical  population.  The  mortal- 
ity of  the  Black  Death  was  enormous,  taking  in  some  cases  three- 
fourths  of  the  population,  and  in  some  parts  of  England  its  ravages 
were  even  more  severe.  Hecker  estimates  that  25,000,000  persons, 
or  one-fourth  of  the  then  population  of  Europe,  died  in  all  the  epi- 
demics. So  many  died  that,  in  spite  of  all  legislation  enacted  to  pre- 
vent it,  wages  suddenly  rose,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  epidemic 
brought  about  the  final  emancipation  of  the  labouring  class.  In  the 
15th  century  the  plague  frequently  recurred.  In  1427,  80,000  per- 
sons died  in  and  about  Dantzic.  In  1466,  40,000  persons  died  of  the 
Plague  in  Paris.  The  16th  century  was  also  devastated  by  this  awful 
pestilence  which  swept  not  only  many  parts  of  Europe,  but  depopu- 
lated China,  as  well.  In  1563-4,  1,000  persons  died  weekly  in  Lon- 
don. In  1570,  200,000  persons  died  in  Moscow.  The  17th  century 
was  marked  by  one  of  the  worst  of  all  the  epidemics.  In  Naples 
alone  it  is  estimated  to  have  killed  300,000  persons  in  five  months. 
The  Great  Plague  of  London  came  in  1664-5.  In  August,  1665,  the 
mortality  was  31,159,  and  the  total  mortality  for  that  year  is  placed 
at  68,596  out  of  a  population  estimated  at  460,000,  of  whom  two- 
thirds  are  supposed  to  have  fled  to  escape  contagion.  Other  plagues 
followed  these  at  intervals,  ravaging  now  this  country  and  now  that, 
down  to  the  present  time.  Small-pox  epidemics,  yellow  fever 
scourges,  and  the  like,  also  claimed  their  thousands. 

From  year  to  year,  the  increase  in  medical  skill,  and  better  sanita- 
tion in  the  United  States  and  many  other  civilised  countries,  have 
progressively  decreased  the  horrors  of  epidemics,  until  to-day  the 
grand  work  of  Pasteur  and  other  scientists  has  all  but  completely 
drawn  the  sting  from  several  of  the  world's  worst  scourges.  Were 
social  conditions  what  they  should  be,  it  would  be  a  matter  of  only  a 
few  years,  perhaps  only  a  few  months,  before  the  great  White  Plague, 
with  its  appalling  record  of  one-seventh  of  the  human  race,  were  f or- 

652 


SOME    CAUSES   AND    RESULTS 

ever  relegated  to  the  limbo  of  historical  and  ever-fading  horrors. 
Can  we  for  a  moment  doubt  that  this  lower  modern  death-rate  is  due 
to  our  scientific  advancement  in  the  prevention  and  treatment  of 
these  diseases,  and  exists,  in  spite  of  a  constantly  augmenting  racial 
degeneracy  in  the  matter  of  physical  vigour  ? 

We  have  seen  how  plague  after  plague  has  cut  its  swath  of  death 
upon  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  we  have  only  to  consider  what 
would  become  of  our  present  mortality-rate  were  such  plagues  to 
afflict  us,  fully  to  realise  how  much  our  present  low  death-rate  is  in- 
debted to  their  absence. 

The  pressure  of  society  upon  the  individual  is  constantly  increas- 
ing, and  the  age  dead-line  is  being  lowered,  from  year  to  year,  to 
such  an  extent  that  it  is  ever  becoming  increasingly  harder  for  anv 
but  young  men  to  secure  work.  Men  past  middle  life  cannot  stand 
the  pace,  and  are  not  wanted.  When  the  causes  of  this  sorry  condi- 
tion of  affairs  are  sought  for  we  are  more  often  than  not  told  that 
there  are  too  many  people  in  the  country,  that  immigration  is  to 
blame  for  all  the  trouble.  In  the  one  breath  we  are  informed  that 
our  country  is  being  impoverished  by  foreign  labour,  and  in  the 
next  breath  that  this  results  from  the  ability  of  foreigners  to  create 
wealth  cheaper  than  we  ourselves  can  do  it,  which  is  to  say  that  they 
demand  for  themselves  a  smaller  portion  of  the  wealth  they  create 
than  we  do.  By  implication,  then,  we  see  that  they  leave  the  larger 
part  of  their  creation  available  for  the  Americans  who  employ  them. 
Just  how  a  country  can  become  poor  by  the  creation  of  wealth  too 
cheaply  we  are  not  told.  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  men  who 
advance  these  arguments,  if  they  may  be  dignified  by  such  a  term, 
have  simply  made  an  observation  and  then  have  assumed  that  there  is 
but  one  explanation  for  what  they  have  perceived. 

The  American  labourer  perceives  that  if  a  foreigner  takes  his  job 
he  loses  it,  and  that,  as  a  rule  without  exception,  the  more  men  there 
are  anxious  for  employment  the  harder  it  is  for  all  of  them  to  secure 
it.  Add  to  this,  that  this  difficulty  is  materially  accentuated  when  his 
competitors  are  used  to  a  lower  scale  of  living  than  himself  and  are, 
therefore,  willing  to  work  for  less  than  he  can  live  upon,  and  it  is 
scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  he  demands  that  immigration  be 
restricted.  He  believes  that  there  are  too  many  men  already  for  the 
work  to  be  done,  whereas  it  would  be  much  nearer  the  fact  to  say 
that  there  is  too  little  work  for  the  number  of  available  labourers. 
To  the  average  man  these  two  statements  will  seem  identical,  but 
such  is  far  from  being  the  case,  if  we  look  below  the  surface.  It  is 
better  to  state  a  difficulty  in  terms  of  a  factor  which  sustains  a  cause- 
and-effect  relation  to  it  than  to  state  it  in  terms  of  one  which  sus- 
tains at  best  only  a  relation  of  concomitance.  The  cause  of  the  diffi- 
culty is  that  production  is  restricted,  and  the  remedy,  therefore, 
should  not  be  the  restriction  of  labour,  but  the  freeing  of  production. 

What  would  we  think  of  a  farmer  who,  finding  one  of  his  span  of 
draft-horses  so  tangled  in  his  harness  that  he  could  not  keep  up  with 
his  mate,  promptly  descended  from  his  seat  and  similarly  tangled 
the  other  horse?  We  ought  to  think  of  him  just  what  we  ought  to 
think  of  people  who  spend  their  energies  in  trying  to  restrict  the 

653 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

labour-market  below  the  level  of  an  artificially  restricted  production 
in  order  to  enhance  wages,  and  who  do  this  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 
they  are  attacking  the  problem  from  the  wrong  end.  We  do  not 
blame  the  labourer,  who  sees  that  there  are  but  ten  jobs  and  who  is 
powerless  to  make  them  eleven,  for  striving,  in  self-preservation,  to 
prevent  eleven  labourers  seeking  them.  He  may  do  this  at  the  same 
time  that  he  recognises  that  his  method  is  but  a  pitiable  makeshift, 
but  we  do  blame  senators  and  politicians  generally  who  throw  dust  in 
the  eyes  of  the  public  by  this  talk  of  restricting  immigration,  as  if 
that  were  a  universal  panacea  for  all  our  social  ills. 

They  know  perfectly  well  that  immigration  is  not  the  cause  of  the 
labourer's  hard  lot,  and  that  the  restriction  of  immigration  as  a  rem- 
edy is  not  worth  a  thought.  They  know,  furthermore,  that  all  this 
hue  and  cry  against  immigration  is  raised  by  themselves,  as  well  as  by 
others,  for  the  express  purpose  of  diverting  public  attention  from  the 
real  difficulties  and  thus  preventing  their  cure. 

Just  as  Russia,  when  threatened  with  a  revolution,  sends  out  her 
agents  to  foment  race  and  religious  discord  among  the  many  peoples 
constituting  her  subjects,  in  order  that  they  may  fall  to  massacring 
each  other  in  a  way  to  prevent  any  effective  combination  against  her, 
so  do  our  plutocratic  princes  of  privilege  bid  these  senatorial  hench- 
men wave  this  red  rag  of  immigration  to  catch  the  eye  and  divert  the 
attention  of  the  voter  from  the  one  thing  which,  if  perceived,  would 
give  them  and  their  like  a  short  shrift.  In  some  cases  these  paid  be- 
trayers of  the  people  have  had  the  unblushing  effrontery  to  tell  the 
labouring  man  that  the  country  was  overpopulated  and  could  not  sup- 
port so  many. 

We  haye  shown  in  an  early  chapter  how  the  whole  human  race 
could  be  accommodated  by  the  single  state  of  Texas,  from  which  it 
will  be  seen  that  rural  America,  at  least,  is  not  badly  overcrowded, 
on  the  average.  We  now  offer  the  subjoined  diagram  showing  the 
average  density  of  population  per  acre  of  some  of  our  cities,  in 
order  that  the  Reader  may  see  that  even  the  cities,  which  we  are 
wont  to  look  upon  as  so  crowded  that  their  occupants  are  packed 
like  sardines  in  a  box,  are  really  quite  roomy,  upon  the  average. 
The  trouble  here,  as  in  respect  to  other  wealth,  is  all  in  the  matter  x>f 
distribution. 

A  perusal  of  the  diagram  will  show  that  Boston  is  the  most  densely 
populated  city  in  the  Union,  and  yet  56  per  cent,  of  its  land  is  va- 
cant. The  most  densely  populated  city  in  the  United  States,  with 
only  22.06  persons  per  acre!  And  New  Orleans  enjoys  the  distinc- 
tion of  having  less  than  three  persons  to  the  acre.  You  will  find 
in  New  Orleans  some  cases  where  a  single  room  is  the  home  of  many 
persons,  and  this  in  a  city  where  each  family  of  five  could  have 
approximately  two  acres  for  an  estate,  were  the  land  equally  di- 
vided. We  have  said  that  the  trouble  in  respect  to  wealth  generally 
is  in  the  matter  of  distribution.  This  has  been  growing  worse  every 
year.  Not  only  as  regards  this  country,  but  in  others  as  well.  Victor 
Hugo  said:  "We  produce  wonderfully;  we  distribute  abominably." 
As  far  back  as  1891,  the  late  Senator  Ingalls  said,  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  in  reference  to  an  article  which  Thomas  G.  Shearman 

654 


56%  Vacant 


44%  Occupied 


8 


h 


•5 

£ 


1901 

London' 
19.3% 


New  Orleans 
3-% 


St.  Louis 

15% 


Chicago 

17% 


Philadelphia 


New  York 

19% 


Boston 
22.06% 


IIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIII 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

published  in  "  The  Forum  "  for  September,  1889,  regarding  the  dis- 
tribution of  wealth  in  the  United  States :  "  Mr.  President,  it  is  the 
most  appalling  statement  that  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  man.  It  is, 
so  far  as  the  results  of  Democracy  as  a  political  experiment  are  con- 
cerned, the  most  terrible  commentary  that  was  ever  recorded  in  the 
books  of  time.  Our  population  is  sixty-two  and  a  half  millions,  and 
by  some  means,  some  device,  some  machination,  honest  or  otherwise, 
some  process  that  cannot  be  denned,  less  than  a  two-thousandth  part 
of  our  population  have  obtained  possession  of  more  than  one-half  of 
the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  country,  and  have  kept  out  of  the  peni- 
tentiary in  spite  of  the  means  they  have  adopted  to  acquire  it ! " 

Some  years  ago,  Mr.  Eltweed  Pomeroy,  a  familiar  figure  in  the 
Direct  Legislation  movement,  published  the  results  of  his  work  on 
wealth  distribution  in  "The  Arena  Magazine."  He  showed  that  1.6 
per  cent,  of  the  people  of  England  owned  54.2  per  cent,  of  the 
wealth.  He  then  turned  his  attention  to  Massachusetts,  and,  through 
probate  records,  labour  and  registration  reports,  etc.,  obtained  an 
estimate  of  the  State's  distribution  of  wealth.  This,  with  further  in- 
vestigations and  comparisons,  he  used  as  applicable  to  the  whole  coun- 
try, and  from  it  he  worked  out  the  following  diagram  representing 
wealth  distribution  in  the  United  States  for  the  year  1900. 

In  his  "  The  Social  Unrest "  Mr.  John  Graham  Brooks  gives  dia- 
grams showing  the  distribution  of  wealth  according  to  Spahr's  ta- 
bles. These  we  reproduce  at  figures  5  and  6  of  Chart  B.  For  the 
more  graphic  presentment  of  the  same  statistics  we  have  prepared 
figures  1,  2,  3,  4  of  Chart  B.  Chart  C  deals  also  with  some  special 
features  of  this  subject  of  production.  The  various  figures  are  dia- 
grammatic presentations  of  the  facts  contained  in  the  following  table. 

Population  in  the  United  States  in  1900. . .          76,303,387 

Males  39,059,242 

Females   37,244,145 

Population  over  18  years  of  age,  both  sexes.          45,594,735=59.75% 
Population  under  18  years  of  age,  both  sexes          30,708,652 =40.24  % 
Population  engaged  in  gainful  occupation. .          29,285,922=38.38% 
Population  not  engaged  in  gainful  occupa- 
tion            47,017,465=61.62% 

Total  wealth  of  the  United  States  in  1900.  .$94,300,000,000 
Amount  of  real  wealth  properly  so-called 

subject  to  qualification  mentioned  below. $3 7,720,000,000 
About  60  %  of  this  total  wealth  is  real  estate 
values,  and  even  this  figure  does  not  in- 
clude mines,  quarries,  railroad  rights  of 
way  and  franchises  in  streets  which, 
though  always  estimated  as  wealth,  are 
not,  properly  speaking,  wealth,  but  are 
classed  as  part  of  the  40%  "  real  wealth  " 
in  order  that  our  showing  may  be  the 

more  conservative.     It  amounts  to $56,580,000,000 

Per  cent,  of  real  total  wealth  created  each 

year    50.4  % 

656 


Population 


Wealth 


Well  to  do 


11-5- 


Well  io  3.0    J2.0.2J" 


Eltweed  Poraeroy's  Diagram  of  Population  and  Wealth  for  1900 
from  "The  Vanguard,"  Feb.,  1905. 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Annual  production $19,020,000,000 

Amount  produced  by  each  individual 649.46 

Population  engaged  in  gainful  occupation . .          29,285,922 

Population  over  18  years,  both  sexes,  who 

should  be  engaged  in  productive  work . . .  45,594,735 

Population  who  do  not  work  is  1.55  times 
greater  than  the  part  who  do  work. 

If  45,594,735  people  who  should  work  did 
work  the  annual  production  would  be 
19,020,000,000  times  1.55 $29,481,000,000 

Per  cent,  of  present  total  real  wealth  pro- 
ducible by  45,594,735  people  in  one  year.  78.1% 

If  45,594,735  people  worked  with  proper  fa- 
cilities and  eliminated  waste  they  would 
annually  produce $59,223,913,186 

For  fear  lest  these  may  not  be  self-explanatory  we  have  penned 

the  following  description  of  the  figures. 

CHART  C 

Fig.  1  indicates  the  total  estimated  wealth  of  the  United  States  in 
1900.  The  black  portion,  or  60%  of  the  area,  indicates  the  $56,- 
580,000,000  worth  of  real  estate  not  properly  classed  as  wealth, 
and  this  figure  is  exclusive  of  mines,  street  franchises,  railroad 
rights  of  way,  etc.  The  light  portion,  or  40%,  indicates  the  $37,- 
720,000,000  of  so-called  "  real  wealth  "  and  both  areas  the  wealth  in 
1900,  $94,300,000,000. 

Fig.  2  indicates  in  its  entirety  the  $37,720,000,000  of  real  wealth  in 
1900.  The  black  portion  indicates  the  $19,020,000,000  of  wealth, 
annually  produced,  or  50.4%  of  the  whole  wealth,  exclusive  of  real 
estate,  franchises,  etc.,  as  aforesaid. 

Fig.  8  indicates  the  total  population  in  1900,  to  wit,  76,303,387. 

Fig.  4  indicates  the  38.38%  of  population,  or  29,285,922  persons,  en- 
gaged in  gainful  occupation. 

Fig.  5  indicates  the  61.62%,  or  47,017,465,  not  engaged  in  gainful 
occupation. 

Fig.  6  indicates  the  59.75%  of  the  population  representing  the  45,- 
594,735  persons  of  both  sexes  over  18  years  of  age  who  ought  to 
work  and  who  would  do  so  under  a  proper  system.  The  aged  and 
infirm  who  might  have  to  be  deducted  from  this  number  are 
fewer  than  those  who  could  justly  be  added  below  the  age  of  18. 

Fig.  7  indicates  graphically  the  number  engaged  in  gainful  occupa- 
tions in  contrast  with  the  number  not  so  engaged. 

Fig.  8  shows  the  total  real  wealth  as  aforesaid. 

Fig.  9  shows  the  amount  of  wealth  which  would  be  produced  in  2 
years  by  the  number  of  workers  who  were  employed  in  gainful  oc- 
cupations in  1900,  to  wit,  38.38%  of  the  then  population. 

Fig.  10  shows  total  real  wealth  same  as  Figure  8. 

Fig.  11  shows  the  amount  of  this  real  wealth,  50.4%,  or  $19,020,000,- 
000,  produced  in  1900  by  38.38%  of  the  population. 

Fig.  12  shows  that  78.1%  of  this  $37,720,000,000  real  wealth  would 
be  produced  annually  if  the  59.75%  of  the  population  worked  who 
should  work. 

658 


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B.g(M    . 

fas  s 

g  P  3  £.  co 

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$94,300,000,000 


100% 


Total  real  Wealth,  exclusive  real  es- 
tate, but  inclusive  mines,  franchises,  etc. 
$37,720,000,000 


Amt.  produced  in  2  yrs.  by  38.38% 
cf  pop.  engaged  in  gainful  occupations 

Fig.  10 
Total  real  wealth  $37,720,000,000 


Fig.  11 

Amt.  produced  in  one  year 
by  38.38  %  of  population 

50.4% 

Fig.  12 

78.1+  % 

Amt.  which  would  be  produced  in 
1  year  if  all  worked  who  should, 
i.e.  59.75  %  of  pop.,  or  45,591,735 

Fig.  13 


$19,020,000,000 


Total  Population  76,303,387 


100% 


29,285,922 
No.  in  gainful  occupations 


38.38  % 

47,017,465 
No.  not  so  engaged 


61.62  % 

45,594,735 
No.  who  ought  to  work 


59.75  % 


t.  easily  producible  in  1  yr.  by  59.75  %  of 
pop.  with   increased  facilities  and  eliminating 
waste       $1,298.92  per  capita  or  annual  total  ot 
$59,223,913,186 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Fig.  18  shows  the  $59,223,913,186  which  might  easily  be  produced 
annually  by  59.75%  of  the  population  working  with  the  increased 
facilities  of  a  proper  system  and  eliminating  waste  of  present 
methods.  This  would  be  a  per  capita  creation  of  $1,298.92  of 
wealth  per  year,  or  twice  the  1900  average  of  $649.46. 

CHART  B. 

Fig.  1  shows  \%  of  the  population  indicated  by  the  small  black 
square,  owning  54.8%  of  the  country's  wealth  as  indicated  by  the 
cross-hatched  squares. 

Fig.  2.  The  single  cross-hatched  squares  indicate  that  38.1%  of  the 
population  are  poor,  while  the  double  cross-hatched  squares  indi- 
cate that  50%  of  the  population  fall  under  the  category  of  the 
very  poor.  These  two  per  cents,  taken  together  amount  to  88.1% 
of  the  total  population  as  indicated  by  all  the  squares  of  Fig.  2  not 
left  open. 

Fig.  3  represents  the  13%  of  the  total  wealth  owned  by  this  88.1% 
of  the  population. 

Fig.  4  is  the  story  of  the  middle  classes.  The  lower  cross-hatched 
squares  indicate  that  the  middle  classes  comprise  10.9%  of  the 
population  and  the  upper  squares  show  that  they  own  32.2%  of  the 
wealth. 

Figs.  5  and  6  illustrate  the  same  facts  after  the  method  employed  by 
John  Graham  Brooks  in  his  "  The  Social  Unrest/' 

In  order  to  show  that  the  condition  of  the  poor,  resulting  from  in  • 
equitable  wealth  distribution,  is  not  only  very  bad  but  growing  con- 
stantly worse,  we  again  offer  the  diagram  entitled  Chart  A,  which  is 
slightly  altered  from  that  at  page  43  of  Bolton  Hall  s  "  Free 
America."  We  believe  this  diagram  will  be  self-explanatory  and  so 
merely  content  ourselves  with  calling  attention  to  the  lines  marked 
"  line  in  1890  "  and  "  line  in  1900."  The  area  between  these  lines, 
occupied  by  the  arrows,  shows  how  many  homes  have  ceased  to  be 
"  free  and  clear  "  during  the  ten  years.  The  direction  of  the  arrows 
indicates  the  march  of  the  landlord  and  mortgagee. 

The  injustice  of  1%  of  our  population  owning  54.8%  of  the  coun- 
try's wealth  while  88.1%  of  the  population  owns  but  13%  of  the 
wealth,  is  too  glaring  to  need  more  than  passing  mention.  By  re- 
ferring to  Fig.  7  of  Chart  C  it  will  be  seen  that  only  38.38%  of  the 
population  are  engaged  in  gainful  occupation.  The  annual  produc- 
tion of  wealth  in  1900  was  $19,020,000,000,  while  the  total  estimated 
wealth  was  placed  at  $94,300,000,000.  In  this  were  included  many 
things  not  properly  classed  as  produciable  wealth,  only  40%  of  the 
gross  figure,  or  $37,720,000,000,  being  properly  called  wealth.  By  ref- 
erence to  Fig.  2  it  will  be  seen  that  something  more  than  half  of  this 
total  real  wealth  is  produced  annually  by  something  more  than  a  third 
of  our  population.  Under  our  present  system  children  of  four  years 
of  age,  invalids,  the  aged  and  the  decrepit  are  forced  into  unremitting 
toil.  If  everyone  over  18  years  of  age  worked,  the  toilers  would  be 
nearly  60%  of  the  population.  Fig.  9  shows  the  amount  of  wealth 
which  38%  of  the  population  can  create  in  two  years  under  the  pres- 
ent system,  while  Fig.  12  shows  the  78%  of  real  wealth  in  1900  which 

660 


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SOME   CAUSES   AND    RESULTS 

could  be  produced  in  one  year  by  something  less  than  the  60%  of 
the  population  over  18  years  of  age  working  under  the  present  waste- 
ful system.  Fig.  13  shows  an  estimate,  which  we  have  aimed  to  make 
far  too  conservative,  of  the  amount  of  wealth  which  could  easily  be 
produced  annually,  under  a  proper  system  having  increased  facilities 
and  eliminating  waste,  by  59.75 %  of  the  population.  The  per  capita 
wealth  created  is  estimated  at  twice  that  tabulated,  or  $1,298.92,  and 
the  total  annual  production  of  wealth  would  be  $59,223,913,186. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  as  a  nation  we  live  a  somewhat  hand-to- 
mouth  existence,  consuming  our  wealth  almost  as  fast  as  we  produce 
it,  or,  to  put  it  another  way,  producing  our  volume  of  real  wealth 
every  two  years.  Take  as  an  example  our  200,000  miles  of  railways 
which  represent  a  capitalised  value  of  $12,000,000,000,  a  sum  equal 
to  three-fourths  of  the  value  of  all  the  farms  in  the  country.  The 
real  cost  of  these  railroads  is  less  than  $5,000,000,000,  three-fifths 
of  their  capitalisation,  or  $7,000,000,000,  representing  watered-stock 
and  bonds  upon  which  the  victimised  public  pay  interest  in  the  shape 
of  extortionate  passenger  and  freight  rates.  The  sentiment  which 
these  large  corporations  entertain  toward  their  simple-minded  patrons 
was  expressed  by  William  H.  Vanderbilt  in  the  following  classic: 
The  people  be  damned ;  we  are  in  business  to  make  money." 
This  spirit  is  not  confined  to  our  steam-roads.  Our  street  and  ele- 
vated railways  furnishing  execrable  transportation  facilities,  while 
boasting  among  themselves  that  they  make  their  dividends  "  off  the 
straps/'  are  but  another  illustration  of  the  psychological  facts  that 
power  is  universally  corruptive  and  that  they  who  are  permitted  to 
victimise  a  supine  people  will  come  to  despise  them  during  the  process. 
The  hysterical  attempts  to  reform  railroad  abuses  by  legislation  would 
be  farcical  were  their  effects  not  tragic  and  far  reaching.  Interstate 
Commerce  Commissions  may  do  their  utmost  —  which  they  by  no 
means  have  done  in  the  past  —  and  the  evils  will  still  flourish  and 
grow  apace.  The  mere  fact  that  the  railroad  magnates  themselves, 
when  they  are  brought  to  realise  that  public  sentiment  demands  some 
sort  of  grandstand  play,  always  advocate  governmental  regulation 
should  be  sufficient  to  convince  the  voter  that  that  is  precisely  the 
thing  which  he  does  not  want.  Just  as  the  voter,  who  has  the  cause 
of  temperance  at  heart,  should  realise  that,  if  the  saloon-keeper  advo- 
cate license,  that  is  precisely  what  he  himself  does  not  want. 

The  railroad  magnates  have  made  life  studies  of  their  own  interests, 
and  can  be  depended  upon  to  know  just  what  they  want  ih  further- 
ance thereof.  Their  advocacy  of  governmental  regulation  springs 
from  a  two-fold  cause,  first,  they  want  to  be  controlled  by  the  govern- 
ment, because  they  themselves  are  the  government,  in  effect ;  the  rail- 
road interest  dominates  that  absurd  and  monarchical  institution,  the 
American  "House  of  Lords,"  commonly  called  the  Senate.  A  few 
years  since  special  privilege  maintained  so  active  and  thorough  a  lobby 
in  Washington  that  these  paid  henchmen,  hired  to  corrupt  senators, 
were  denominated  "the  third  house."  Now  things  are  changed,  and 
this  lobby  is  no  more.  The  reason  is  that  each  vested  privilege  owns 
its  own  senators  outright,  taking  good  care  that  only  those  "  safe  and 
sane"  legislators  who  can  be  depended  upon  to  obey  its  mandates 

663 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

without  question  are  given  seats  in  this  "  richest  club  "  in  America, 
originally  devised  and  now  carefully  maintained  for  the  sole  and  ex- 
press purpose  of  subverting  the  will  of  the  people. 

The  second  cause  for  the  advocacy  on  the  part  of  the  railway  mag- 
nates of  governmental  supervision  is  to  prevent  the  people  from  gen- 
erally perceiving  that  private  ownership  of  a  steel  highway  is,  if 
possible,  even  more  fundamentally  undemocratic  and  ridiculous  than 
similar  ownership  of  ordinary  carriage  roads.  The  toll-road  with  its 
stultifying  effects  still  exists  in  some  districts  endowed  with  a  1492 
intelligence,  but  the  most  of  our  population  would  rise  in  revolution 
were  an  attempt  openly  made  to  establish  general  toll-roads.  The 
railroad  monopolists  always  stigmatise  as  "the  awful  menace  x>f 
Socialism"  anything  which  looks  toward  the  people  owning  their 
own  railroads.  In  this  regard  the  United  States  is  a  hopeless  back 
number.  In  Europe,  government-owned  and  government-controlled 
roads  are  all  but  the  universal  rule. 

What  happens  to  the  body  politic  when  its  life-channels  are  pri- 
vately owned  is  just  what  would  happen  to  the  body  corporeal  were 
the  great  aorta  given,  say,  to  some  ambitious  cancer  as  its  private 
property.  All  public  utilities  are  in  their  nature,  and  must  continue 
to  be,  monopolies,  and  all  things  which  in  their  essence  are  monopolies 
should  be  monopolised  by  the  State,  the  safest  monopolist  the  people 
can  choose.  The  utter  futility  of  legal  regulation  of  railroads  has 
been  shown  again  and  again.  We  have  been  told  how  certain  roads 
observed  the  letter  of  the  law  forbidding  rebates  and  other  discrimi- 
nation against  Standard  Oil  competitors;  how  they  secretly  notified 
the  Standard  that  they  should  reduce  their  freight-rates  upon  a  cer- 
tain day  and  hour  to  a  given  figure,  and  informed  that  company  that 
if  they  would  have  a  large  shipment  ready  to  the  minute  they  could 
avail  themselves  of  the  reduction,  which  they  very  obligingly  did. 
When  the  other  shippers  of  oil,  who  had  not  been  let  into  the  trick, 
were  able  to  move  their  goods  and  sought  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
reduced  rate,  as  they  did  a  few  hours  later,  lo,  the  freight-charges  had 
advanced.  Is  any  one  foolish  enough  to  imagine  that  legal  enact- 
ments do  now,  or  ever  can,  stop  this  sort  of  thing?  If  there  be  any 
so  uninformed  we  beg  them  to  read  "  Wealth  against  Commonwealth," 
by  Henry  Demorest  Lloyd,  "The  History  of  the  Standard  Oil,"  by 
Ida  Tarbell,  "Kailways  and  the  Eepublic,"  by  J.  F.  Hudson,  and 
"  The  Eailroad  Question,"  by  ex-Governor  Larrabee  of  Iowa. 

It  is  encouraging  to  note  that  former  Congressman  William  J. 
Coombs,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  is  interested  in  a  project  for  the  build- 
ing by  the  government  of  a  transcontinental  railway  upon  which  any 
one  may  run  trains.  This  would,  in  fact,  be  a  railed  highway,  and 
would  enable  short  railways,  by  tapping  this  government  road,  to 
compete  with  the  great  trunk  lines  and  thus  get  their  fair  share  of  the 
traffic.  Should  this  or  some  similar  plan  be  put  into  effect,  the 
benefit  to  the  country,  the  increase  in  its  wealth,  would  be  so  rapid 
and  enormous  that  it  would  soon  be  followed  by  other  national  and 
State-owned  railed  highways.  To  meet  such  a  proposition  with  a 
statement  that  it  contains  a  threat  of  Socialism  is  childish.  What  is 
our  postal  system  but  Socialism  pure  and  simple? 

664 


SOME    CAUSES    AND    RESULTS 

The  capitalisation  of  our  street-railways  in  1902  was  $2,900,000,- 
000,  and  we  are  told  upon  good  authority  (see  "  Free  America,"  page 
84)  that  they,  undoubtedly,  could  be  reproduced  for  about  25  per 
cent,  of  this  capitalisation,  or  some  seven  or  eight  hundred  millions. 
It  has  been  computed  that  these  street-railway  franchises  which  the 
people  have  given  away,  for  the  most  part  without  return,  cost  the 
average  city  workers  about  thirty  dollars  per  year  per  family  more 
than  they  ought  to  cost.  This  thirty  dollars,  which  goes  to  pay  divi- 
dends upon  water,  ought  to  go  for  better  food,  clothes,  and  the  like; 
from  which  it  will  be  seen  that,  even  in  passenger  transportation,  the 
poor  man  is  made  to  feel  the  heavy  pressure  of  our  unfortunate  social 
system. 

It  has  been  impossible  more  than  to  hint  at  a  few  of  the  factors 
which  help  to  produce  the  terrible  social  pressure  under  which  the 
majority  of  our  people  at  present  labour.  Enough  has  been  said, 
however,  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact,  and  to  hint  at  the  social  price 
which  coming  generations  must  pay  in  moral,  mental  and  physical 
debasement  because  of  present  injustice.  That  all  this  could  be 
remedied  fundamentally,  not  only  to  the  advantage  of  the  submerged 
masses,  but  to  that  of  thdir  oppressors  as  well,  it  is  the  object  of  the 
Gillette  System  to  demonstrate.  In  order,  however,  to  make  the  new 
system  readily  understandable  it  has  been  necessary  to  consider  pres- 
ent conditions  at  great  and,  we  fear,  somewhat  tiresome  length.  As 
no  other  way  seemed  feasible  we  have  no  apologies  to  offer.  We  be- 
lieve a  full  comprehension  of  the  Gillette  System  will  amply  repay 
any  sacrifice  of  time  which  the  Header  may  have  made.  The  first 
strength  of  a  plant  is  gained  below  ground.  The  solidity  of  a  struc- 
ture is  in  its  foundation,  and  the  success  of  all  rational  processes  de- 
pends primarily  upon  the  establishment  of  a  sound  point  of  departure 
as  a  major  premise. 


665 


BOOK   XII 

CHAPTER  I.  POVERTY  AND  TOIL 

CHAPTER  II.  THE  WHITE  PLAGUE  AN  ADDED  BURDEN 

CHAPTER  III.  THE  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN 

CHAPTER  IV.  THE  SLAUGHTER  or  THE  INNOCENTS 


A  man's  labour  for  a  day  is  a  better  standard  of  value  than  a  measure 
of  any  produce,  because  no  produce  ever  maintains  a  consistent  rate  of 
productibility. 

John  Ruskin. 

The  curse  of  gold  upon  the  land 

The  lack  of  bread  enforces; 
The  rail-cars  snort  from  strand  to  strand, 

Like  more  of  death's  white  horses; 
The  rich  preach  "  rights  "  and  "  future  days," 

And  hear  no  angel  scoffing: 
The  poor  die  mute,  with  starving  gaze 

On  corn-ships  in  the  offing. 

Be  pitiful,  O  God! 

Mrs.  Browning. 

There  is  something  wrong  in  a  government  where  they  who  do  the 
most  have  the  least.  There  is  something  wrong,  when  honesty  wears  a 
rag,  and  rascality  a  robe;  when  the  loving,  the  tender,  eat  a  crust,  while 
the  infamous  sit  at  banquets. 

R.  O.  Ingersoll. 

With  fingers  weary  and  worn, 

With   eyelids   heavy   and   red, 
A  woman  sat,  in  unwomanly  rags, 

Plying  her  needle  and  thread  — 

Stitch!    stitch!    stitch! 
In  poverty,  hunger,  and  dirt, 

And  still  with  a  voice  of  dolorous  pitch 
She  sang  the  "  Song  of  the  Shirt." 

Oh,  Men,  with  Sisters  dear! 

Oh,  Men,  with  Mothers  and  Wives! 
It  is  not  linen  you're  wearing  out, 
But  human  creatures'  lives! 

Stitch  —  stitch  —  stitch, 
In  poverty,  hunger,  and  dirt, 

Sewing  at  once,  with  a  double  thread, 
A  Shroud  as  well  as  a  Shirt 

Thomas  Hood. 

The  Irrevocable  Hand 

That  opes  the  year's  fair  gate,  doth  ope  and  shut 
The  portals  of  our  earthly  destinies; 
We  walk  through  blindfold,  and  the  noiseless  doors 
Close  after  us  forever. 

D.  M.  Mulock  —  April. 


668 


Probably  nothing  in  the  tables  of  the  causes  of  poverty,  as  ascertained 
by  case  counting,  will  more  surprise  the  average  reader  than  the  fact 
that  intemperance  is  held  to  be  the  chief  cause  in  only  one-fifteenth  to 
one-fifth  of  the  cases,  and  that  where  an  attempt  is  made  to  learn  in  how 
many  cases  it  had  contributary  influence,  its  presence  cannot  be  traced 
at  all  in  more  than  twenty-eight  and  one-tenth  in  the  hundred  of  all  the 
cases. 

Prof.  Amos  G.  Warner  —  American  Charities. 

Defend  me,  therefore,     .     .     . 

.     .     .     from  the  toil 
Of  dropping  buckets  into  empty  wells, 
And  growing  old  in  drawing  nothing  up. 

Cowper — Task. 

Ah,  why 
Should  life  all  labour  be? 

Tennyson  —  The  Lotus  Eaters. 


669 


CHAPTER  I 
POVERTY   AND   TOIL 

T  is  a  sad  commentary  on  modern  civilisation  that 
many  of  those  who  toil  most  unremittingly  suffer  the. 
most  abject  poverty.  Consider  for  a  moment  how 
world-wide  is.  this  condition  of  affairs,  and  you  will 
see  what  a  direful  indictment  it  constitutes  against 
the  whole  fabric  of  civilised  society.  The  pressure 
of  competition  has  driven  us  to  the  attainment  of  such  a  pace  that 
it  may  truthfully  be  said  that  to-day  we  swallow  life  so  fast  we  can- 
not taste  it.  The  Chinese  have  a  proverb  which  reads :  "  Those 
who  make  money  make  little  exertion,  those  who  make  much  exer- 
tion make  no  money/' 

That  this  is  a  generality  of  world-wide  application  goes  without  say- 
ing. We  are  told  that  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  and  this 
hire  happens  to  be,  in  fact,  the  smallest  possible  sum  for  which  his 
services  can  be  procured,  since  natural  opportunities  to  create  wealth 
are  monopolised  by  a  handful  of  men  who  shut  the  earth  away  from 
labour.  The  worker  cannot  toil  for  himself,  but  is  obliged  to  sell 
his  effort  to  the  monopolist  who  has  fenced  off  the  earth  for  his  own 
private  exploitation.  Such  being  the  case,  monopoly  has  only  so  to 
restrict  production  that  there  shall  not  be  enough  created  to  keep 
the  labourers  busy,  in  order  to  have  them  hysterically  competing 
with  each  other  for  the  privilege  to  work  at  any  living  wage  and, 
in  many  cases,  for  less  than  a  living  wage.  Says  Carlyle :  "  The 
widow  is  gathering  nettles  for  her  children's  dinner;  a  perfumed 
seigneur  delicately  lounging  in  the  Oeil  de  Boeuf,  hath  an  alchemy 
whereby  he  will  extract  from  her  the  third  nettle  and  call  it  rent." 

In  similar  vein  is  the  following,  translated  by  Sir  William  Jones 
from  an  Indian  grant  of  land,  found  at  Tanna. 

"  To  whomsoever  the  soil  at  any  time  belongs,  to  him  belong  the 
fruits  of  it.  White  parasols  and  elephants  mad  with  pride  are  the 
flowers  of  a  grant  of  land." 

John  A.  Hobson  says :  "  The  part  played  by  rent  in  the  problems 
of  poverty  can  scarcely  be  overestimated." 

The  monopoly  of  wealth,  which  is  made  possible  by  the  monopoly 
of  that  necessary  to  the  production  of  wealth,  is  the  cause  of  untold 
misery.  No  wonder  that  the  poet  sings: 

"When  wealth  no  more  shall  rest  in  moulded  heaps, 
But  smit  with  freer  light  shall  slowly  melt 
In  many  streams  to  fatten  lower  lands, 
And  light  shall  spread,  and  man  be  liker  man 
Thro  all  the  seasons  of  the  golden  year." 
670 


POVERTY   AND   TOIL 

What  wonder  that  existing  conditions  lead  even  ministers  to  doubt 
the  social  intent  of  those  whose  money  supports  the  church.  The 
Eev.  L.  A.  Banks  says :  "  Reforms  will  never  come  from  the  gold-box 
of  Mammon.  We  must  cry  aloud  and  spare  not  until  these  devilish 
cruelties  and  unblushing  crimes  are  impossible."  .  .  .  Again 
elsewhere  he  says :  "  There  must  be  no  doubt  about  the  attitude  of 
the  church  in  a  time  like  this.  Against  the  gold  god  and  all  his  op- 
pressions the  Christian  Church  must  stand  with  unflinching  front. 
Our  God  is  the  same  who  spoke  through  the  voice  of  Amos  of  old, 
saying,  '  Hear  this,  oh  ye  that  swallow  up  the  needy,  even  to  make 
the  poor  of  the  land  to  fail,  saying,  When  will  the  new  moon  be  gone, 
that  we  may  sell  corn?  And  the  Sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth 
wheat,  making  the  ephah  small,  and  the  shekel  great,  and  falsifying 
the  balances  by  deceit?  That  we  may  buy  the  poor  for  silver,  and 
the- needy  for  a  pair  of  shoes;  yea,  and  sell  the  refuse  of  wheat?' 
Ah !  how  much  that  sounds  like  the  things  that  are  going  on  at  the 
present  time ! " 

If  the  labourer  begin  at  any  time  to  question  the  eternal  wisdom 
of  such  a  system,  monopoly  has  only  publicly  to  deplore  immigration 
as  the  cause  of  all  his  troubles  and  to  tell  him  that  there  are  so  many 
more  labourers  than  production  can  support  that  some  must  of  neces- 
sity go  hungry ! 

Not  only  this,  but  it  is  a  favourite  habit  of  the  monopolist  and  of 
the  unthinking  public  to  lay  our  unpleasant  record  of  crime  and  cor- 
ruption largely  at  the  door  of  the  immigrant,  despite  the  fact  that 
the  honest  observer  knows  perfectly  well  that  our  social  conditions 
are  responsible  for  such  moral  degradation  as  we  exhibit.  In  "  Les 
Miserables,"  Victo  Hugo  says :  "  Can  the  heart  be  deformed,  and 
contract  incurable  ugliness  and  infirmity  under  the  pressure  of  dis- 
proportionate misfortune,  like  the  spine  beneath  too  low  a  vault  ?  " 

No  one  who  has  read  the  works  of  the  great  Frenchman  can  for  a 
moment  doubt  his  answer  to  his  own  question. 

Says  the  Eev.  L.  A.  Banks :  "  So  intimate  is  the  relation  between 
the  body  and  the  soul,  that  every  question  which  has  to  do  with  the 
feeding  or  clothing  of  a  human  body  is,  at  the  last  analysis,  a  moral 
question." 

The  advent  of  the  Labour  Union  has  in  many  cases  prevented  the 
labourer  from  having  his  wages  cut  to  an  unbearable  extent,  but 
there  are  many  workers  who  are  practically  defenceless.  Such  is  the 
case  with  most  women  and  children.  The  last  census  gives  the  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  women  working  in  manufacturing  pursuits 
as  28.4  per  cent.,  while,  the  increase  in  the  number  of  children  is 
placed  at  54  4  per  cent.  The  number  of  women  in  factory  work  in 
the  United  States  is  1,031,747.  New  York  has  230,199,  Massachu- 
setts 143,109,  Pennsylvania  126,093,  Illinois  58,978,  and  Ohio  53,711. 
Eighteen  out  of  nineteen  factory  States  exhibit  an  increase  in  women 
workers,  Maine  being  the  one  exception  to  the  rule.  The  States  out- 
side the  factory  list  show  great  increases,  for  instance  South  Caro- 
lina is  shown  to  have  increased  158.3  per  cent.,  North  Carolina  151.2 
per  cent.,  West  Virginia  130.2  per  cent.,  Alabama  109.1  per  cent, 
Georgia  82,2  per  cent.  So  much  for  our  prosperity! 

671 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Many  industries  are  coming  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of 
women.  There  are  37,762  women  making  cigars,  a  gain  of  56  per 
cent,  against  a  gain  of  4.6  per  cent,  for  men.  Malt  liqueurs  show  an 
increase  of  101.6  per  cent,  of  women  workers  against  an  increase  of 
30.2  per  cent,  of  men  workers.  There  are  6^  times  as  many  women 
as  men  making  collars  and  cuffs,  and  more  than  twice  as  many  em- 
ployed in  the  leather,  glove  and  mitten  industry.  The  wages  paid  to 
female  operators  of  typewriting  machines  is  now,  we  are  informed,  in 
excess  of  $200,000,000.  The  wretched  conditions  under  which  many 
of  our  sisters  work  and  the  miserable  pittances  they  receive  is  one  of 
the  saddest  features  of  modern  commercial  savagery.  The  story  of 
the  sweat-shop  is  a  tragedy  with  scarcely  a  glint  of  sunshine  from 
prologue  to  denouement. 

Some  years  ago  the  Eev.  L.  A.  Banks  published  his  "  White  Slaves," 
a  work  which  dealt  at  length  with  the  sweat-shop  system  of  Boston. 
In  this  work  he  says :  "  An  officer  of  the  Operatives'  Union  put  the 
number  of  sweat-shops  in  Boston  at  one  hundred  and  fifty,  but  this 
does  not  include  the  tenement-shops  that  are  beginning  to  develop 
here  very  rapidly." 

Mr.  Banks  made  a  careful  and  exhaustive  study  of  the  sweat-shop 
and  kindred  evils.  We  regret  that  space  does  not  permit  us  to  put 
before  the  Reader  some  of  the  more  typical  cases  which  he  unearthed. 
We  must  content  ourselves,  after  referring  all  those  who  are  interested 
in  these  subjects  to  his  work,  with  the  following  quotations  there- 
from :  tt  George  Macdonald  says :  '  The  world  will  change  only  as 
the  heart  of  man  changes.  Growing  intellect,  growing  civilisation, 
will  heal  man's  wounds  only  to  cause  the  deeper  ill  to  break  out  afresh 
in  new  forms,  nor  can  they  satisfy  one  longing  of  the  human  soul. 
Its  desires  are  deeper  than  that  soul  itself,  whence  it  groans  with  the 
groanings  that  cannot  be  uttered.  As  much  in  times  of  civilisation 
as  in  those  of  barbarity,  the  soul  needs  an  external  presence  to  make 
its  life  good  to  it/  The  Christianity  of  to-day  must  set  itself,  as  did 
Jesus,  to  make  men  brothers,  by  bringing  them  to  a  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  they  are  all  alike  the  children  of  one  God  and  Father  over 
all.  Such  a  Christianity  will  necessarily  be  at  war  with  the  gold  god 
of  our  time.  The  clear-cut  declaration  of  Jesus,  '  Ye  cannot  serve 
God  and  Mammon/  is  as  true  now  as  when  He  uttered  it.  I  do  not 
remember  to  have  seen  this  issue  put  as  clearly  anywhere  else  as  by 
Henry  D.  Lloyd  in  an  article  in  the  '  North  American  Review '  en- 
titled, '  The  New  Conscience/  He  says :  s  Let  us  listen  while  a 
delegation  from  the  Money-power  remonstrates  with  the  New  Con- 
science for  its  unreasonable  sentiments  and  ideas.  Here  they  come, 
one  by  one,  and  range  themselves  about.  First  speaks  — 

'  THE  MERCHANT  PRINCE:     I  have  a  right  to  buy  where  I  can  buy 
cheapest. 

'  CONSCIENCE  :     See  these  little  stunted,  hollow-eyed  girls  coming 
out  of  that  factory. 

'  LAWYER  :     Wages  are  settled  by  contract. 

'  CONSCIENCE  :    Where  can  I  find  white-haired  workingmen  ? 

'  CAPITALIST  :    Every  man  has  a  right  to  do  what  he  will  with 
his  own. 

672 


POVERTY   AND   TOIL 

'  CONSCIENCE  :     What  is  the  price  of  a  senatorship  to-day  ? 

'STATISTICIAN:     Never  were  food,  fuel,  and  clothing  so"cheap. 

'  CONSCIENCE  :  Little  Mary  Mitchell  works  in  Waterbury's  rope- 
works  five  days  a  week  from  six  in  the  evening  till  six  in  the  morning. 

'RAILROAD  KING:  Every  man  makes  his  own  career.  I  was  a 
workingrnan  myself  twenty  years  ago,  and  now  I  keep  a  carriage, 
a  butler,  and  several  judges  and  legislators,  in  four  States,  and  — 

'  CONSCIENCE  :  That  tired-looking  man  is  a  railway  conductor  of 
a  company  owned  by  half  a  dozen  men  worth  three  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  which  is  not  enough  for  them,  so  they  squeeze  a  few 
more  dollars  a  month  out  of  him  by  making  him,  on  every  alternate 
trip,  do  twenty-eight  and  a  half  hours'  work  without  sleep. 

'BANKER:  Our  wealth  is  increasing  one  billion  dollars  a  year. 
We  have  boards  of  trades,  the  best  railroads  in  the  world,  and  pack- 
ing-houses that  can  kill  ten  thousand  hogs. 

'  CONSCIENCE  :  The  sickening  stench,  the  blistered  air,  the  foul 
sights  of  the  tenements,  and  the  motherhood  and  the  childhood  chok- 
ing there. 

'  CONSERVATIVE  :  This  is  the  best  government  in  the  world. 
America  is  good  enough  for  me. 

'  CONSCIENCE  :  Listen  to  that  '  tramp,  tramp,  tramp/  of  a  mil- 
lion men  out  of  work. 

'MANUFACTURER:  Without  this  system  of  industry  the  subjuga- 
tion of  North  America  to  civilisation  would  have  been  impossible; 
we  could  never  have  shown  the  world  the  magnificent  spectacle  of  — 

'  CONSCIENCE  :  There  is  a  little  boy  standing  ten  hours  a  day  up 
to  his  ankles  in  the  water  in  a  coal-mine. 

'  COAL  MONOPOLIST  :  I  have  a  statistician  who  can  prove  —  he 
can  prove  anything  —  that  the  workingrnan.  is  a  great  deal  better 
off  than  he  ever  was,  that  he  makes  more  than  I  do,  that  small  in- 
comes are  increasing  and  large  ones  decreasing,  that  there  is  no  in- 
voluntary poverty,  and  that  the  workingmen  could  live  on  twenty- 
five  cents  each  a  day  and  buy  up  the  United  States  with  their  savings, 
and  — 

'  CONSCIENCE  :  How  long  shall  it  be  cheaper  to  run  over  work- 
ingmen and  women  at  the  railroad  crossings  in  the  cities  than  to  put 
up  gates  ? 

'  CLERGYMAN  :     The  poor  we  are  to  have  with  us  always. 

'  CONSCIENCE  :  That  sewing-woman  you  see  pawning  her  shawl 
has  lived  this  winter  with  her  two  children  in  a  room  without  fire. 
Are  you  wearing  one  of  the  shirts  she  finished? 

'  STATESMAN  :  The  workingman  has  the  ballot  and  the  news- 
papers. He  is  a  free  citizen. 

'  CONSCIENCE  :  As  the  nights  grow  colder  see  how  the  number  of 
girls  on  the  street  increases/ 

"  It  is  this  new  conscience,  the  conscience  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  ap- 
praises a  hungry  child  to  be  of  more  value  than  ten  thousand  palaces, 
that  must  animate  and  dominate  the  church  that  is  called  by  His 
name,  in  its  war  against  the  gold  god  of  modern  society." 

In  a  leaflet  "  Factory  Work  in  Newark  Homes,"  Elizabeth  B.  But- 
ler, Executive  Secretary  of  the  "  Consumers'  League  "  of  New  Jersey, 
43  673 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION" 

says:  "As  is  well-known,  the  home-workers  for  a  factory  are  in  a 
peculiarly  defenceless  position,  because  there  is  no  union  or  other 
restriction  to  competition  between  them,  and  consequently  no  limit 
below  which  the  rate  of  pay  may  not  fall.  In  no  case  is  the  price 
paid  for  outside  work  equal  to  that  paid  for  the  same  work  when 
done  by  inside  hands.  Outside  and  inside  workers  are  always  studi- 
ously kept  apart :  '  They  don't  like  you  to  talk  to  the  inside  hands/ 
one  hears  frequently,  'they  don't  want  you  to  know  what  they  get.' 
The  pay  for  carding  buttons  was  formerly  4  cents  a  gross,  that  is, 
sewing  12  buttons  each  on  12  cards;  the  work  was  then  done  by  the 
girls  in  the  factory.  When  the  rate  was  cut  to  2  cents  a  gross,  the 
factory  girls  refused  to  do  it  for  that  price,  and  it  was  given  to  out- 
side workers;  now,  practically  all  carding  of  buttons  is  done  outside 
for  iy2  to  2  cents  a  gross.  Finishing  pants  is  another  case  in  point. 
When  the  work  was, done  in  the  shop,  a  pants  finisher  was  paid  14 
or  15  cents  a  pair.  By  the  competition  of  unorganised  home  work- 
ers, the  price  was  cut  to  12  cents,  and  later  to  10,  8,  and  even  6  cents 
a  pair;  with  each  fall  in  price  more  of  the  work  was  done  in  the 
homes  and  less  in  the  shops,  until  now  it  is  not' too  much  to  say 
that  all  finishing  of  pants  is  done  by  individual  workers  at  home. 
For  making  a  dozen  kimonos,  the  pay  is  60  cents.  For  finishing 
waists,  12-button-holes  in  a  waist,  and  tapes  to  put  in,  the  pay  is 
42  cents  a  dozen.  Jewellers  give  out  much  of  their  rope  chain  'link- 
ing to  home  workers,  and  pay  22  cents  a  foot  for  exceedingly  fine 
work  which  requires  special  instruments.  Babies'  crocheted  sacques 
are  made  altogether  by  home-workers,  who  are  paid  from  50  cents 
to  $1.90  a  dozen,  but  as  the  work  varies  in  fineness  as  much  as  in 
price,  crocheters  make  but  little  more  at  the  high-priced,  than  at 
the  low-priced,  grade  of  work.  Crocheted  booties  pay  40  to  45  cents 
a  dozen,  and  large  circular  shawls  $3.00  a  dozen.  For  felling,  hem- 
ming and  trimming  a  dozen  corset  covers,  one  is  paid  30  cents;  for 
making  a  dozen  butchers'  aprons  25  cents.  In  general,  articles  that 
are  in  constant  demand  pay  the  least,  and  articles  pay  the  best  that 
are  a  passing  fad  and  consequently  offer  no  steady  employment,  such 
as  beaded  purses  or  certain  kinds  of  fancy  collars."  .  .  . 

"  There  are  three  main  classes  of  home-workers :  married  women 
with  large  families,  where  the  wages  of  the  husband  are  insufficient 
to  cover  the  cost  of  living,  married  women  whose  husbands  are  out 
of  work,  and  women  who  although  obliged  to  support  themselves,  are 
unable,  because  of  age  or  illness,  to  work  in  a  shop." 

We  take  the  following  from  the  Eeport  of  the  "  Consumers' 
League  "  of  the  City  of  New  York  for  the  year  ending  Dec.,  1904 : 
"  We  have  laws  which  if  enforced  would  obliterate  every  sweat-room, 
great  and  small,  in  New  York.  To  enforce  these  laws  would  require 
an  army,  of  inspectors  working  day  and  night.  In  some  sections  of 
the  city  every  tenement  house  would  require  two  inspectors  contin- 
ually, one  at  the  street-door  entrances,  the  other  on  the  roof,  and 
fire  escapes  are  used  as  entrances  and  exits.  We  have  a  new  law 
recently  in  effect,  which  provides  that  the  house  must  be  licensed 
and  not  the  apartment.  After  an  inspection  by  the  labour  inspector 
and  consultations  with  the  Health  Department,  if  everything  is  found 

674 


POVERTY   AND    TOIL 

in  good  order,  the  owner  is  given  a  license,  these  buildings  to  be 
inspected  every  six  months  at  least.  I  have  a  list  of  tenements  li- 
censed by  the  Labour  Bureau  in  my  neighbourhood.  I  have  been  in 
thirty-eight  of  these  houses,  the  license  was  posted  in  twelve.  In 
one  of  these  licensed  houses  I  have  attended  a  case  of  measles ;  there 
are  two  families  in  the  apartment,  the  notice  of  the  contagious  dis- 
ease was  posted  on  the  door,  two  women  were  finishing  trousers 
within,  one  day  I  found  the  sick  child  lying  on  a  bundle  of  the  trous- 
ers, this  is  a  common  occurrence.  There  is  also  a  clause  forbidding 
the  employment  of  any  but  members  of  the  family  —  not  only  is  this 
not  obeyed,  but  the  work  is  carried  to  other  apartments  and  even  to 
other  houses.  The  old  law  placed  the  responsibility  of  manufactur- 
ing on  the  worker  and  the  manufacturers.  The  new  law  takes  the 
responsibility  off  the  worker  and  puts  it  on  the  landlord.  On  Jan. 
9th,  according  to  the  daily  papers,  a  raid  was  made  by  twenty-two 
inspectors  in  Elizabeth  Street.  The  people  were  duly  frightened, 
much  of  the  work  was  hidden,  and,  to  my  personal  knowledge,  in  the 
evening  was  being  done  in  inside  bedrooms  with  doors  locked.  Fresh 
work  I  saw  carried  in  and  finished  in  about  the  same  way  that  the 
people  would  have  made  counterfeit  money.  The  next  day  and  since, 
it  is  being  done  openly,  outlooks  being  posted  in  different  parts  of  the 
house  who  will  give  the  alarm  in  their  own  language,  and  work  will 
be  again  hidden  should  another  inspection  be  made.  Any  person, 
seeing  such  a  spectacle  as  this,  can  but  wonder  what  manner  of  United 
States  Citizens  these  people  thus  treated  are  going  to  make,  trying 
to  earn  an  honest  living  and  forced  by  this  law  to  make  it  illegally. 
Is  there  any  other  remedy?  /  believe  that  a  law  absolutely  forbid- 
ding any  manufacturer  to  have,  any  part  of  his  work  done  in  a  tene- 
ment house  could  be  enforced. 

"If  women  must  add  to  the  income  of  the  family  they  should 
do  it  in  buildings  built  for  this  purpose,  children,  at  least  under 
eight  years  of  age,  would  not  be  employed  —  men  and  women  in  the 
last  stages  of  tuberculosis  could  not  work  because  of  inability  to  go 
to  a  factory.  The  children,  the  future  Americans,  would  stand  a 
better  chance  of  becoming  useful  citizens, —  and  the  consumers,  pos- 
sessed of  much  wealth  or  little,  could  know  that  their  garments  were 
not  stained  with  the  blood  of  helpless  women  and  little  children." 

The  evils  of  the  sweat-shop  are  by  no  means  confined  to  the  filthy 
germ-laden  tenements  where  the  economic  slaves  wear  out  their  miser- 
able lives  in  a   daily  increasing  struggle  for  bread.     This  system 
menaces  even  those  smug  optimists  who  know  nothing  of  its  horrors 
and  are  not  aware  that  it  concerns  them  in  the  least.     The  goods 
made  in  these  sweating  dens  go  everywhere,  and  there  is  absolutely 
no  safe-guard  against  them.    The  excellent  work  of  the  "  Consumers 
League  "  deserves  the  strongest  commendation,  but,  until  the  publ 
awake  to  a  juster  appreciation  of  the  danger  it  is  incurring    the 
work  of  the  League  will  he  quite  insufficient  to  guarantee  its  safety. 
The  advertisements  of  concerns  to  the  effect  that  their  wares  are 
made  in  carefully  made  and  sanitary  factories  go  for  naught, 
are  quite  as  likely  as  any  others  to  come  from  the  moat  squalid 
sweat-shops.     Investigation  has  shown  goods  being  made  in  rooms 

675 


containing  children  sick  with  scarlet-fever,  measles,  diphtheria  and 
the  like.  In  some  cases  the  sick  children  were  lying  upon  piles  of 
the  goods  which  a  little  later  were  to  be  sold  to  the  unsuspecting 
public.  The  cut  presented  herewith  is  that  of  a  woman  in  the  last 
stages  of  tuberculosis  who  was  found  working  on  fancy  collars.  The 
room  is  in  the  basement  of  a  tenement-house  in  the  block  in  New 
York  known  as  "Lung  Block,"  because  of  the  prevalence  of  tuber- 
culosis. It  will  be  noted  that  the  woman  is  working  by  the  light  of 
a  single  gas  jet, — rgas  burning  at  midday!  for  no  daylight  ever  en- 
ters the  room.  The  collars  which  this  woman  made  went  forth  from 
her  hands  perhaps  to  spread  death  and  destruction  in  homes  of 
affluence. 

The  outrageous  treatment  bestowed  upon  the  female  as  well  as  the 
male  workers  in  Packingtown,  Chicago,  is  luminously  described  in 
Mr.  Upton  Sinclair's  great  book  "  The  Jungle." 

The  Great  White  Plague  has  killed  not  millions  but  billions  of 
men,  women  and  children.  It  has  hung  like  a  smothering  pall  for 
thousands  of  years  over  the  human  race,  and  to-day  of  the  80.000,000 
people  in  the  United  States  between  seven  and  eight  million  must 
inevitably  die  of  consumption,  unless  something  is  done  to  decrease 
the  number  of  its  victims.  Every  year  it  kills  more  than  100,000  of 
our  men  and  women,  most  of  whom  are  cut  off  in  the  very  prime  of 
life.  In  1890  the  number  claimed  by  consumption,  including  general 
tuberculosis,  was  102,199,  which  figure  rose  in  1900  to  111,059 !  One- 
third  of  all  the  women  who  die  between  the  ages  of  20  and  45  die 
of  tuberculosis.  Of  the  men  who  die  between  30  and  45,  32  per 
•cent,  are  victims  of  this  plague,  and,  what  is  most  alarming  of  all, 
36  per  cent,  of  all  the  deaths  of  young^men  between  20  and  29  are 
from  this  cause.  The  Great  White  Plague  is  without  a  competitor 
in  its  fearful  mortality.  It  has  killed  more  than  all  the  wars  and 
other  plagues  combined,  the  world  over. 

Commenting  on  this  dreadful  disease,  Ernest  Poole  says :  "  It  is  a 
plague  in  disguise.  Its  ravages  are  insidious,  slow.  They  have  never 
yet  roused  a  people  to  great,  sweeping  action.  The  Black  Plague  in 
London  is  ever  remembered  with  horror.  It  lived  one  year;  it  killed 
fifty  thousand.  The  Plague,  Consumption,  kills  this  year  in  Europe 
over  a  million ;  and  this  has  been  going  on  not  for  one  year  but  for 
centuries.  It  is  the  Plague  of  all  plagues  —  both  in  age  and  in 
power, —  insidious,  steady,  unceasing. 

"  It  can  be  stamped  out.  Its  workings  are  no  longer  hidden.  We 
know  now  that  consumption  is  not  produced  by  direct  heredity  — 
the  tendency  alone  is  inherited.  It  is  produced  by  infection  from 
living  germs,  coughed  up,  millions  in  a  day.  Ignorance  lets  these 
millions  live,  spat  out  on  walls  and  floors  and  pavements,  to  float 
later  in  the  air  and  so  spread  the  infection.  Darkness,  foul  air,  and 
filth  keep  these  millions  alive.  Sunlight  has  killed  them  in  fifteen 
minutes;  in  dark  tenement  halls  they  are  known  to  have  lived  two 
years.  Darkness,  foul  air,  ignorance,  drink  —  these  weaken  men, 
women,  and  children,  and  so  make  them  ready  for  infection.  Then 
the  germs,  if  breathed  in,  may  bring  pulmonary  tuberculosis  —  con- 
sumption; or  if  swallowed,  tuberculosis  of  the  stomach  or  the  intes- 

676 


Basement  of  Tenement  House  in  Block  known  as  "  Lung  Block,"  because  of  prevalence 
of  tuberculosis.  No  daylight  —  gas  burning  at  midday.  A  woman  in  the  last  stages 
of  tuberculosis  working  on  fancy  collars. 

Reproduced  from  Report  of  "The  Consumers'  League"  of  New  York. 


POVERTY   AND   TOIL 

tines;  or,  if  brought  in  contact  with  a  wound,  tuberculosis  of  the 
skin  or  of  the  joints.  These  latter  forms  are  most  common  in  little 
children.  They  bring  but  one-fourth  of  all  deaths  from  the  Plague. 
Tuberculosis  of  the  lungs  is  the  one  great  form  of  the  Plague  to  be 
fought  above  all  others.  It  can  be  stamped  out. 

"  In  New  York  City  a  strong  beginning  has  already  been  made. 
While  the  population  has  vastly  increased  in  the  last  twenty  years, 
the  number  of  deaths  from  this  cause  has  remained  about  the  same. 
Far  greater  effort,  however,  is  now  called  for.  Dr.  Hermann  M. 
Biggs,  Medical  Officer  of  the  Department  of  Health,  has  recently 
said :  '  The  measures  now  in  force  are  quite  inadequate  as  compared 
to  the  importance  and  magnitude  of  the  problem.  The  sanitary  au- 
thorities, however  enthusiastic  and  efficient,  and  the  medical  pro- 
fession, however  influential  and  numerous,  cannot  grapple  with  this 
problem  unless  they  have  the  hearty  support  of  the  people.'  And  he 
adds :  '  I  believe  that  tuberculosis  may  be  practically  stamped  out.' 
This  is  said  from  years  of  wide  experience.  It  is  supported  by  sci- 
ence the  world  over.  Experience  everywhere  has  shown  just  what 
must  be  done.  The  time  is  ripe  for  the  people  to  act  on  a  tremendous 
scale.  Not  hundreds,  not  thousands,  but  tens  of  thousands  are  to  be 
saved  for  New  York  City'  alone  in  these  next  ten  years.  They  aje 
to  be  saved  by  attacking  this  Plague  in  its  stronghold. 

"THE  STRONGHOLD  OF  THE  PLAGUE." 

"Its  stronghold  is  the  tenement.  Statistics  prove  this  the  world 
over.  They  show  in  New  York  State  that  in  cities  of  over  twenty- 
five  thousand  —  now  swiftly  absorbing  young  men  from  the  country, 
sa  making  the  problem  still  more  appalling  —  the  death-rate  from 
consumption  is  over  twice  the  rate  in  smaller  towns  and  villages.  In 
the  city,  it  is  worst  of  all  in  the  tenements.  In  New  York  City 
to-day  there  are  at  least  twenty  thousand  in  the  tenements  who  are 
suffering  in  some  stage  of  this  disease.  It  is  here  among  the  crowded 
poor  that  the  Plague  feeds  fat  on  ignorance  and  poverty,  in  dark 
halls,  foul  rooms,  dark  closets.  It  is  here  that  it  shatters  the  home 
as  it  has  shattered  homes  among  us  all.  Here  it  fastens  on  the  bread- 
winner, eating  up  the  small  savings,  lingering  on  for  months  and 
even  years,  so  making  the  greatest  of  human  powers  —  Love —  only 
a  means  of  infection  and  death.  It  is  from  here  that  sweat-Shop 
garments  and  wares  of  all  kinds  go  out  infected  to  all  classes  of 
people.  It  is  here  that  unceasing  danger  lies  for  the  whole  com- 
munity." 

That  consumption  can  be  stamped  out  utterly  few  who  are  in- 
formed on  the  subject  can  for  a  moment  doubt.  The  scientific  work 
which  is  now  being  carried  forward,  as  also  the  efforts  which  are 
being  made  to  create  an  intelligent  public  opinion  in  the  matter  are 
earnlts  of  the  time  when  this  disease  shall  be  stripped  of  its  bane- 
ful Dower  In  this  connexion  the  words  of  J.  H.  Pryor  are  most 
Ricmrficimt'  He  says:  "We  must  care  for  the  consumptive  in  the 
rigS "place,  in  the"  right  way,  and  at  the  right  time,  until  he  is 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

cured;  instead  of,  as  now,  in  the  wrong  place,  in  the  wrong  way,  at 
the  wrong  time,  until  he  is  dead." 

The  very  best  time  to  begin  the  campaign,  against  consumption  is 
in  the  early  childhood  of  our  social  units.  One  of  the  very  best 
places  to  wage  this  holy  war  is  in  the  public  school.  When  our  edu- 
cators can  be  themselves  educated  to  a  degree  at  which  they  will 
realise  that  proper  breathing  exercises,  faithfully  taken,  will  render 
scholars  immune  from  the  attacks  of  consumption,  they  will  become 
an  assistant,  rather  than  a  deterrent,  to  the  scientific  men  who  are 
giving  their  lives  to  this  great  cause.  It  is  not  enough  that  scholars 
should  more  or  less  slouchily  go  through  perfunctory  exercises  for 
the  development  of  full  and  deep  breathing.  Far  more  than  this 
is  needed.  A  way  must  be  found  to  enlist  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
pupil  himself,  since  otherwise  he  will,  as  he  easily  can,  "  go  through 
the  moves"  without  deriving  any  benefits  whatsoever.  The  way  to 
secure  the  proper  faithfulness  in  the  work  is  to  judge  it  in  terms 
of  its  results.  A  child  should  be  marked  according  to  his  breathing 
capacity,  his  thoracic  and  abdominal  expansion,  and  the  like,  and  he 
should  not  be  promoted,  whatever  may  be  his  oth&r  attainments,  until 
he  showed  the  requisite  advancement  in  breathing.  In  short,  our 
educators  should  insist  once  and  for  all  that,  in  the  matter  of  promo- 
tion, the  capacity  of  the  lungs  should  be  taken  into  consideration 
even  before  that  of  the  brain. 

The  human  organism  at  any  one  time  contains  but  a  certain  amount 
of  potential  energy.  To  divert  this  energy  to  the  head,  when  the 
lungs  are  weak,  is  a  pernicious  practice.  The  strength  of  a  chain  is 
that  of  its  weakest  link,  and  it  is  folly  to  attempt  to  develop  a  fine 
thinking  mechanism  by  a  process  which  dwarfs  the  vital  functions 
until  they  cannot  pump  into  it  the  blood  which  is  necessary  for 
thought.  It  reminds  one  of  the  town  which  spent  all  its  moth  ap- 
propriation in  the  purchase  of  spraying  pumps,  and  then  was  unable 
to  get  anything  to  use  in  them.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  time  will 
soon  come  when  our  educators  will  realise  that  the  human  body  is  not 
a  haphazard  assortment  of  unrelated  parts,  but  rather  a  composite 
whole  made  up  of  closely  correlated  organs,  the  healthful  and  efficient 
action  of  every  one  of  which  is  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  the 
organism  as  a  whole.  When  this  is  duly  appreciated,  we  shall  aim 
properly  to  develop  all  the  life  functions  of  our  pupil,  and  not  con- 
duct ourselves  as  if  we  had  no  interest  below  his  neck.  When  this 
time  comes,  it  may  be,  too,  that  we  shall  see  that  fact  which  is  as 
patent  as  a  trunk  on  an  elephant,  to  wit,  that  the  social  body  is 
like  the  corporeal  body,  a  correlation  of  parts,  the  disease,  weakness 
or  inefficiency  of  any  one  of  which  reacts  upon  the  whole  organism. 
This  wisdom  attained,  the  rich  and  the  affluent  will  soon  see  that  they 
can  get  a  great  deal  more  happiness  out  of  life  by  so  changing  con- 
ditions as  to  abolish  poverty  and  crime  than  by  groping  forever  in 
their  present  black  selfishness,  fitfully  illuminated  by  acts  of  explo- 
sive, and  often  ill-advised,  philanthropy  —  philanthropy,  that  sorry 
substitute  for  justice. 


678 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  WHITE  PLAGUE  AN  ADDED  BURDEN 


679 


The  seed   ye  sow,   another   reaps; 
The    wealth    ye    find,    another    keeps; 
The    robes    ye    weave,    another    wears; 
The  arms  ye  forge,  another  bears. 

Shelley  —  Song.     To  Men  *f  England. 

O  God!  that  bread  should  be  so  dear, 
And  flesh  and  blood  so  cheap! 

Hood  —  The  Song  of  the  Shirt. 

Oh,  room  for  the  lamb  in  the  meadow, 
And  room  for  the  bird  on  the  tree! 

But  here,  in  stern  poverty's  shadow, 
No  room,  hapless  baby!  for  thee. 

ft.  M.  Milne. 

The  city  of  Vercelli,  Italy,  has  made  feeding  as  compulsory  as  educa- 
tion! Every  child,  rich  or  poor,  is  compelled  to  attend  the  school  dinners 
provided  by  the  municipality,  just  as  it  is  compelled  to  attend  the  school 
lessons.  Not  only  food,  but  medical  care  and  attention,  are  provided 
for  every  child,  as  a  right,  on  the  principle  that  it  is  absurd  and  wrong 
to  attempt  to  develop  the  mind  of  a  child  while  neglecting  its  body.  It  is 
a  mocking  judgment  of  our  civilisation  that  such  a  natural,  intelligent 
solution  of  a  pressing  problem  should  be  impossible  for  our  greatest  and 
richest  cities, 'though  attained  by  a  little  Italian  city  like  Vercelli. 

John  Spargo  —  The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children. 


680 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  WHITE   PLAGUE  AN   ADDED 
BURDEN 

T  needs  hardly  to  be  said  that  in  the  public-school 
campaign  against  tuberculosis  all  the  pupils  could 
not  be  expected  to  attain  to  the  same  absolute  meas- 
urements in  the  matter  of  breathing  development. 
The  essential  thing  is  that  each  shall  be  held  back 

from  promotion  until  he  has  made  a  certain  per  cent. 

of  the  improvement  which  it  is  fairly  possible  for  him  to  make. 
This  is  a  matter  which  could  easily  be  determined.  The  average 
person  expels  at  each  exhalation  from  10  to  13  per  cent,  of  all  the 
air  contained  in  the  lungs.  To  ascertain  the  individual  content  of 
lungs  within  a  narrow  margin  of  error  should  not  be  difficult.  The 
whole  matter  is  of  such  vital  importance  that  it  warrants  whatever 
of  time  and  labour  may  be  necessary  to  its  furtherance. 

In  an  article  published  in  "A  Handbook  on  the  Prevention  of 
Tuberculosis,"  Ernest  Poole  treats  of  tuberculosis  in  the  New  York 
tenement.  The  title  of  his  article  is  "The  Plague  in  its  Strong- 
hold." From  it  we  extract  "  The  Prayer  of  the  Tenement,"  as  illus- 
trative of  conditions  which  are  a  stinging  indictment  of  20th-century 
civilisation. 

'  Breath  —  breath  —  give  me  breath ! '  A  Yiddish  whisper,  on  a 
night  in  April,  1903,  from  the  heart  of  the  New  York  Ghetto. 

"  At  18  Clinton  Street,  back  in  the  rear  tenement,  a  young  Rouman- 
ian Jew  lay  dying  of  consumption.  I  had  come  in  with  a  Jewish 
doctor.  With  every  breath  I  felt  the  heavy,  foul  odour  from  poverty, 
ignorance,  filth,  disease.  In  this  room  ten  feet  square  six  people  lay 
on  the  floor  packed  close,  rubbing  the  heavy  sleep  from  tired  eyes  and 
staring  at  us  dumbly.  Two  small  windows  gave  them  air,  from  a 
noisome  court  —  a  pit  twenty  feet  across  and  five  floois  deep.  The 
other  room  was  only  a  closet  six  feet  by  seven,  with  a  grated  window 
high  up  opening  on  an  air-shaft  eighteen  inches  wide.  And  in  that 
closet  four  more  were  sleeping,  three  on  a  bed,  one  in  a  cradle. 

"  '  Breath  —  breath  —  give  me  breath ! '  The  man's  disease  was 
infectious;  and  yet  for  two  long  weeks  he  had  lain  here  dying. 
From  his  soiled  bed  he  could  touch  the  one  table,  where  the  two  families 
ate ;  the  cooking  stove  was  but  six  feet  from  him ;  the  cupboard,  over 
his  pillow;  he  could  even  reach  one  of  the  cradles,  where  his  baby 
girl  lay  staring  frightened  at  his  strange  position:  for  his  wasted 
body  was  too  feeble  to  rise;  too  choked,  too  tortured,  to  lie  down. 
His  young  wife  held  him  up  while  the  sleepers  stared  silently  on, 
and  that  Yiddish  whisper  came  over  and  over  again,  but  now  with  a 

681 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

new  and  more  fearful  meaning :  '  Breath  —  breath  —  breath !  Or 
kill  me :  oh,  kill  me ! ' 

"  Two  years  ago  this  man  had  come  to  America  —  one  of  the  four 
hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand  in  1901.  He  came  young  and 
well  and  hopeful,  with  his  wife  and  their  baby  son.  Two  more  had 
been  born  since  then.  It  was  to  be  a  new  country,  a  new  home,  a 
fresh  start,  a  land  to  breathe  in.  '  Breath  —  breath  —  give  me 
breath  \ '  He  had  breathed  no  air  here  but  the  close,  heavy  air  of  the 
sweat-shop,  from  six  in  the  morning  until  ten  at  night.  Sometimes 
—  he  whispered  —  he  worked  on  until  eleven.  He  was  not  alone.  In 
New  York  to-day  and  to-night  are  over  fifty  thousand  like  him  work- 
ing. And  late  in  the  night  when  he  left  the  feverish  labour,  at  the 
hour  when  other  homes  are  sleeping,  he  had  come  in  through  the  foul 
court  and  had  sunk  into  restless  sleep  in  the  dark  closet  six  feet  by 
seven. 

There  are  three  hundred  and  sixty-one  thousand  such  closets  in  the 
city.  And  this. was  his  'home/ 

'  Luf  t  —  giebt  mir  Luf t ! '  He  spoke  only  Yiddish.  The  new  coun- 
try had  given  the  Plague  before  the  language.  For  the  sweat-shop 
and  the  closet  had  made  him  weak ;  his  weakened  body  could  make  no 
fight ;  the  Plague  came  in  and  fed  swiftly.  Still  on  through  the  win- 
ter he  had  worked  over  the  machine  in  the  sweat-shop,  infecting  the 
garments  he  sewed  —  feverish,  tired,  fearful  —  to  buy  food  and  coal, 
to  keep  his  '  home '  alive.  And  now,  on  this  last  day  of  life,  ten  times 
he  had  whispered  to  his  brother,  begging  him  to  care  for  the  wife  and 
the  three  little  children. 

"  The  struggle  now  is  ended.  The  home  is  scattered.  The  smothered 
whisper  is  forever  hushed.  '  Breath  —  breath  —  give  me  breath ! ' 
It  speaks  the  appeal  of  thousands." 

We  have  already  referred  to  what  is  known  as  "  The  Lung  Block  " 
in  New  York  City.  This  block  is  bounded  by  Cherry,  Catherine. 
Hamilton  and  Market  Streets.  It  is  close  to  East  Eiver  where  there 
is  fresh  air  and  an  open  area,  and  it  ought  to  be  wholesome.  On  the 
contrary,  however,  it  has  well  earned  its  name.  The  diagram  of  this 
block  submitted  herewith  is  reproduced  from  "A  Handbook  on  the 
Prevention  of  Tuberculosis/'  published  by  the  Charity  Organisation 
Society  of  New  York  City  — 1903.  It  is  self-explanatory.  In  speak- 
ing of  this  block,  Ernest  Poole  says,  in  part,  in  the  article  already 
referred  to :  "  For  a  month  I  worked  through  it  with  the  help  of 
those  who  know  it  best.  I  went  through  with  health  and  tenement 
inspectors,  as  a  settlement  visitor  one  week,  as  a  *  fresh-air  man '  the 
next.  I  use  this  one  block  as  a  centre,  not  to  prove,  but  to  image  what 
has  already  been  proved  all  through  the  civilised  world,  to  image  the 
three  great  evils  we  must  fight  in  the  tenement.  These  evils  are  Con- 
gestion, Dissipation,  Infection. 

"  That  the  Plague  spreads  with  congestion  has  long  been  proved  be- 
yond the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  It  spreads  even  faster  than  the  crowd 
pours  in.  So  it  is  in  the  block  we  have  taken.  It  stands  in  one  of 
the  most  congested  wards  of  the  most  crowded  city  in  the  world, 
and  this  Seventh  Ward  is  steadily,  swiftly  packing  closer.  Between 
1890  and  1900,  the  density  of  its  already  crowded  population  in- 

682 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

creased  no  less  than  sixty-five  per  cent.  Now  it  holds  four  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  humans  to  an  acre.  The  Lung  Block  alone  holds 
nearly  four  thousand,  not  to  mention  dogs,  cats,  parrots  and  one 
weakened  old  monkey.  Of  the  humans,  some  four  hundred  are  babies. 

"  It  is  a  block  packed  close  with  huge,  grimy  tenements ;  these  tene- 
ments are  honeycombed  with  rooms;  these  rooms  are  homes  for  peo- 
ple. To  squeeze  in  more  homes,  light  and  air  are  slowly  shut  out. 
Halls,  courts,  air-shafts,  are  all  left  cramped  and  deep  and  sunless. 

"  It  is  a  block  of  a  thousand  homes.  Through  halls,  in  rooms,  on 
stairways,  in  courts,  in  shafts,  and  out  on  fire-escapes,  are  sprinkled 
the  four  hundred  babies.  At  the  age  of  two  they  are  found  alone  in 
the  street,  already  imbibing  its  deep,  muddy  wisdom.  So  this  muddy 
street  overflows  into  the  home.  It  is  hard  for  the  home  to  keep  whole- 
some and  pure.  Things  and  people  —  good  and  bad  —  have  only 
partitions  between  them. 

"  In  a  block  so  congested  the  Plague  spreads  swiftly.  In  the  past 
nine  years  alone,  this  block  has  reported  two  hundred  and  sixty-five 
cases.  From  doctors,  druggists,  and  all  others  who  know,  I  gathered 
that  this  is  but  half  the  true  number. 

"  In  a  block  so  congested  dissipation  comes  easy.  Foul  air,  dark- 
ness, wretched  surroundings  —  these  work  on  the  home  by  day  and  by 
night.  Here  a  thousand  homes  struggle  on,  while  hundreds  yield  and 
sink  and  so  pollute  the  others.  So  come  squalid  homes  and  wretched 
meals.  So  comes  the  humorous,  shattered  old  chap  who  told  me,  *  I 
aint  never  sober  but  when  I  gits  out  of  bed/  So  come  hundreds  of 
others,  men  and  women,  young  and  old;  drunk,  bestial,  vile,  forever 
steadily  sinking.  'Hard  drinking  triples  susceptibility  to  consump- 
tion.' This  is  seen  most  of  all  in  the  Irish;  hence  among  the  Irish 
the  death-rate  from  the  Plague  is  twice  that  of  any  other  white  nation- 
ality. The  Jews,  with  their  strict  habits,  their  dietary  laws,  and  a 
certain  standard  of  cleanliness  enforced  by  a  rigid  religion,  show  the 
lowest  death-rate  of  all,  though  this  is  rising  as  they  become  tenemen- 
tised.  At  present,  the  Lung  Block  has  only  Jews  on  the  Market  .Street 
end,  and  among  them  we  found  hardly  a  case  of  consumption.  The 
body  of  the  block  is  packed  with  Irish  and  Italians,  and  a  sprinkling 
of  twelve  other  peoples.  All  these  image  best  the  dissipation,  the 
shattered  vitality  which  eats  into  savings,  starves  the  home,  then  gives 
the  Plague  easy  entrance,  and  makes  it  a  constant  danger  to  all  in  the 
family. 

"  I  give  here  but  a  few  brief  tales  among  many.  In  a  tenement  old, 
vile,  infected,  one  of  the  worst  on  the  block,  an  Italian  lived  some  two 
years  back.  He  had  a  wife  and  three  little  children.  They  lived  in 
one  room  and  a  closet.  They  lived  on  four  dollars  a  week.  To  make 
a  home  wholesome  here  means  unceasing  struggle.  His  wife  gave  up 
and  took  to  drink.  The  man  struggled  on.  He  worked  hard  to  sup- 
port his  babies,  but  it  was  a  wretched  home  to  come  to  at  night.  Even 
the  neighbours  said  so.  The  house  was  infected,  and  against  its  in- 
fection the  home  gave  no  protection,  but  only  wretched  food,  wretch- 
edly cooked,  for  the  tired  man  and  his  little  children.  The  man  took 
the  Plague.  He  worked  on.  Friends  tried  to  make  him  stop.  '  No ! 
Me  die  not  yet  at  all !  Me  gotta  bringa  de  grub  to  ma  chilV  This 

684 


WHITE  PLAGUE  AN  ADDED  BURDEN 

feeling  is  as  old  as  the  hills.  He  struggled  on.  One  afternoon  he 
had  a  hemorrhage  at  work,  and  was  brought  home  on  a  shutter.  The 
'home'  broke  up.  I  could  find  but  one  more  item.  The  baby  girl 
died  last  year  of  the  Plague  —  tubercular  meningitis  —  over  on  Ran- 
dall's Island. 

"  Not  far  off  lives  a  German  family,  a  mother  and  five  girls,  the  old- 
est sixteen,  the  youngest  four.  The  father  drank,  took  the  Plague, 
and  died.  The  mother  took  it  from  him.  Of  the  hundred  and  thir- 
teen dollars  life  insurance,  she  spent  ninety  dollars  on  his  funeral. 
Then  the  starving  began.  The  girl  of  sixteen  lived  three  months  on 
bread  and  tea  alone,  working  each  day  at  four  dollars  a  week  in  a 
factory,  pushing  a  heavy  treadle  from  six  in  the  morning  until  seven 
at  night.  She  had  worked  so  since  she  was  twelve.  '  She  aint  never 
seen  the  country/  said  her  little  sister,  who  loved  her.  She  went  to 
night  school  always.  She  said  she  '  meant  to  be  somebody.'  She  took 
the  Plague  in  the  winter,  when  coal  had  gone  up,  when  the  sleepless 
nights  grew  freezing  cold.  It  was  a  brave  fight,  but  it  is  over.  I 
had  her  examined.  She  is  hopeless.  She  knows  now  what  the  cough 
means  when  it  shakes  her  thin,  hollow  chest;  and  her  eyes,  when  the 
others  are  not  looking,  have  that  pitiful,  hunted  look  which  young 
eyes  must  ever  have  when  suddenly  meeting  death.  She  had  ( meant 
to  be  somebody ' ;  but  her  father  drank. 

"  Other  vice  is  thick  in  the  neighbourhood.  Among  its  victims,  with 
no  health,  no  love,  no  aid  behind  them,  the  Plague  makes  fearful 
havoc.  '  Not  worth  the  bother/  *  I  know  a  dozen  but  they  aint  worth 
helping' — so  I  was  told  again  and  again  when  seeking  for  patients 
whom  country  air  might  cure." 

It  is  not  so  very  long  ago  that  the  idea  that  consumption  was  in- 
fectious was  ridiculed  even  by  some  physicians.  To-day  there  is  no 
medical  fact  more  firmly  established.  Upon  this  point  Mr.  Poole 
offers  the  following  testimony :  "  Of  the  two  hundred  and  sixty-five 
cases  reported  on  the  block,  one  hundred  and  four  came  from  the  six 
old  tenements  alone. 

"  There  is  one  called  (  The  Ink  Pot/  It  has  front  and  rear  tene- 
ments five  floors  high,  with  a  foul  narrow  court  between.  Here  live 
one  hundred  and  forty  people.  Twenty-three  are  babies.  Here  I 
found  one  man  sick  with  the  Plague  in  the  front  house,  two  more  in 
the  rear — and  one  of  these  had  a  young  wife  and  four  children. 
Here  the  Plague  lives  in  darkness  and  filth  —  filth  in  halls,  over  walls 
and  floors,  in  sinks  and  closets.  Here  in  nine  years  alone  twenty-six 
cases  have  been  reported.  How  many  besides  these  were  kept  secret  ? 
And  behind  these  nine  years  —  how  many  oases  more? 

"  Eooms  here  have  held  death  ready  and  waiting  for  years.  Up  on 
the  third  floor,  looking  down  into  the  court,  is  a  room  with  two  little 
closets  behind  it.  In  one  of  these  a  blind  Scotchman  slept  and  took 
the  Plague  in  '94.  His  wife  and  his  fifteen-year-old  son  both  drank, 
and  the  home  grew  squalid  as  the  tenement  itself.  He  died  in  the 
hospital.  Only  a  few  months  later  the  Plague  fastened  again.  Slowly 
his  little  daughter  grew  used  to  the  fever,  the  coughing,  the  long, 
sleepless  nights.  The  foul  court  was  her  only  outlook.  At  last  she, 
too  died  The  mother  and  son  then  moved  away.  But  in  this  room 

685 


GILLETTE'S   SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

the  germs  lived  on.  They  might  all  have  been  killed  in  a  day  by  sun- 
light: they  can  live  two  years  in  darkness.  Here  in  darkness  they 
lived,  on  grimy  walls,  in  dusty  nooks,  on  dirty  floors.  Then  one  year 
later,  in  October,  a  Jew  rented  this  same  room.  He  was  taken  and 
died  in  the  summer.  The  room  was  rented  again  in  the  autumn  by 
a  German  and  his  wife.  She  had  the  Plague  already,  and  died. 
Then  an  Irish  family  came  in.  The  father  was  a  hard,  steady  worker, 
and  loved  his  children.  The  home  this  time  was  winning  the  fight. 
But  six  months  later  he  took  the  Plague.  He  died  in  1901.  This  is 
only  the  record  of  one  room  in  seven  years.  In  the  rear  house  is  an- 
other Plague  room  —  on  the  ground  floor  to  the  right  of  the  low,  nar- 
row entrance.  Here,  in  '96,  lived  an  old  Irish  hat-maker,  with  his 
wife,  his  small  daughter,  his  two  sons.  He  was  housekeeper.  He 
took  the  Plague,  worked  a  year  or  more  there  on  his  hats,  then  died. 
The  cough  came  on  his  wife  soon  after.  She  suffered  long,  weary 
months,  only  to  see  at  the  end  her  young  daughter  begin  the  same 
suffering.  The  mother  died.  The  home  was  shattered.  The  girl 
was  taken  away  by  her  aunt,  and  soon  followed  her  mother.  The 
two  sons  died  of  the  same  disease,  spreading  it  out  into  other  tene- 
ments. So  by  this  room  one  whole  family  was  blotted  out.  This  is 
not  all.  When  the  next  housekeeper  came  to  this  same  room  with 
his  wife  both  were  strong  and  well.  The  man  took  the  Plague  in  '99. 
He  still  fought  for  life  when  all  knew  he  was  hopeless;  he  still 
lived  on  when  he  could  not  rise,  could  barely  speak,  but  only  lie 
alone  in  one  of  these  closet  bedrooms.  There  are  no  fewer  than 
twenty  such  rooms  in  this  rear  house  —  windowless,  six  feet  by  eight. 
That  winter  of  1900  brought  the  memorable  blizzard.  While  it  was 
raging,  a  settlement  visitor  came  to  this  room,  and  found  the  water- 
pipe  burst,  the  room  flooded.  The  plucky  little  wife  had  carried  her 
husband  upstairs  on  her  back.  A  few  days  later  his  struggle  was 
ended.  The  wife  is  still  here. 

"  Infection  comes  not  only  from  the  room,  but  as  well  from  halls 
and  stairways.  An  old  Italian,  a  hopeless  victim,  sits  out  on  the  steps 
in  front,  all  day  long  in  the  sun  while  the  children  play  around  him, 
and  all  through  the  evening  with  men  and  women  beside  him.  His 
cough  never  stops.  The  halls  behind  and  above  are  grimy,  offensive, 
hung  heavy  with  cobwebs,  and  these  cobwebs  are  always  black.  The 
stairways  in  the  rear  house  are  low  and  narrow,  uneven,  and  thick  with 
dust  piled  up  in  every  nook  and  corner.  This  dust  is  virulent  with 
disease.  Through  the  years  a  score  of  consumptives  have  lived  here, 
groping  their  way  each  night  up  the  stairways,  stopping  on  the  land- 
ings to  catch  their  breath  and  cough,  and  so  spread  the  infection. 
But  for  light  trickling  through  grimy  panels  in  doors,  these  halls  are 
forever  dark.  It  is  in  halls  like  these  that  the  germs  can  live  two 
years  or  longer.  It  is  with  halls  like  those  outside  that  one  clean 
room  cannot  bring  safety. 

"  This  house  is  a  danger  not  only  to  those  who  live  in  it.  From  here 
the  Plague  is  constantly  spreading  out  all  over  the  city  —  to  rich  and 
poor  alike." 

What  shall  we  say  of  a  civilisation  which  puts  478  human  beings 
into  living  coffins  called  rooms  packed  upon  a  single  acre  of  ground, 

686 


WHITE  PLAGUE  AN  ADDED  BURDEN 

in  a  city  which  averages  only  19  persons  to  the  acre?  And  these  rooms 
are  many  of  them  unlighted  by  natural  light,  and  only  supplied  with 
air  from  neighbouring  rooms  or  little  upwardly-extending  slits  grac- 
iously called  air-shafts.  Some  of  these  are  only  twelve  inches  wide 
by  six  feet  long,  and  they  are  six  floors  deep !  In  the  city  of  New 
York  alone  there  are  more  than  361,000  such  dark  rooms!  That  the 
noble  men  and  women  who  are  devoting  their  lives  to  the  stamping 
out  of  this  worst  of  all  Plagues  have  much  to  encounter  from  the 
hopeless  greed  and  the  degenerate  money-madness  which  builds  such 
structures  as  "  Lung  Block,"  as  well  as  from  the  political  corruption, 
graft  and  inefficiency  which  permit  such  pest-holes  to  continue  to  mar 
the  face  of  civilisation  and  to  spread  wholesale  infection  broadcast 
over  the  land,  is  abundantly  proved  by  facts  within  the  easy  reach  of 
all.  That  the  crusade  is  in  some  particulars  carried  on  with  better 
results  in  Germany  than  in  America,  is  pointed  out  by  Ernest  Poole, 
under  the  heading,  "  The  Warfare  Against  the  Plague."  He  says : 
"  Congestion,  Dissipation,  Infection !  The  war  against  them  will  be 
fought  on  two  lines,  Prevention  and  Cure. 

"  Prevention  is  slow.  Foul  air,  darkness,  and  ignorance  —  these 
must  be  steadily  changed  for  fresh  air,  cleanliness,  knowledge,  and 
light.  It  means  years  of  unceasing  work  ahead;  unceasing  work  by 
the  new  Tenement  House  Department  which  in  one  year  has  made 
such  a  splendid  beginning;  unceasing  support  of  this  work  by  the 
people  of  New  York ;  unceasing  appropriations ;  unceasing  belief  that 
to  save  thousands  of  human  lives  is  cheap  at  any  cost.  It  means 
millions  of  dollars  to  be  spent  in  new  parks,  in  playgrounds,  in  public 
baths.  It  means  big-hearted  brotherhood.  It  means  self-defence. 

"  Cure  need  not  be  slow.  Those  sick ,  of  the  Plague  must  now  be 
treated  '  at  the  right  time,  in  the  right  place,  in  the  right  way,  till 
they're  cured' — not  as  before,  'at  the  wrong  time,  in  the  wrong 
place,  in  the  wrong  way,  till  they're  dead/ 

"  In  Germany  every  labourer  and  servant  is  obliged  by  law  to  become 
insured  against  sickness,  accidents,  and  old  age,  the  companies  being 
controlled  by  the  government.  Hence,  as  soon  as  the  Plague's  first 
symptoms  appear,  men  are  quick  to  find  relief  at  one  of  the  many 
sanatoria.  There,  in  1897  and  1898,  eighty-two  thousand  insured 
men  and  women  were  treated,  and  of  these  seventy-one  per  cent,  left 
with  strength  and  hope  won  back.  So  they  have  now  learned  to  hope ; 
and  so  by  going  in  time  are  lastingly  cured.  Here  in  America  men 
wait  on  until  unable  to  work,  then  see  a  doctor,  and  at  last  are  re- 
ported hopeless.  The  cry,  '  The  hopeless  report,  the  hopeful  don  t ! 
comes  from  all  the  men  and  women  who  are  striving  to  push  this 
tremendous  campaign."  , 

Mr  Poole  then  goes  on  to  give  the  following  reasons  why  those  who 
have  contracted  the  Plague  do  not  report.  He  says .that  many  have  a 
vague  superstition  that  the  City  Hospital  makes  liberal  use  of  the 
black  bottle," -in  short,  that  doctors  give  a  medicine  contamm 
fatal  drug  when  tired  of  free  patients.  He  says  that  this  foolish 
Sperstition  prevents  thousands  from  reporting.  Then  there  are  o  her 
thousands,  he  tells  us,  who  do  not  report  in  time  because  they  believe 
the  Plague  is  absolutely  fatal  and  such  a  course  accordingly  useless. 

(587 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Regarding  this  phase  of  the  subject,  Mr.  Poole  says :  "  On  the  '  Lung 
Block '  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  have  been  sick ;  hardly  one  has  been 
cured.  Those  sick  feel  the  Plague  fastening  slowly.  Many  make  up 
their  minds  to  die,  and  wait,  working. 

"  In  the  house  where  Rosalie  died  I  found  a  brave  little  woman 
working,  waiting  with  her  daughter  eight  years  old.  They  have  a 
room  looking  into  that  same  foul  pit ;  a  dark  kitchen  behind  it,  where 
the  gas  was  lit  when  I  went  in  at  noon;  and  behind,  wholly  dark,  a 
bed-room.  In  this  room  her  mother  died  of  the  Plague  eighteen 
months  back.  Her  father  and  brother  both  died  of  the  Plague  in  a 
house  quite  as  bad  a  few  doors  up  the  street.  Her  husband  was  already 
stricken.  He  drank.  He  had  left  her.  His  mother  and  father,  his 
sister  and  two  brothers,  had  all  died  of  the  Plague  over  on  Hamilton 
Street.  And  now  in  the  last  five  years  her  two  babies  had  died  from 
another  form  of  the  same  disease.  '  What's  the  use  ?  What's  the 
use  ?  '  While  her  mother  was  sick  she  was  working  through  the  sum- 
mer in  a  factory  from  7 :30  in  the  morning  until  10 :30  at  night.  I 
have  seen  such  places  in  summer.  A  hasty  swallow  at  noon  and  six 
o'clock ;  between,  only  desperate  haste.  '  The  steam  was  the  worst,' 
she  told  me ;  'it  was  awful  —  awful  —  awful ! '  The  few  hours  at 
night  were  by  the  sick  mother.  In  a  few  months  her  weakened  lungs, 
too,  were  infected.  The  Plague  fed  with  terrible  swiftness.  In  eight 
months  she  lost  eighty-five  pounds  —  but  still  worked  on.  At  last, 
too  weak  for  the  factor}',  she  worked  from  seven  until  nine,  and  again 
from  five  until  eight,  at  office  cleaning.  So  we  found  her  and  had  her 
examined.  The  doctor  said  there  was  still  a  chance.  And  because 
the  girl  of  eight  was  pale  and  delicate,  we  offered  to  send  both  for 
three  months  to  the  country,  where  medical  care  could  be  given.  But 
she  said :  '  It's  got  to  come  anyway,  an'  we'd  get  homesick  for  the 
block,  so  I  guess  we'll  stay/ 

'  It's  got  to  come ! ' —  this  is  the  belief  of  thousands.  This  belief 
can  only  be  destroyed  by  hundreds  of  cures  to  be  begun  in  1903." 

Another  reason  why  the  afflicted  do  not  report  their  conditions-  is 
that  hundreds  are  insured  in  small  companies,  and  that  this  insur- 
ance is  all  but  lost  to  the  family  if  one's  disease  is  reported  as  con- 
sumption. "  It  is  for  this  cause  that  thousands  have  died  of  the 
Plague,  begging  their  doctors  to  call  it  pneumonia  or  bronchitis.  Doc- 
tors, too,  are  human,  and  the  immediate  needs  of  their  patients  ob- 
scure the  importance  of  accurate  records.  So  thousands  have  died 
in  years  past  and  the  records,  startling  as  they  are,  have  not  yet  told 
the  whole  story/' 

Many  do  not  report  because  they  believe  the  quack's  advertisements 
of  his  "  sure  cure  for  consumption,"  and  think  to  get  well  quickly  by 
taking  it. 

The  last  reason,  and  the  strongest  of  all,  is  because  they  wont  give 
up.  "  Life  in  the  tenements  is  bright  and  full  of  colour,  if  only  you 
keep  up.  Lose  your  grip,  and  things  seem  to  pile  up  in  a  day  and 
bury  you  under.  All  who  watch  the  tenements  will  tell  you  this, 
*  Don't  lose  your  grip ! '  is  the  motto." 

We  have  alluded  to  the  great  danger  to  the  public  which  comes 
from  the  manufacture  of  articles  to  be  worn  and  used  by  the  general 

688 


WHITE  PLAGUE  AN  ADDED  BURDEN 

public  under  conditions  which  make  it  certain  that  they  go  on  to  the 
store  counters,  in  many  cases,  laden  with  germs  which  mean  death. 
In  reference  to  this  Mr.  Poole  says,  in  closing:  "Millions  must  be 
spent  because  hundreds  of  thousands  from  every  class  in  the  city  are 
in  constant  danger.  As  Dr.  Knopf  has  said,  the  patient  up  and  about, 
attending  often  to  his  usual  work,  but  expectorating  indiscriminately 
everywhere  from  ignorance  or  carelessness,  is  the  most  dangerous  of 
all  consumptives.  You  have  heard  stories  of  how  the  sick  struggle 
on.  In  laundry,  cigar  factory,  cook  shop,  fish  market;  as  waiter,  as 
midwife;  in  scores  of  callings  they  have  worked  on  and  coughed  and 
worked  on  still,  infecting  their  fellows  and  the  products  of  their  la- 
bour. Of  these  the  sweat-shop  work  is  most  dangerous,  most  potent 
to  spread  the  Plague  to  all  classes.  It  is  an  open  fact  that  most  tail- 
ors from  every  class  put  their  work  out  to  be  done  in  the  sweat-shop 
or  in  the  tenement  home.  The  home  itself  becomes  then  a  sweat- 
shop. 

"  In  a  row  of  fifteen  old  houses  on  Cherry  Street  I  found  thirty-one 
little  children  and  eighty-seven  women  sewing  on  garments.  The  gar- 
ments they  sewed  were  almost  all  to  be  worn  by  young  children  —  the 
kind  you  buy  in  our  clothing  stores.  This  row  of  fifteen  houses  in- 
cluded the  five  most  deadly  Plague  strongholds  on  the  block. 

"  This  home  work  shows  most  clearly  what  is  true  in  some  degree  in 
all  other  trades  —  that  the  Plague-stricken  poor  must  work  on  to  the 
very  end.  You  have  had  stories  enough.  I  will  add  but  a  scene 
taken  from  the  written  records  of  a  visiting  nurse. 

"  The  man  was  dying  down  in  the  Ghetto.  His  cough  kept  on  day 
and  night.  It  was  January.  Coal  was  high.  The  room  at  night 
grew  freezing  cold.  The  Plague  grew  worse.  He  worked  on  in  bed. 
He  had  but  one  blanket.  He  used  the  coats  and  trousers  to  cover 
him.  Now  consider  our  tense,  rushing,  strained  city  life;  remember 
the  scores  of  your  own  friends  whose  vitality  is  now  at  the  lowest  ebb; 
and  then  think  of  the  constant  danger  to  them  from  a  Plague  whose 
victims  keep  on  working,  who  are  constantly  on  the  streets,  the  cars, 
and  all  public  places.  We  all  use  the  products  of  their  work.  Only 
be  human  and  think  of  these  hundreds  of  thousands,  rich  and  poor 
alike,  in  constant  danger.  Thousands  of  these  will  inevitably  be 
taken  with  the  Plague  this  year,  as  thousands  were  taken  last  year  and 
before.  It  is  for  next  year,  the  next,  and  the  next,  that  I  appeal. 

"Millions  must  be  spent  —  because  we  are  human.  It  is  my  last 
word.  It  holds  all  the  rest.  1  once  heard  a  little  chap  uptown  on 
his  knees  at  night  whispering, '  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread/  He 
stopped  and  asked,  'How  many  is  us?'  From  a  visiting  nurse  I 
heard  of  another.  He  was  four  years  old,  in  a  tenement  room,  and 
dying.  The  Plague  had  gone  all  through  his  weak  little  body.  The 
eyes  were  blind.  And  each  night,  when  her  half-hour  visit  was  ended, 
he  used  to  grope  for  her  hand  to  hold  it  just  a  moment,  that  it  might 
help  him  bear  the  long  night.  This  baby  might  have  been  saved. 
He  is  one  cost  of  delay.  The  weak  groping  hand  seemed  to  ask  the 
same  question,  '  How  many  is  us  ?  '  And  this  is  the  answer : 

*  I  was  an  hungered  and  ye  gave  me  meat :     I  was  thirsty,  and  ye 
gave  me  drink :    I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  in :  naked,  and  ye 
44  689 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

clothed  me :  I  was  sick,  and  ye  visited  me :  I  was  in  prison,  and  ye 
came  unto  me.  .  .  .  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the 
least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me/  " 

The  pauperism  of  our  cities  is  very  much  greater  than  that  of  our 
rural  sections,  so  great,  in  fact,  that  many  of  us  would  not  believe  it 
were  not  the  evidence  beyond  question. 

Mr.  Riis  says,  in  his  "  How  the  Other  Half  Lives  " :  "  The  Reader 
who  has  followed  with  me  the  fate  of  the  Other  Half  thus  far,  may 
not  experience  much  of  a  shock  at  being  told  that  in  eight  years 
135,595  families  in  New  York  were  registered  as  asking  or  receiving 
charity.  Perhaps,  however,  the  intelligence  will  rouse  him  that  for 
five  years  past  one  person  in  every  ten  who  died  in  this  city  was  buried 
in  the  Potter's  Field.  These  facts  tell  a  terrible  story.  The  first 
means  that  in  a  population  of  a  million  and  a  half,  very  nearly  if  not 
quite  half  a  million  persons  were  driven,  or  chose,  to  beg  for  food,  or 
to  accept  it  in  charity  at  some  period  of  the  eight  years,  if  not  during 
the  whole  of  it." 

In  his  "  In  Darkest  England,"  General  Booth  says :  "  I  sorrow- 
fully admit  that  it  would  be  Utopian  in  our  present  social  arrange- 
ments to  dream  of  attaining  for  every  honest  Englishman  a  jail 
standard  of  all  the  necessaries  of  life.  Sometime,  perhaps,  we  may 
venture  to  hope  that  every  honest  worker  on  English  soil  will  always 
be  as  warmly  clad,  as  healthily  housed,  and  as  regularly  fed  as  our 
criminal  convicts  —  but  that  is  not  yet. 

"  Neither  is  it  possible  to  hope  for  many  years  to  come  that  human 
beings  generally  will  be  as  weU  cared  for  as  horses.  Mr.  Carlyle  long 
ago  remarked  that  the  four-footed  worker  has  already  got  all  that 
this  two-handed  one  is  clamouring  for :  {  There  are  not  many  horses 
in  England,  able  and  willing  to  work,  which  have  not  due  food  and 
lodging  and  go  about  sleek-coated,  satisfied  in  heart/  You  say  it  is 
impossible ;  but,  said  Carlyle,  '  The  human  brain,  looking  at  these 
sleek  English  horses,  refuses  to  believe  in  such  impossibility  for 
English  men/  Nevertheless,  forty  years  have  passed  since  Carlyle 
said  that,  and  we  seem  to  be  no  nearer  the  attainment  of  the  four- 
footed  standard  for  the  two-handed  worker/'  .  .  . 

"  England  emancipated  her  negroes  sixty  years  ago,  at  a  cost  of 
£40,000,000,  and  has  never  ceased  boasting  about  it  since.  But  at 
our  own  doors,  from  '  Plymouth  to  Peterhead,'  stretches  this  waste 
Continent  of  humanity  —  three  million  human  beings  who  are  en- 
slaved—  some  of  them  to  taskmasters  as  merciless  as  any  West  In- 
dian overseer,  all  of  them  to  destitution  and  despair.  Is  anything  to 
be  done  with  them?  Can  anything  be  done  for  them?  Or  is  this 
million-headed  mass  to  be  regarded  as  offering  a  problem  as  insoluble 
as  that  of  the  London  sewage,  which,  feculent  and  festering,  swings 
heavily  up  and  down  the  basin  of  the  Thames  with  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  the  tide? 

"  This  Submerged  Tenth  —  is  it,  then,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  nine- 
tenths  in  the  midst  of  whom  they  live,  and  around  whose  homes  they 
rot  and  die  ?  " 

In  his  "  Poverty,"  speaking  of  the  poor  which  we  must  not  have  al- 
ways with  us,  Mr.  Robert  Hunter  says :  "  The  poor  of  this  latter 

690 


WHITE  PLAGUE  AN  ADDED  BURDEN 

class  are,  it  seems  to  me,  the  mass  of  the  poor ;  they  are  bred  of  miser- 
able and  unjust  social  conditions,  which  punish  the  good  and  the  pure, 
the  faithful  and  industrious,  the  slothful  and  vicious,  all  alike.  We 
may  not,  by  going  into  the  homes  of  the  poor,  be  able  to  determine 
which  ones  are  in  poverty  because  of  individual  causes,  or  which  are 
in  poverty  because  of  social  wrongs;  but  we  can  see,  by  looking 
about  us,  that  men  are  brought  into  misery  by  the  action  of  social  and 
economic  forces.  And  the  wrongful  action  of  such  social  and  eco- 
nomic forces  is  a  preventable  thing.  For  instance,  to  mention  but  a 
few,  the  factories,  the  mines,  the  workshops,  and  the  railroads  must 
be  forced  to  cease  killing  the  father  or  the  boy  or  the  girl  whose  wages 
alone  suffice  to  keep  the  family  from  poverty;  or,  if  the  workers  must 
be  injured  and  killed,  then  the  family  must  at  least  be  fairly  compen- 
stated,  in  so  far  as  that  be  possible.  Tenements  may  be  made  sanitary 
by  the  action  of  the  community,  and  thereby  much  of  this  breeding 
of  wretched  souls  and  ruined  bodies  stopped.  A  broader  education 
may  be  provided  for  the  masses,  so  that  the  street  child  may  be  saved 
from  idleness,  crime,  and  vagrancy,  and  the  working  child  saved  from 
ruinous  labour.  Immigration  may  be  regulated  constructively  rather 
than  negatively,  if  not,  for  a  time,  restricted  to  narrower  limits. 
Employment  may  be  made  less  irregular  and  fairer  wages  assured. 
These  are,  of  course,  but  a  few  of  the  many  things  which  can  be  done 
to  make  less  unjust  and  miserable  the  conditions  in  which  about 
10,000,000  of  our  people  live. 

"  Among  the  many  inexplicable  things  in  life  there  is  probably  noth- 
ing more  out  of  reason  than  our  disregard  for  preventive  measures 
and  our  apparent  willingness  to  provide  almshouses,  prisons,  asylums, 
hospitals,  homes,  etc.,  for  the  victims  of  our  neglect.  Poverty  is  a 
culture  bed  for  criminals,  paupers,  vagrants,  and  for  such  diseases  as 
inebriety,  insanity,  and  imbecility;  and  yet  we  endlessly  go  on  in  our 
unconcern,  or  in  our  blindness,  heedless  of  its  sources,  believing  all 
the  time  that  we  are  merciful  in  administering  to  its  unfortunate  re- 
sults. Those  in  poverty  are  fighting  a  losing  struggle,  because  of  un- 
necessary burdens  which  we  might  lift  from  their  shoulders ;  but  not 
until  they  go  to  pieces  and  become  drunken,  vagrant,  criminal,  diseased, 
and  suppliant,  do  we  consider  mercy  necessary.  But  in  that  day  re- 
clamation is  almost  impossible,  the  degeneracy  of  the  adults  infects  the 
children,  and  the  foulest  of  our  social  miseries  is  thus  perpetuated 
from  generation  to  generation.  From  the  millions  struggling  with 
povertv  come  the  millions  who  have  lost  all  self-respect  and  ambition, 
who  hardly,  if  ever,  work,  who  are  aimless  and  drifting,  who  like 
drink,  who  have  no  thought  for  their  children,  and  who  live  conten- 
tedly on  rubbish  and  alms.  But  a  short  time  before,  many  of  them 
were  of  that  great,  splendid  mass  of  producers  upon  which  the  ma- 
terial welfare  of  the  nation  rests.  They  were  in  poverty,  but  they 
were  self-respecting;  they  were  hard-pressed,  but  they  were  ambitious, 
determined,  and  hard-working.  They  were  also  underfed,  under- 
clothed,  and  miserably  housed  —  the  fear  and  dread  of  want  possessed 
them,  they  worked  sore,  but  gained  nothing,  they  were  isolated,  heart- 
worn,  and  weary/' 

To  touch  even  lightly  upon  all  the  wrongs  done  to  the  toilers  would 

691 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

require  a  library.  The  story  of  those  who,  taking  their  lives  in  their 
hands,  go  burrowing  through  the  earth  in  coal,  iron,  gold  and  silver 
mines  is  indeed  pitiable,  but  what  shall  we  say  of  those  who  go  to 
certain  death,  knowing  that  they  cannot  live  beyond  a  few  short  years, 
and  that  they  will  die,  as  is  the  case  in  certain  kinds  of  work,  a  most 
horrible  death?  What  of  the  mercury  miners  who  know  that  their 
bones  will  be  rapidly  consumed ;  of  those  engaged  in  certain  branches 
of  the  glass  industry,  who  can  calculate  to  a  practical  certainty  the 
length  of  time  it  will  take  for  the  spicules  floating  in  the  air  to  cut 
their  lungs  and  kill  them ;  of  the  alkali  workers ;  the  white-lead  work- 
ers ;  the  toilers  in  match-factories,  fertiliser  and  chemical  workers  and 
the  like  who  sell  their  lives  for  the  means  to  drag  out  a  few  miserable 
years  of  unremitting  toil  ? 

In  his  "  The  White  Slaves  of  England,"  Eobert  H.  Sherard  devotes 
a  chapter  to  the  white-lead  workers  of  Newcastle.  Apropos  of  the 
death  of  one  of  these  workers,  he  says :  "  A  group  of  women  stand- 
ing outside  the  '  Black  Boy '  public-house  were  talking  as  I  passed, 
and  something  was  said  that  made  me  listen.  '  She  screamed  hor- 
rible,' said  one,  '  and  tore  out  her  hair  in  handfulls/  '  Such  nice 
hair  she  had  too/  said  another,  '  poor  lamb/  I  stopped  and  inquired, 
and  heard  the  name  of  Elisabeth  Eyan.  The  coroner's  inquest  had 
been  held  at  the  workhouse  three  days  before. 

"  The  death  of  a  white-lead  worker  is  so  trivial  a  matter  that  public 
curiosity  concerning  it  is  too  small  to  warrant  an  able  editor  to  sacri- 
fice any  of  his  space  to  such  an  item  of  news. 

"  And  yet,  and  yet,  there  may  be  some  to  think  this  death  of  Elisa- 
beth Byan,  at  the  hands  of  an  English  industry,  an  event  of  tre- 
mendous importance,  not  local  only,  but  national,  political,  universal. 
She  was  only  nineteen,  and  she  had.  worked  but  four  months  as  a 
white-bed  woman.  There  had  come  pain  almost  from  the  first,  but 
she  had  remained  at  her  work,  till  one  morning  she  fell  down  on  the 
floor  of  the  factory,  foaming  at  the  mouth  and  tearing  her  hair,  '  as 
it  might  have  been  in  an  epileptic  fit,'  said  one. 

"  She  was  carried  to  the  workhouse,  and,  as  a  nurse  told  me,  '  Car- 
ried on  terrible,'  in  wild  delirium.  I  looked  at'  the'  entry  in  the  work- 
house register :  *  Elisabeth  Eyan  —  Lead-poisoning/  The  entry  on 
the  following  day  ran :  '  Elisabeth  Eyan  very  bad.'  There  was  yet 
another  note  concerning  her  on  the  third  day,  and  that  was :  '  Elisa- 
beth Eyan  died  to-day.'  Et  voila  ce  nest  pas  plus  malin  que  cela. 

"  Her  body  looked  like  that  of  a  person  who  had  died  of  strychnine 
poisoning,  and  here  was  a  fresh  example  to  illustrate  the  terrible  in- 
dictment contained  in  the  paper  read  some  years  ago  by  Professor 
Thomas  Oliver  (An  Analytical  and  Clinical  Examination  of  Lead- 
poisoning  in  its  Acute  Manifestations). 

'  The  fact  remains,'  he  says,  '  that  every  now  and  then  a  girl  of 
from  eighteen  to  twenty-three  years  of  age  works  only  a  few  weeks  or 
months  in  a  lead  factory,  when  symptoms  of  acute  lead-poisoning  are 
noticed  —  namely,  colic,  constipation,  vomiting,  headache,  pains  in 
the  limbs,  and  incomplete  blindness.  In  a  few  days,  with  or  with- 
out treatment,  she  becomes  convulsed,  and  dies  in  a  state  of  coma, 

692 


WHITE  PLAGUE  AN  ADDED  BURDEN 

the  death  being  so  sudden  that  we  cannot  but  regard  it  as  due  to 
acute  toxaemia/ 

"  Again.  '  For  example,  a  girl  works,  it  may  be,  only  a  few  weeks 
or  months  in  a  lead  factory,  when,  after  having  been  noticed  by  her 
friends  to  have  been  rapidly  becoming  anaemic,  she  complains  of 
colic,  constipation,  headache,  dimness  of  vision,  and  in  a  few  days 
develops  convulsions,  or  becomes  delirious  and  dies  comatose.  As 
the  symptoms  are  so  rapidly  developed,  and  as  no  organic  change  is 
found  post-mortem,  the  death  can  only  be  attributed  to  toxaemia. 
Death  in  these  cases  is  analogous  to  strychnine  poisoning/  " 

Regarding  the  alkali  workers,  the  same  authour  says,  in  speaking  of 
a  particular  branch  of  their  work :  "  The  packers,  whose  dangerous 
work  and  strange  accoutrement  have  been  described,  receive  two  shil- 
lings per  ton  for  turning  and  packing  the  poisonous  bleaching-pow- 
der,  and  some  can  earn  as  much  as  fifty  shillings  a  week.  These  men 
literally  carry  their  lives  in  their  hands.  One  hears  of  too  many  cases 
where  *  men  got  gas '  and  died  within  a  few  hours. 

'  And  it's  almost  always  brought  in  accidental,'  said  a  packer,  who 
was  suspicious  of  the  '  crowner's  '  juries. 

'  Or,'  says  another,  '  the  master's  doctor  will  say  the  man  died  of  a 
faint.  It's  like  this.  You  get  gas.  We  run  to  the  office  for  the 
brandy  bottle  and  say,  'so-and-so's  got  gas/  Brandy  is  served  out. 
You  go  home  and  die.  Doctor  says  you  died  of  faint,  and  the  proof 
is  that  brandy  was  needed  to  revive  you/ J: 

It  is  needless  to  tire  the  Reader  with  specific  cases,  since,  having 
eyes  to  read,  he  cannot  have  failed  to  observe  for  himself  the  terrible 
iniquities  forced  by  our  present  system  upon  millions  of  his  brothers 
and  sisters. 

Says  Horace  Traubel,  "  The  world  is  tired  of  hearing  that  the  la- 
bourer is  worthy  of  his  hire.  The  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  product." 

In  like  manner  Proudhon  said  that  to  labour  belonged  the  total 
product  of  labour.  When  this  truth  is  manfully  recognised  and  hon- 
estly lived  up  to,  the  worker  will  be  emancipated  from  that  economic 
slavery  which  often  is  worse  than  any  chattel  slavery  the  world  has 
ever  known.  Under  the  Gillette  System  toil  would  be  made  pleasur- 
able and  exhilarating;  work  would  be  performed  in  response  to  indi- 
vidual desire  and  would  be  rewarded  by  its  exact  equivalent  at  any 
point  in  the  circle  of  exchange.  The  new- system  recognises  the  fact 
that  in  their  last  analysis  all  values  are  labour  values.  Under  its 
beneficent  influence,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  the  rich  and  the 
poor,  the  strong  and  the  weak,  the  guarded  and  the  defenceless,  would 
enjoy  that  widest  possible  liberty,  compatible  with  equality  of  liberty, 
which  has  been  the  dream  of  countless  philosophers. 


693 


CHAPTEK  III 
THE   CRY   OF  THE   CHILDREN 


695 


Do  ye  hear  the  children  weeping,  O  my  brothers, 

Ere  the  sorrow  comes  with  years? 
They  are  leaning  their  young  heads  against  their  mothers, 

And   that   cannot   stop   their   tears. 
The  young  lambs  are  bleating  in  the  meadows; 

The  young  birds  are  chirping  in  the  nest; 
The  young  fawns  are  playing  with  the  shadows; 

The  young  flowers  are  blowing  toward  the  west: 
But  the  young,  young  children,  O  my  brothers! 

They  are  weeping  bitterly. 
They  are  weeping  in  the  playtime  of  the  others, 

In  *  the  country  of  the  free. 

Do  you  question  the  young  children  in  their  sorrow, 

Why  their  tears  are  falling  so? 
The  old  man  may  weep  for  his  to-morrow 

Which   is   lost   in   long   ago; 
The  old  tree  is  leafless  in  the  forest; 

The  old  year  is  ending  in  the  frost; 
The  old  wound,   if  stricken,  is  the  sorest; 

The  old  hope  is  hardest  to  be  lost: 
But  the  young,  young  children,  O  my  brothers! 

Do  you  ask  them  why  they  stand 
Weeping  sore  before  the  bosoms  of  their  mothers, 

In  our  happy  fatherland? 

They  look  up  with  their  pale  and  sunken  faces; 

And  their  looks  are  sad  to  see, 
For  the  man's  hoary  anguish  draws  and  presses 

Down  the  cheeks  of  infancy. 
"Your  old  earth,"  they  say,  "is  very  dreary; 

Our  young  feet,"  they  say,  "  are  very  weak; 
Few  paces  have  we  taken,  yet  are  weary; 

Our  grave-rest  is  very  far  to  seek. 
Ask  the  aged  why  they  weep,  and  not  the  children; 

For  the  outside  earth  is  cold, 
And  we  young  ones  stand  without  in  our  bewildering, 

And  the  graves  are  for  the  old." 
******* 

They  look  up  with  their  pale  and  sunken  faces, 

And  their  look  is  dread  to  see. 
For  they  mind  you  of  their  angels  in  high  places, 

With  eyes  turned  on  Deity. 
"  How  long,"  they  say,  "  how  long,  O  cruel  nation, 

Will  you  stand,  to  move  the  world  on  a  child's  heart, — 
Stifle  down  with  a  mailed  heel  its  palpitation, 

And  tread  onward  to  your  throne  amid  the  mart! 
Our  blood  splashes  upward,  O  gold-heaper, 

And  your  purple  shows  your  path! 
But  the  child's  sob  in  the  silence  curses  deeper 

Than  the  strong  man  in  his  wrath." 

Mrs.  Browning. 


696 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   CRY   OF   THE   CHILDREN 


0  treatment  of  present  labour  conditions  which  omit- 
ted at  least  a  reference  to  the  story  of  the  toiling 
child  would  be  at  all  fair  to  the  subject.  That  little 
children,  with  the  milk  upon  their  lips,  are  forced  by 
commercial  greed  into  the  roaring  maelstrom  of  com- 
mercial  competition,  is  one  of  the  worst  crimes  for 
which  our  so-called  modern  civilisation  has  to  answer. 

Something  more  than  a  century  ago,  the  British  Parliament  passed 
the  first  act  for  the  abatement  of  the  evils  of  child  labour.  This  was 
the  Factory  Act  of  1802.  Referring  to  conditions  which  called  forth 
this  Act,  Felix  Adler  says :  "  The  pauper  children  of  London  work- 
houses were  being  fed  to  the  machine,  almost  as  the  children  in  the 
ancient  idolatry  were  fed  to  Moloch.  Pauper  children  whom  nobody 
owned,  deserted  waifs,  orphans  left  on  the  parish  —  a  burden  on  the 
rate  payers  —  were  sent  by  hundreds  and  thousands  to  supply  the  de- 
mand for  cheap  labour  on  the  part  of  the  factories,  which  at  this  time 
were  everywhere  springing  up.  These  puny  labourers  —  many  of 
them  not  over  seven  years  of  age  —  were  worked  to  death.  But 
that  hardly  mattered,  because  the  workhouse  supply  was  sufficient  to 
fill  up  the  depleted  ranks.  The  workhouses  at  first  even  paid  a  small 
premium  to  the  manufacturers  for  taking  their  wards  off  their  hands. 
The  children  were  lodged  in  rough  barracks,  were  cruelly  driven  by 
their  taskmasters  while  at  work,  their  food  was  of  the  worst  descrip- 
tion, they  were  forced  to  labour  often  fourteen  hours,  and  they  were 
decimated  by  disease.  It  was  this  state  of  things  that  provoked  the 
law  of  1802 \  but  this  law  was  the  barest  beginning.  The  law  applied 
only  to  pauper  children,  and  it  was  soon  found  necessary  to  protect 
children  also  against  the  pitiless  egotism  or  the  desperation  of  their 
own  parents.  The  law  applied  only  to  certain  industries,  and  it  was 
found  necessary  to  extend  it  to  others.  With  the  substitution  of  steam 
for  water  power,  manufactories  were  transferred  to  cities,  and  the  de- 
mand for  cheap  labour  grew  apace.  It  was  felt  that  an  age  limit  of 
some  kind  —  below  which  children  might  not  be  employed  —  must  be 
set.  The  efforts  to  do  so  were  strangely  hesitant  and  inadequate,  but 
at  least  the  principle  of  an  age  limit  came  to  be  recognised.  In  1833 
it  was  estimated  that  56,000  children  between  nine  and  thirteen  were 
employed  in  factories,  a  whole  army  of  child  workers;  but  nine  was 
a  high  limit  compared  with  what  in  many  branches  had  been  custom- 
ary. Before  the  Children's  Employment  Committee  a  man  named 
Apsden  testified.  Pointing  to  his  boy,  he  said :  '  This  boy  when  he 
was  seven  years  old,  in  winter  I  carried  on  my  shoulders  across  the 

697 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

snow  to  his  place  of  work,  and  he  would  work  for  sixteen  hours/ 
What  a  picture ;  the  man  rousing  a  child  of  seven  from  his  sleep,  forc- 
ing him  out  of  bed  in  the  dark  winter  morning,  trudging  with  him 
on  his  back  across  the  snow,  and  depositing  the  little  fellow,  seven 
years  old,  to  work  for  sixteen  hours.  And  then  another  picture,  for 
he  adds :  '  I  have  often  knelt  at  his  side  and  given  him  food  while 
he  was  working,  because  he  was  not  allowed  to  leave  the  machine.' 
If  you  wish  to  realise  what  child  labour  means,  think  of  the  inmates 
of  London  workhouses  systematically  done  to  death  in  the  Yorkshire 
factories.  Think  of  Apsden  and  his  seven-year-old  boy,  and  then 
think  —  if  you  can  bear  to  do  so  —  of  another  picture !  For  till  now 
only  the  factories  and  not  the  mines  had  been  touched.  In  the  year 
1842  evidence  was  taken  as  to  the  state  of  things  in  the  coal  mines. 
Children  began  their  work  in  the  mines  sometimes  as  early  as  at  five 
years  of  age.  Little  girls  were  found  to  jnake  ten  or  twelve  trips  a 
day  up  steep  ladders  to  the  surface,  carrying  heavy  loads  of  coal  in 
wooden  buckets  on  their  shoulders.  For  the  development  of  little 
girls  into  womanhood,  what  an  admirable  device !  Women  and  girls, 
half  nude,  worked  side  by  side  with  boys  and  men  wholly  so;  every 
consideration  of  human  decency  was  flung  to  the  winds.  And  in  Mr. 
Cheyney's  book  on  *  The  Industrial  History  of  England/  which  use- 
fully summarises  these  facts,  you  will  find  a  picture  representing  a 
woman  crawling  on  all  fours,  dragging  through  a  passageway  about 
two  feet  high  a  car  containing  three  or  four  hundredweight  of  coal 
by  a  chain  attached  to  a  girdle  around  her  waist.  And  this  is  des- 
cribed as  a  common  form  of  labour." 

In  an  article  entitled  "  The  Wreck  of  the  Home,  How  Wearing  Ap- 
parel is  Fashioned  in  the  Tenements/'  Annie  S.  Daniel  narrates  the 
conditions  under  which  the  work  is  done.  She  says  in  part :  "  The 
tenement-house  department  states  that  there  are  *  thousands  '  of  apart- 
ments in  which  all  rooms  open  on  an  air-shaft ;  in  such  an  apartment 
I  attended  a  woman  ill  with  tuberculosis,  finishing  trousers.  Dur- 
ing the  summer,  and  then  only  for  about  two  hours,  daylight  (not 
sunlight)  came  in.  This  daylight  lasted  two  months  and  for  this 
place  of  three  air-shaft  rooms,  ten  dollars  per  month  was  paid.  Three 
years  of  life  in  this  apartment  killed  the  woman.  The  finishers  are 
made  up  of  the  old  and  the  young,  the  sick  and  the  well.  As  soon 
as  a  little  child  can  be  of  the  least  possible  help,  it  must  add  to  the 
family  income  by  taking  a  share  in  the  family  toil.  A  child  3  years 
old  can  straighten  out  tobacco  leaves  or  stick  the  rims  which  form  the 
stamens  of  artificial  flowers  through  the  petals.  He  can  put  the 
covers  on  paper  boxes  at  four  years.  He  can  do  some  of  the  pasting 
of  paper  boxes,  although  as  a  rule  this  requires  a  child  of  6  to  8  years. 
But  from  4  to  6  years  he  can  sew  on  buttons  and  pull  basting  threads. 
A  girl  from  8  to  12  can  finish  trousers  as  well  as  her  mother. 
After  she  is  12,  if  of  good  size,  she  can  earn  more  money  in  a  factory. 
The  boys  do  practically  the  same  work  as  the  girls,  except  that  they 
leave  the  home  work  earlier,  and  enter  street  work,  as  peddlers,  boot- 
blacks, and  newsboys.  I  have  seen  but  two  children  under  3  years  of 
age  working  in  tenements,  one  a  boy  2~y2  years  old  who  assisted  the 
mother  and  4  other  children  under  12  years  in  making  artificial 

698 


THE   CRY   OF   THE   CHILDREN 

flowers.     The  other,  an  extraordinary  case  of  a  child  of  1V2  years, 
who  assisted  at  a  kind  of  passementerie. 

'•<  The  sick  as  long  as  they  can  hold  their  heads  up,  must  work  to  pay 
tor  the  cost  of  their  living.  As  soon  as  they  are  convalescent  they 
must  begrn  again.  The  other  day  a  girl  of'  8  years  was  dismissed 
trom  the  diphtheria  hospital  after  a  severe  attack  of  the  disease.  Al- 
most immediately  she  was  working  at  women's  collars,  although 
scarcely  able  to  walk  across  the  room  alone. 

''  The  greatest  evils  of  this  particular  form  of  sweating  found  in 
tenements  can  be  grouped  as  follows: 

Child  Labor.  A  child  from  3  to  10  or  12  years  adds  by  its  labour 
from  50  cents  to  $1.50  per  week  to  the  family  income.  The  hours 
of  the  child  are  as  long  as  its  strength  endures  or  the  work  remains. 
A  child  3  years  old  can  work  continuously  from  iy2  to  2  hours  at  a 
time;  a  child  10  years  old  can  work  12  hours.  Obviously  under  such 
conditions  the  child  is  deprived  of  the  two  greatest  rights  which  the 
parents  and  the  state  are  bound  to  give  each  child*  health  and  an 
education. 

:'  The  particular  dangers  to  the  child's  health  are  such  as  can  be  in- 
duced by  the  confinement  in  the  house,  in  an  atmosphere  always  foul. 
The  bad  light  under  which  the  child  works  causes  a  continual  eye- 
strain,  from  the  effects  of  which  the  child  will  suffer  all  its  life.  The 
brain  of  the  child  under  8  years  of  age  is  not  developed  sufficiently  to 
bear  fixed  attention.  Hence  it  must  be  continually  forced  to  fix  its 
attention  to  the  work  and  in  doing  this  an  irreparable  damage  is  done 
to  the  developing  brain.  A  child  forced  to  earn  its  bread  has  neither 
the  time  nor  the  opportunity  to  obtain  an  education." 

Consider  for  a  moment  a  social  condition  which  makes  it  necessary 
for  babies  18  months  old  to  begin  work!  What  sort  of  a  corrollary  in 
the  way  of  a  future  "social  price  "  will  this  call  down  upon  us? 

It  has  been  pointed  out  again  and  again,  and  it  is  a  biological  truth 
of  the  widest  generality,  that  the  higher  the  type  the  longer  will  it  be 
in  reaching  maturity.  The  lower  forms  of  life  mature  quickly.  Cer- 
tain ephemeral  insects  spring  into  being,  mature  and  die  in  a  single 
day.  As  we  climb  higher  and  higher  up  the  biological  tree  we  find  the 
species  maturing  more  and  more  slowly,  until  we  come  to  man,  the 
slowest  of  all.  When,  therefore,  Nature's  hand  is  forced,  and  the  child 
is  arrested  in  its  natural  development  and  crowded  into  a  precocious 
existence,  the  result  will  be  that  it  will  become  puny,  of  stunted  stat- 
ure, anasmic,  thin,  with  sunken  cheeks,  hollow  eyes  and  emaciated 
limbs,  subject  to  all  manner  of  diseases  of  the  lungs,  joints  and  spine; 
for,  checking  development  does  not  mean  merely  a  stoppage  of  growth, 
it  means  malformation  as  well.  What  occurs  in  the  physical  realm 
occurs  also  in  the  mental  and  moral  domains.  The  precocious  child, 
the  rareripe,  lacks  the  ability  to  "train  on."  Seldom  do  precocious 
children  develop  into  brilliant  adults.  The  prominence  of  the  few 
who  have  done  so  is  the  very  best  of  evidence  that  they  were  glow- 
ing exceptions  to  an  all  but  universal  rule.  The  brilliant  precocity 
of  the  newsboy  whose  sharp  repartee  amuses  us  is  the  result  of  an 
abnormal  state,  a  nervous  excitability  which  will  soon  depart  and 
leave  him  as  still  another  example  of  the  appalling  "social  price" 

699 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

which  is  a  part  of  our  present  system.  In  his  paper  entitled  "  Child 
Labour  in  the  United  States,"  Felix  Adler  says :  "  At  the  beginning 
of  1903  it  is  estimated  that  there  were  in  the  factories  of  the  South  — 
chiefly  cotton  factories  —  about  20,000  children  under  the  age  of 
twelve.  Twelve  is  a  very  early  age  at  which  to  begin  work ;  but  under 
the  age  of  twelve,  and  20,000,  and  in  the  United  States  of  America 

who  would  have  credited  it?    And  these  children,  too,  not  the 

children  of  foreign  immigrants,  but  for  the  most  part  the  offspring 
of  the  purest  American  stock  of  this  continent;  and  some  of  these 
children,  as  eye  witnesses  attest,  were  at  their  work  even  more  than 
twelve  hours,  as  much  as  thirteen  and  fourteen  hours  a  day.  Where 
are  our  instincts  of  mercy,  where  is  the  motherliness  of  the  women 
of  this  country,  where  is  the  chivalry  of  our  men  that  should  seek 
a  glory  in  protecting  the  defenceless  and  the  weak?  Within  the  last 
two  years  child  labour  laws  have  been  passed  which  have  doubtless 
reduced  the  number  of  children  under  twelve  years  of  age  in  the  fac- 
tories; how  great  the  reduction  is  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  the 
South  is  by  no  means  singular,  though  it  has  of  late  been  more  con- 
spicuous in  its  employment  of  child  labour  than  other  sections  of  the 
country.  And  there  is  no  excuse  for  adopting  a  pharisaical  attitude 
toward  the  southern  communities  and  saying :  *  We  are  glad  that  we 
are  not  like  these/  For  in  the  first  place,  in  not  a  few  instances  it 
is  northern  capital  invested  in  southern  mills  that  shares  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  conditions  named;  and  then  again,  while  the  pro- 
portion of  child  to  adult  labour  in  the  South  is  greater  than  any- 
where else  in  the  country,  the  absolute  number  of  children  employed 
is  greater  in  the  industrial  centers  of  the  North. 

"  The  lack  of  adequate  statistical  inquiries  makes  it  impossible  to 
express  in  figures  the  extent  of  the  evil  of  child  labour.  But  wher- 
ever investigation  is  undertaken,  wherever  the  surface  is  even  scratched, 
we  are  shocked  to  find  to  what  an  extent  the  disease  is  eating  its 
way  underneath,  even  in  those  States  in  which  legislation  on  the 
subject  is  almost  ideal.  The  laws  are  admirable,  but  the  enforcement 
is  defective.  Thus  glancing  over  the  reports  recently  transmitted 
to  the  National  Child  Labour  Committee  by  its  agents  I  find  that  in 
New  Jersey,  in  one  of  the  woollen  mills,  200  children  under  the  legal 
age  are  d;  work.  In  the  glass  industry  of  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and 
West  Virginia,  the  evils  of  premature  work  and  of  night  work  are 
combined.  A  boy,  Willie  Davis,  for  instance,  thirteen  years  old, 
works  on  alternate  nights  from  G.30  p.  m.  to  4.30  a.  m.,  earning 
ninety  cents  a  day.  In  one  of  the  glass  houses  of  Wheeling,  W.  Va., 
forty  boys  were  seen  by  the  agent,  apparently  from  ten  to  twelve 
years  of  age ;  one  child  looked  not  over  nine  years  old,  '  but  was  too 
busy  to  be  interviewed/  In  this  place  3,000  children  of  the  school 
age  were  found  to  be  out  of  school.  In  this  town  there  are  also  many 
cigar  factories  that  employ  children.  And  speaking  of  the  tobacco 
industry  reminds  me  of  the  case  of  a  child  worker  just  reported 
from  Pittsburgh.  The  boy  is  employed  in  a  toby  factory  — *  tobies  ' 
being  a  cheap  kind  of  cigar  —  in  rolling  tobies.  He  is  twelve  years 
of  age ;  he  has  already  been  at  work  for  seven  months ;  the  hours  of 
labour  are  from  6  a.  m.  to  8  p.  m.,  intermission  for  lunch  fifteen 

700 


THE    CRY   OF   THE    CHILDREN 

minutes,  for  supper  twenty  minutes,  in  all  thirty-five  minutes  in  four- 
teen hours.  He  works  Saturday  nights  from  seven  until  midnight, 
and  sometimes  until  2  Sunday  morning;  does  not  work  Saturdays, 
but  works  Sundays.  The  room  in  which  he  rolls  his  'tobies'  is 
described  as  dark  and  poorly  ventilated ;  the  atmosphere  is  charged 
with  tobacco  dust.  The  boy  seems  gentle  and  uncomplaining,  but 
he  coughs;  and  when  he  was  asked  whether  he  was  well,  he  pointed 
to  his  chest  and  to  his  back  and  said :  '  I  have  a  pain  here  and  there.' 
"  And  in  our  own  state  of  New  York,  which  in  point  of  legislation 
is  in  advance  of  all  the  rest,  the  infractions  of  the  law  that  occur  are 
frightful  enough,  as  the  petition  for  the  removal  of  the  present  Fac- 
tory Inspector  sent  to  the  Governor  by  the  Child  Labour  Committee 
of  New  York  plainly  proves.  In  a  single  one  of  the  canning  fac- 
tories where  abuses  are  particularly  flagrant,  the  foreman  himself 
estimated  the  number  of  children  at  work  in  violation  of  the  law  to 
be  300.  Children  as  young  as  ten,  nine,  and  seven  were  found  to 
be  at  work  side  by  side  with  their  mothers,  from  9  a.  m.  to  9  p.  m. 
In  the  Chelsea  Jute  Mills  of  Brooklyn,  an  establishment  which  ac- 
quired an  unenviable  notoriety  in  connexion  with  the  Annie  Ventre 
case  some  months  ago,  there  are  reported  to  be  at  the  present  time 
85  children  at  work  under  the  legal  age.  In  the  sweated  trades  the 
evils  are  the  same,  or  if  possible  worse.  The  report  further  states 
that  the  number  of  violations,  not  of  the  child  labour  laws  in  par- 
ticular but  of  the  factory  laws  in  general,  are  alarmingly  on  the  in- 
crease; 33,000  reported  in  1901,  50,000  in  1903." 

Mr.  Adler  further  says  that  the  emancipation  of  childhood  from 
economic  servitude  is  a  social  reform  of  the  first  magnitude.  He 
says  that  if  it  once  "  comes  to  be  an  understood  thing  that  a  certain 
sacredness  'doth  hedge  around'  a  child,  that  a  child  is  industrially 
taboo,  that  to  violate  its  rights  is  to  touch  profanely  a  holy  thing, 
that  it  has  a  soul  which  must  not  be  blighted  for  the  prospect  of 
mere  gain ;  if  this  be  once  generally  conceded  with  regard  to  the  child 
the  same  essential  reasoning  will  be  found  to  apply  also  to  the  adult 
workers;  they,  too,  will  not  be  looked  upon  as  mere  commodities,  as 
mere  instruments  for  the  accumulation  of  riches;  to  them  also  a 
certain  sacredness  will  be  seen  to  attach,  and  certain  human  rights 
to  belong,  which  may  not  be  infringed.  I  have  great  hopes  for  the 
adjustment  of  our  labour  difficulties  on  a  higher  plane,  if  once  we 
can  gain  the  initial  victory  of  inculcating  regard  for  the  higher  hu- 
man nature  that  is  present  potentially  in  the  child/ 

It  would  seem  as  If  child-labour  were  so  utterly  indefensible  a 
thing  that  no  one  could  be  found  with  effrontery  enough  to  advocate 
it  yet  we  have  come  to  such  a  social  pass  that  such  is  far  from  being 
the  case.  The  glass  manufacturers,  those  engaged  m  textile  indus- 
tries in  the  South,  have  some  of  them  averred  that  child-labour  was 
necessary  in  order  that  these  industries  might  not  cease 

In  a  series  of  articles  by  Mrs.  John  Van  Vorst  entitled  "The 
Cry  of  the  Children,"— "  Human  Documents  m  the  Case  of  the  New 
Slavery,"  published  in  the  -  Saturday  Evening  Post,"  beginning 
March  10,  1906,  this  same  subject  is  adverted  to  Mrs  Van  Vorst 
says:  "  Profiting  by  the  presence  at  Birmingham  of  several  ladi 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

had  been  more  or  less  active  in  passing  the  only  laws  which  place  any 
restraint  upon  Alabama  manufacturers,  I  called  upon  them  before 
proceeding  to  Anniston,  and  gathered  from  their  conversation  certain 
facts  regarding  the  situation  in  their  State. 

"  My  chief  informant  was  a  pretty  woman  of  the  graceful,  languid 
type  we  designate  in  a  word  as  '  Southern.'  It  was  a  shock  to  hear 
her  affirm  in  her  soft,  musical  voice,  with  its  drawling  intonation: 

*  Why,  child  labour  in  Alabama  is  a  necessary  evil.' 

'  Do  you  think,'  I  exclaimed,  '  that  it  is  just  as  well  for  a  child 
twelve  years  old  to  be  at  work  as  to  be  in  school  ? ' 

"  Her  gentle  eyes  reflected  in  their  smile  a  feeling  of  inward  indul- 
gence. 

'  That,'  she  said,  '  is  not  a  fair  question.  When  you  know  more  of 
these  people  you'll  see  that  they're  just  like  animals.  In  the  mill  they 
have  some  chance  of  getting  civilised.  If  we  made  laws  restricting 
labour  we  should  frighten  away  capitalists  and  wreck  our  Very  surest 
chances  of  progress  and  prosperity.' 

"  She  followed  up  her  argument  with  pitiful  descriptions  of  ignor- 
ance among  the  people  who  flock  in  from  the  hills  and  plains  to  feed 
the  mill  machinery. 

'  They  don't  even  know  enough  to  level  the  ground  where  they 
build  their  cabins.  They  fry  every  bit  of  their  food,  even  the  bread.' 
And  then  she  repeated  the  comprehensive  phrase:  ' They're  just  like 
animals.' 

"  She  was  a  stockholder,  this  gentle  '  Southerner,'  in  the  mills  I  had 
just  attempted  to  visit.  Oh,  hideous  logic  which  greed  alone  makes 
plausible !  What  part,  pray,  had  God  in  creating  a  class  '  like  ani- 
mals,' and  who  could  maintain,  with  justice,  that  out  of  such  mental 
and  moral  insufficience  a  better  state  might  come,  were  it  coupled  to 
physical  oppression  and  miser}'?  Two  wrongs  cannot  make  a  right; 
and  the  cursory  dispatching  of  a  whole  class  of  people  to  the  realm 
of  the  animal  does  not  free  the  bondsman  from  his  ultimate  account- 
ing for  the  soul  which  has  passed,  along  with  the  body,  into  his  keep- 
ing." 

In  testimony  of  the  tender  age  of  some  of  those  employed  in  the 
southern  mills  the  same  author  says :  "  Some  of  my  Birmingham  in- 
formants had  told  me  that  there  were  whole  families  of  dwarfs  who 
came  down  from  the  mountains  and  took  work  in  the  mills,  greatly 
misleading  certain  visitors  who  supposed  them  to  be  children  *  under 
age.'  As  I  walked  on  now  through  the  mills,  talking  with  a  twelve- 
year-old  red-headed  girl  who  had  been  four  yelirs  at  work,  my  eyes 
suddenly  fell  upon  a  strange  couple  (doubtless,  I  thought,  some  of 
the  dwarfs  against  whom  I  had  been  warned).  I  could  not  take  my 
attention  from  the  tinest  of  the  tiny  pair;  the  boy's  hands  appeared 
to  be  made  without  bones;  his  thumb  flew  back  almost  double  as  he 
pressed  the  cotton  to  loosen  it  from  the  revolving  rod  in  the  spin- 
ning frame;  they  no  longer  moved,  these  yellow  anemic  hands,  as 
though  directed  in  their  different  acts  by  a  thinking  intelligence :  they 
performed  mechanically  the  gestures  which  had  given  them  their  de- 
finitive form. 

702 


THE    CRY   OF   THE   CHILDREN 

red-headed  girl  laughed  and  nodded  in  the  direction  of  the 

'He's  'most  six/  she  said.  'He's  been  here  two  years.  He  come 
m  when  he  wa*  most  four.  His  little  brother  'most  four's  workin' 
here  now. 

'Yes?     Where?' 

'  Oh  he  works  on  the  night-shift.  He  comes  in  'beaut  half-a^past 
five  and  stays  till  six  in  the  mornin'.' 

"I  went  over  to  the  other  dwarf  of  the  couple,  older  evidently  than 
the  boy  most  six.'  Below  her  red  cotton  frock  hung  a  long"  apron 
which  reached  to  the  ground.  Her  hair  was  short  and  shaggv  her 
face  bloated,  her  eyes  like  a  depression  in  the  flesh,  and  about  her 
mouth  trailed  dark  streaks  of  tobacco.  It  seemed  atrocious  to  ques- 
tion her.  Oblivion  was  the  only  thing  that  could  have  been  merci- 
fully tendered,  and  even  the  peace  of  death  could  hardly  have  relaxed 
those  tense  features,  cast  in  the  dogged  mould  of  misery. 

'  How  old  are  you  ? '  I  asked. 

"  She  shook  her  head.    '  I  don't  know/ 

'  What  do  you  earn  ?  ' 

"  She  shook  her  head  again. 

"  Her  fingers  did  not  for  a  moment  stop  in  their  swift  manipula- 
tion of  the  broken  threads.  Then,  as  though  she  had  suddenly  re- 
membered something,  she  said: 

'  I've  only  been  a-workin'  here  a  day.' 

'  Only  one  day  ? ' 

'  I've  been  on  the  night-shift  till  now.' 

"  Dwarfs  ?  Ah,  yes ;  dwarfs  indeed !  But  would  that  those  who  af- 
firm it  might  once  catch  sight  of  the  expression  that  lowered  under  the 
brows  of  these  two  miniature  victims.  Like  a  menace,  threatening, 
terrible,  it  seemed  to  presage  a  great  storm  that  shall  one  day  be  un- 
chained by  the  spirits  too  long  pent  up  in  service  to  the  greed  of  man." 

Speaking  of  Alabama  school  conditions,  Mrs.  Van  Vorst  says: 
"  There  are  no  compulsory  school  laws  in  the  State. 

'  We  don't  think  it's  right  in  a  democracy/  one  of  the  Alabama 
club  women  explained  to  me,  '  to  force  any  one  to  do  anything.  If 
the  parents  want  their  children  to  go  to  school,  it's  their  privilege  to 
send  them;  but  we  don't  believe  in  compulsion  —  we  believe  in  lib- 
erty.'" 

In  "Some  Ethical  Gains  Through  Legislation,"  Florence  Kelley 
says :  "  The  noblest  duty  of  the  Eepublic  is  that  of  self-preservation 
by  so  cherishing  all  its  children  that  they,  in  turn,  may  become  en- 
lightened, self-governing  citizens.  The  children  of  to-day  are  poten- 
tially the  Eepublic  of  1930.  As  they  are  cherished  and  trained,  so 
will  it  live  or  languish  a  generation  hence.  The  care  and  nurture 
of  childhood  is  thus  a  vital  concern  of  the  nation.  For  if  children 
perish  in  infancy,  they  are  obviously  lost  to  the  Eepublic  as  citizens. 
If,  surviving  infancy,  children  are  permitted  to  deteriorate  into  crim- 
inals, they  are  bad  citizens ;  if  they  are  left  illiterate,  if  they  are  over- 
worked and  devitalised  in  body  and  mind,  the  Bepublic  suffers  the 
penalty  of  every  offence  against  childhood. 


703 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

aAn  unfailing  test  of  the  ethical  standards  of  a  community  is  the 
question,  '  What  citizens  are  being  trained  here  ?  ' 

"  Where  young  children  die  by  thousands,  the  ethical  standards  of 
the  community  are,  so  far,  bad.  For  science  has  long  shown  how  to 
minimise  infant  mortality.  The  failure  of  a  community  to  follow  the 
teachings  of  science  in  this  direction  is  a  moral  dereliction  of  the 
gravest  character.  The  death  from  preventable  disease  of  thousands 
of  young  children  in  the  tenement  houses  of  the  city  of  Xew  York, 
occurring  year  after  year,  from  generation  to  generation,  stamps  the 
ethical  standards  of  the  metropolis  as  bad  beyond  belief.  For  the 
exposure  of  infants  on  the  highways  of  China  is  not  more  obvious  to 
the  people  of  China,  than  the  preventable  mortality  of  infants  in  Xew 
York  City  has  for  years  been  obvious  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  It  is,  moreover,  one  of  the  incredible  things  of  our  civilisa- 
tion that  this  excessive  infant  mortality,  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion, is  left  to  local  boards  of  health  and  to  local  philanthrophies, 
whose  inability  to  cope  with  it  its  persistence  has  long  conspicuously 
proved."  .  .  . 

"  The  presence  of  children  in  mills  began  with  the  division  of 
labour,  and  the  development  of  machinery  driven  by  steam.  It  was 
a  feature  of. the  civilisation  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  reached 
no  large  dimensions  in  the  United  States  before  1870.  Since  then 
it  has  increased  and  continues  to  increase  wherever  no  counter  order 
is  given  by  restraining  laws  rendered  effective  by  alert  and  organised 
public  opinion. 

M  It  has  been  shown  that  the  end  of  childhood  and  the  beginning  of 
toil  is  an  undetermined  epoch.  Even  where,  as  in  Xew  York  and 
Illinois,  manufacture  and  commerce  are  closed,  to  children  under 
the  age  of  fourteen  years,  street-life,  tenement-work  and  the  drudgery 
of  the  'little-mothers'  may  occupy  the  earlier  years.  In  less  en- 
lightened states,  manufacture  and  commerce  are  open  to  children  at 
an  earlier  age,  until  in  Georgia  there  is  no  statutory  protection." 

In  his  preface  to  "The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children,"  the  author, 
John  Spargo,  publishes  what  we  consider  the  real  optimistic  gem  of 
the  19th  century,  while  modestly  disclaiming  any  originality  therein. 
He  says :  "  Xature  starts  all  her  children,  rich  and  poor,  physically 
equal,  and  that  each  generation  gets  practically  a  fresh  start,  un- 
hampered by  the  diseased  and  degenerate  past.  The  tremendous 
sociological  significance  of  this  truth  —  if  truth  it  be  —  will  I  think, 
be  generally  recognised." 

In  making  what  he  calls  "  the  necessary  qualifications  of  this  broad 
generalisation,"  Mr.  Spargo  gives  a  chapter  on  the  question  of  hered- 
ity in  his  Appendix.  We  extract  the  following  from  the  mass  of  evi- 
dence there  submitted.  "In  his  testimony  before  the  British  Inter- 
departmental Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration,  Dr.  Alfred  Eich- 
holz,  one  of  H.  M.  Inspectors  of  Schools,  a  Doctor  of  Medicine, 
and  formerly  Fellow  and  Lecturer  of  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge, 
said: 

'  I  have  drawn  a  broad  distinction  between  physical  degeneracy 
and  hereditary  deterioration.  The  object  of  my  evidence  is  to  dem- 
onstrate the  range  and  the  depth  of  degeneracv  among  the  poorer 

704 


THE   CRY   OF   THE   CHILDREN 

population,  and  to  show  that  it  is  capable  of  great  improvement  — 
I  say  improvement  purposely  even  within  the  areas  of  the  towns  — 
and  to  show  that  there  is  a  lack  of  any  real  evidence  of  any  hereditary 
taint  or  strain  of  deterioration  even  among  the  poor  populations  of 
our  cities.  The  point  which  I  desire  to  emphasise  is  that  our  phy- 
sical degeneracy  is  produced  afresh  by  each  generation,  and  that  there 
is  every  chance  under  reasonable  measures  of  amelioration  of  re- 
storing our  poorest  population  to  a  condition  of  normal  physique. 

*  I  draw  a  clear  distinction  between  physical  degeneracy  on  the  one 
hand  and  inherited  retrogressive  deterioration  on  the  other.  With 
regard  to  physical  degeneracy,  the  children  frequenting  the  poorer 
schools  of  London  and  the  large  towns  betray  a  most  serious  con- 
dition of  affairs,  calling  for  ameliorative  and  arrestive  measures,  the 
most  impressive  features  being  the  apathy  of  parents  as  regards  the 
school,  the  lack  of  parental  care  of  children,  the  poor  physique,  powers 
of  endurance,  and  educational  attainments  of  the  children.  .  .  . 
While  there  are,  unfortunately,  very  abundant  signs  of  physical  de- 
fect traceable  to  neglect,  poverty,  and  ignorance,  it  is  not  possible  to 
obtain  any  satisfactory  or  conclusive  evidence  of  hereditary  physical 
deterioration  —  that  is  to  say,  deterioration  of  a  gradual,  retrogres- 
sive, permanent  nature,  affecting  one  generation  more  acutely  than 
the  previous.  There  is  little,  if  anything,  in  fact  to  justify  the  con- 
clusion that  neglect,  poverty,  and  parental  ignorance,  serious  as 
their  results  are,  possess  any  marked  hereditary  effect,  or  that  hered- 
ity plays  any  significant  part  in  establishing  the  physical  degeneracy 
of  the  poorer  population.  In  every  case  of  alleged  progressive  hered- 
itary deterioration  among  the  children  frequenting  an  elementary 
school,  it  is  found  that  the  neighbourhood  has  suffered  by  the  migra- 
tion of  the  better  artisan  class,  or  by  the  influx  of  worse  population 
from  elsewhere.  Other  than  the  well-known  specifically  hereditary 
diseases  which  effect  poor  and  wdll-to-do  alike,  there  appears  to  be 
very  little  real  evidence  on  the  prenatal  side  to  account  for  the  wide- 
spread physical  degeneracy  among  the  poorer  population.  There  is, 
accordingly,  every  reason  to  anticipate  RAPID  amelioration  of  phy- 
sique so  soon  as  improvement  occurs  in  external  conditions,  particu- 
larly as  regards  food,  clothing,  overcrowding,  cleanliness,  drunken- 
ness, and  the  spread  of  common  practical  knowledge  of  home  man- 
agement. In  fact,  all  evidence  points  to  active,  rapid  improvement, 
bodily  and  mental,  in  the  worst  districts,  so  soon  as  they  are  exposed  to 
better  circumstances,  even  the  weaker  children  recovering  at  a  later 
age  from  the  evil  effects  of  infant  life/  " 

Well  may  Mr.  Spargo  refer  to  the  "  tremendous  sociological  signifi- 
cance of  this  truth,  if  it  be  a  truth,"  that  "  the  number  of  children 
born  healthy  and  strong  is  not  greater  among  the  well-to-do  classes 
than  among  the  very  poorest."  If  this  be  indeed  true,  we  should  all 
sing  hallelujah!  since  no  more  jubilant  promise  has  been  vouchsafed 
the  race  in  a  thousand  years.  If  practically  all  infants  start  with  a 
clean  bill  of  health,  so  far  as  heredity  is  concerned,  we  have  only  to 
establish  proper  social  conditions  to  produce  a  race  of  moral,  mental 
and  physical  giants.  Is  there  any  other  course  to-day  which  offers 
anv  inducements  to  him  who  loves  mankind  at  all  comparable  with 
this  work  of  social  betterment?  Its  success  means  the  banishment 
45  705 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

of  poverty,  misery  and  crime,  and  the  general  raising  of  the  level  of 
the  whole  human  race.  That  poverty  is  a  close  relative  of  death, 
who  can  doubt?  In  the  work  already  quoted,  Mr.  Spargo  says: 
"  Poverty  and  Death  are  grim  companions.  Wherever  there  is  much 
poverty  the  death-rate  is  high  and  rises  higher  with  every  rise  of  the 
tide  of  want  and  misery.  In  London,  Bethnal  Green's  death-rate  is 
nearly  double  that  of  Belgravia;  in  Paris,  the  poverty-stricken  dis- 
trict of  Menilmontant  has  a  death-rate  twice  as  high  as  that  of  the 
Elysee;  in  Chicago,  the  death-rate  varies  from  about  twelve  per 
thousand  in  the  wards  where  the  well-to-do  reside  to  thirty-seven  per 
thousand  in  the  tenement  wards.  The  ill-developed  bodies  of  the 
poor,  underfed  and  overburdened  with  toil,  have  not  the  powers  of 
resistance  to  disease  possessed  by  the  bodies  of  the  more  fortunate. 
As  fire  rages  most  fiercely  and  with  greatest  devastation  among  the 
ill-built,  crowded  tenements,  so  do  the  fierce  flames  of  disease  con- 
sume most  readily  the  ill-built,  fragile  bodies  which  the  tenements 
shelter.  As  we  ascend  the  social  scale  the  span  of  life  lengthens 
and  the  death-rate  gradually  diminishes,  the  death-rate  of  the  poor- 
est class  of  workers  being  three  and  a  half  times  as  great  as  that  of 
the  well-to-do.  It  is  estimated  that  among  10,000,000  persons  of  the 
latter  class  the  annual  deaths  do  not  number  more  than  100,000, 
among  the  best  paid  of  the  working-class  the  number  is  not  less  than 
150,000,  while  among  the  poorest  workers  the  number  is  at  least  350,- 
000.  The  following  diagram  illustrates  these  figures  clearly  and 
needs  no  further  comment: — 

"  This  difference  in  the  death-rates  of  the  various  social  classes  is 
even  more  strongly  marked  in  the  case  of  infants.  Mortality  in  the 
first  year  of  life  differs  enormously  according  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  parents  and  the  amount  of  intelligent  care  bestowed  upon  the  in- 
fants. In  Boston's  '  Back  Bay '  district  the  death-rate  at  all  ages  last 
year  was  13.45  per  thousand  as  compared  with  18.45  in  the  Thirteenth 
Ward,  which  is  a  typical  working-class  district,  and  of  the  total  num- 
ber of  deaths  the  percentage  under  one  year  was  9.44  in  the  former 
as  against  25.21  in  the  latter.  Wolf,  in  his  classic  studies  based  upon 
the  vital  statistics  of  Erfurt  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  found  that 
for  every  1,000  children  born  in  Working-class  families  505  died  in 
the  first  year;  among  the  middle  classes  173,  and  among  the  higher 
classes  only  89.  Of  eveiy  1,000  illegitimate  children  registered  — 
almost  entirely  of  the  poorer  classes  —  352  died  before  the  end  of  the 
first  year.  Dr.  Charles  E.  Drysdale,  Senior  Physician  of  the  Metro- 
politan Free  Hospital,  London,  declared  some  years  ago  that  the 
death-rate  of  infants  among  the  rich  was  not  more  than  8  per  cent., 
while  among  the  very  poor  it  was  often  as  high  as  forty  per  cent. .  Dr. 
Playfair  says  that  18  per  cent,  of  the  children  of  the  upper  classes,  36 
per  cent,  of  the  tradesman  class,  and  55  per  cent,  of  these  of  the  work- 
ing-class die  under  the  age  of  five  years. 

"And  yet  the  experts  say  that  the  baby  of  the  tenement  is  born 
physically  equal  to  the  baby  of  the  mansion.  For  countless  years  men 
have  sung  of  the  Democracy  of  Death,  but  it  is  only  recently  that 
science  has  brought  us  the  more  inspiring  message  of  the  Democracy 
of  Birth.  It  is  not  only  in  the  tomb  that  we  are  equal,  where  there 
is  neither  rich  nor  poor,  bond  or  free,  but  also  in  the  womb  of  our 
mothers.  At  birth  class  distinctions  are  unknown." 

706 


u 

8 


I 


hj 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE   SLAUGHTER  OF  THE   INNOCENTS 


709 


I  am  not  easily  discouraged.  But  I  confess  I  was  surprised  by  the 
sights  I  have  seen  in  the  national  capital.  You  people  of  Washington 
have  alley  after  alley  filled  with  hidden  people  whom  you  don't  know. 
There  are  298  such  alleys. 

They  tell  me  the  death-rate  among  the  negro  babies  born  in  these  alleys 
is  475  out  of  a  thousand  before  they  grow  to  be  1  year  old.  Nearly  one- 
half!  Nowhere  I  have  ever  been  in  the  civilised  world  have  I  ever  seen 
such  a  thing  as  that. 

Jacob  D.  Riis,  in  Washington  Times. 
Dec.  16,  1903. 

Leave  the  poor 

Some  time  for  self-improvement.     Let  them  not 
Be  forced  to  grind  the  bones  out  of  their  arms 
P'or  bread,  but  have  some  space  to  think  and  feel 
Like  moral  and  immortal  creatures. 

Bailey  —  Festus. 

In  this  boasted  land  of  freedom  there  are  bonded  baby  slaves, 
And  the  busy  world  goes  by  and  does  not  heed. 
They  are  driven  to  the  mill,  just  to  glut  and  overfill 
Bursting  coffers  of  the  mighty  monarch,  Greed. 
When  they  perish  we  are  told  it  is  God's  will, 
Oh,  the  roaring  of  the  mill,  of  the  mill! 

Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 

"  Faster  and  faster,  our  iron  master, 
The  thing  we  made,  forever  drives, 
Bids  us  grind  treasure  and  fashion  pleasure, 
For  other  hopes  and  other  lives." 

'Tis  not  a  life, 
'Tis  but  a  piece  of  childhood  thrown  away. 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher  —  Philaster. 


710 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SLAUGHTER  OF  THE  INNOCENTS 


T  is  a  sad  commentary  on  modern  civilisation  that 
England's  inability  to  get  good  recruits  wherewith 
to  kill  her  fellow  man,  as  experienced  in  the  South- 
African  war,  has  led  her  to  an  alarmed  realisation 
of  her  physical  degeneracy,  after  all  gentler  influences 
had  failed  to  produce  any  effect.  The  physical  in- 
feriority of  the  English  soldiery,  so  manifest  in  the  South-African 
struggle,  led  to  a  rigourous  investigation  into  the  causes  of  deteriora- 
tion, and  what  was  the  net  result  thereof?  This,  that  poverty  in 
childhood  was  the  chief  cause  of  the  deplorable  condition.  This  called 
renewed  attention  to  the  excessive  death-rate  among  infants  and 
young  children.  Out  of  587,830  deaths  in  1890  in  England  and 
Wales  more  than  24  per  cent,  of  the  whole  or  142,912  were  infants 
under  one  year,  while  35.76  per  cent,  were  under  five  years  of  age. 

It  is  frankly  admitted  by  the  English  authorities  that  this  death- 
rate  is  excessive,  and  many  of  the  leading  medical  men  contend  that 
it  could  be  reduced,  under  proper  social  conditions,  by  at  least  one 
half.  If  we  accept  these  statements,  and  there  appears  to  be  no  rea- 
son why  we  should  not,  it  will  be  seen  that  more  than  70,000  baby 
lives  are  needlessly  sacrificed  in  England  and  Wales  every  year.  Talk 
about  race  suicide!  Here  is  a  phase  of  the  subject  which  well  may 
not  only  alarm  us,  but,  at  the  same  time,  move  us  to  pity  and  to 
shame.  It  is  not  for  us  Americans  to  plume  ourselves  upon  the  idea 
that  these  horrible  conditions  are  not  applicable  to  us,  for  our  gen- 
eral death-rate  of  16.3  per  thousand,  as  given  in  the  census  returns, 
is  only  about  2  per  thousand  less  than  that  in  England.  In  com- 
menting upon  this  subject,  Mr.  Spargo  points  out  the  unreliability  of 
our  census  returns  for  purposes  of  comparison.  Referring  to  the 
awfulness  of  these  facts,  he  says:  ".Only  by  gathering  them  all  into 
one  vast  throng  would  it  be  possible  to  conceive  vividly  the  immensity 
of  this  annual  slaughter  of  the  babies  of  a  Christian  land.  If  some 
awful  great  child  plague  came  and  swept  away  every  child  under  a 
year  old  in  the  states  of  Massachusetts,  Idaho,  and  New  Mexico,  not  a 
babe  escaping,  the  loss  would  be  less  than  those  that  are  believed  to  be 
needlessly  lost  each  year  in  England  and  Wales.  Or,  to  put  it  in 
another  form,  the  total  number  of  these  infants  believed  to  have  died 
from  causes  essentially  preventable  in  the  year  1900  was  greater  than 
the  total  number  of  infants  of  the  same  age  living  in  the  following 
six  states, —  Connecticut,  Maine,  Delaware,  Florida,  Colorado,  and 
Idaho.  Even  if  the  estimate  of  the  sacrifice  be  regarded  as  being  ex- 
cessive and  we  reduce  it  by  half,  it  still  remains  an  awful  sum,"  and 

711 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

then,  coining  to  a  consideration  of  conditions  in  the  United  States, 
he  continues,  "  That  with  all  these  favourable  conditions  our  infan- 
tile mortality  should  so  nearly  approximate  that  of  England,  that  of 
every  thousand  deaths  307.8  should  be  of  children  under  five  years 
of  age  —  according  to  the  crude  figures  of  the  census,  more  if  a  cor- 
rect registration  upon  the  same  basis  as  the  English  figures  could  be 
had  —  is  a  matter  of  grave  national  concern.  If  we  make  an  ar- 
bitrary allowance  of  20  per  cent.,  to  account  for  the  slight  improve- 
ment shown  by  the  death-rates  and  for  other  differences,  and  regard 
30  per  cent,  of  the  infantile  death-rate  as  being  due  to  socially 
preventable  causes,  instead  of  50  per  cent.,  as  in  the  case  of  England, 
we  have  an  appalling  total  of  more  than  95,000  unnecessary  deaths 
in  a  single  year. 

"  And  of  these  f  socially  preventable  '  causes  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  various  phases  of  poverty  represent  fully  85  per  cent.,  giving 
an  annual  sacrifice  to  poverty  of  practically  80,000  baby  lives.  If 
some  modern  Herod  had  caused  the  death  of  every  male  child  under 
twelve  months  of  age  in  the  state  of  New  York  in  the  year  1900,  not 
a  single  child  escaping,  the  number  thus  brutally  slaughtered  would 
have  been  practically  identical  with  this  sacrifice.  Poverty  is  the 
Herod  of  modern  civilisation,  and  Justice  the  warning  angel  calling 
upon  society  to  '  arise  and  take  the  young  child '  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  monster's  wrath/' 

Some  faint  idea  of  the  part  poverty  plays  may  be  gathered  from 
the  following  extracts  from  "  The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children :"  "  Even 
as  the  Great  White  Plague  recruits  its  victims  from  the  haunts  of 
poverty,  so  bronchitis  preys  there  and  gathers  most  of  its  victims 
from  the  ranks  of  the  children  whose  lives  are  spent  either  in  the  foul 
and  stuffy  atmosphere  of  overcrowded  and  ill-ventilated  homes,  or 
on  the  streets,  under-fed,  imperfectly  clad,  and  exposed  to  all  sorts  of 
weather. 

"  For  nearly  half  a  century  rachitis,  or  '  rickets/  has  been  known 
as  the  disease  of  the  children  of  the  poor.  It  has  been  so  called  ever 
since  Sir  William  Jenner  noticed  that  after  the  first  two  births,  the 
children  of  the  poor  began  to  get  rickety,  and  careful  investigation 
showed  that  the  cause  was  poverty,  the  mothers  being  generally  too 
poor  to  get  proper  nourishment  while  nursing  them.  It  is  perhaps 
the  commonest  disease  from  which  children  of  the  working-classes 
suffer/'  .  .  . 

"  Tens  of  thousands  of  children  suffer  from  this  disease,  which  is 
due  almost  wholly  to  poor  and  inadequate  food.  Here  again  statisti- 
cal records  hide  and  imprison  the  soul  of  trutli,  failing  to  yield  the 
faintest  idea  of  the  ravages  of  this  disease.  The  number  of  deaths 
credited  to  it  in  1900  was  only  351  for  the  whole  of  the  United 
States,  whereas  10,000  would  not  have  been  too  high  a  figure. 

"  Seldom,  if  ever,  fatal  by  itself,  rickets  is  indirectly  responsible  for 
a  tremendous  quota  of  the  infantile  death-rate.  In  epidemics  of  such 
infectious  diseases  as  measles,  whooping-cough,  and  others,  the  rick- 
ety child  falls  an  easy  victim.  In  these  diseases,  as  well  as  in  bron- 
chitis, pneumonia,  convulsions,  diarrhoea  and  many  other  disorders, 
definite. 

712 


SLAUGHTER   OF   THE    INNOCENTS 

the   mortality   is   far  higher  among  rickety   children   than   among 
others."     .     .     . 

"Dr.  Henry  Ashby,  an  eminent  authority  upon  children's  diseases, 
says:  In  healthy  children  among  the  well-to-do  class  the  mortality 
(from  measles)  is  practically  nil,  in  the  tubercular  and  wasted  chil- 
dren to  be  found  in  workhouses,  hospitals,  and  among  the  lower  classes, 
the  mortality  is  enormous,  no  disease  more  certainly  being  attended 
with  a  fatal  result.  William  Squires  places  it  in  crowded  wards  at 
20  to  30  per  cent,  of  those  attacked.  Among  dispensary  patients  the 
mortality  generally  amounts  to  9  or  10  per  cent.  In  our  own  dis- 
pensary, during  the  six  years,  1880-1885,  1395  cases  were  treated 
with  128  deaths,  making  a  mortality  of  9  per  cent.  Of  the  fatal  cases 
73  per  cent,  were  under  two  years  of  age  and  9  per  cent,  under  six 
months  of  age/ 

"  These  are  terrible  words  coming  as  they  do  from  a  great  physician 
and  teacher  of  physicians.  Upon  any  less  authority  one  would 
scarcely  dare  quote  them,  so  terrible  are  they.  They  mean  that  prac- 
tically the  whole  8,645  infant  deaths  recorded  from  measles  in  the 
United  States  in  the  year  1900  were  due  to  poverty  —  to  the  meas- 
ureless inequality  of  opportunity  to  live  and  grow  which  human  ig- 
norance and  greed  have  made.  Moreover,  the  full  significance  of 
this  impressive  statement  will  not  be  realised  if  we  think  only  of  its 
relation  to  one  disease.  The  same  might  be  said  of  many  other  dis- 
eases of  childhood  which  blight  and  destroy  the  lives  of  babies  as  mer- 
cilessly as  the  sharp  frost  blight  and  kill  the  first  tender  blossoms  of 
spring.  The  same  writer  says :  '  It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that 
no  healthy  infants  suffer  from  convulsions;  those  who  do  are  either 
rickety  or  the  children  of  neurotic  parents.'  And  there  were  no  less 
than  14,288  infant  deaths  from  convulsions  in  the  United  States  in 
the  census  year.  It  would  probably  be  a  considerable  underestimate 
to  regard  10,000  of  these  deaths,  or  70  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  as 
due  to  poverty,"  and  then  comes  this  awful  indictment :  "  I  think 
it  can  safely  be  said  that  in  this  country,  the  richest  and  greatest 
country  in  the  world's  history,  poverty  is  responsible  for  at  least  80,- 
000  infant  lives  every  year  —  more  than  two  hundred  every  day  in 
the  year,  more  than  eight  lives  each  hour,  day  by  day,  night  by  night, 
throughout  the  year.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  realise  fully  the  im- 
mensity of  this  annual  sacrifice  of  baby  lives.  Think  what  it  means 
in  five  years  —  in  a  decade  —  in  a  quarter  of  a  century." 

The  table  at  the  top  of  the  following  page,  which  Mr.  Spargo  gives 
at  page  21  of  "  The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children,"  makes  significant 
reading  for  the  sociologist  and  the  reformer. 

"The  Lancet"  for  February  2,  1901,  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  Drs.  Baillestre  and  Gillette  have  estimated  that  three- 
fourths  of  the  deaths  of  French  infants  are  due  to  avoidable  causes: 
"  Five  years  of  ignorance,"  they  say,  "  have  cost  France  220,000  lives 
—  equal  to  the  loss  of  an  army  corps  of  45,000  men  annually." 

In  all  parts  of  the  world  the  story  is  sensibly  the  same  or  worse. 

We  cannot  forbear  making  the  following  somewhat  lengthy  quo- 
tation in  the  hope  that  it  may  save  at  least  one  infant  life.  It 
is  from  Mr.  Spargo's  excellent  work.  "  The  tragedy  of  the  infant's 

713 


No  of  Est.    per  Est.  No.  of 

Disease                                 deaths   un-  cent.  Due  to  Deaths   Due   to 

der  five  Bad    Condi-  Bad  Conditions — 

years  tions.  Poverty. 

Measles    8,465  85  7,195 

Inanition    10,687  90  .           9,618 

Convulsions 14,288  70  10,000 

Consumption    4,454  60  2,648 

Pneumonia    37,206  45  14,340 

Bronchitis     10,900  50  5,450 

Croup 10,897  45  4,900 

Debility  and  Atrophy 12,130  75  9,397 

Cholera  Infantum 25,563  45  .    11,502 

Diarrhoea    3,962  45  1,782 

Cholera  Morbus  3,180  45  1,431 


151,732  51.57  78,263 

position  is  its  helplessness ;  not  only  must  it  suffer  on  account  of  the 
misfortunes  of  its  parents,  but  it  must  suffer  from  their  vices  and 
from  their  ignorance  as  well.  Nurses,  sick  visitors,  dispensary  doc- 
tors, and  those  in  charge  of  babies'  hospitals  tell  pitiful  stories  of  al- 
most incredible  ignorance  of  which  babies  are  the  victims.  A  child 
was  given  cabbage  by  its  mother  when  it  was  three  weeks  old ;  another, 
seven  weeks  old,  and  fed  for  several  days  in  succession  on  sausage  and 
bread  with  pickles !  Both  died  of  gastritis,  victims  of  ignorance.  In 
another  New  York  tenement  home  a  baby  less  than  nine  weeks  old 
was  fed  on  sardines  with  vinegar  and  bread  by  its  mother.  Even 
more  pathetic  is  the  case  of  the  baby,  barely  six  weeks  old,  found  by 
a  district  nurse  in  Boston  in  the  family  clothes-basket  which  formed 
its  cradle  sucking  a  long  strip  of  salt,  greasy  bacon  and  with  a  bottle 
containing  beer  by  its  side."  (This  in  the  light  of  Packingtown  dis- 
closures!) "Though  rescued  from  immediate  death,  this  child  will 
probably  never  recover  wholly  from  the  severe  intestinal  disorder  in- 
duced by  the  ignorance  of  its  mother.  Yet,  after  all,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  beer  and  bacon  were  worse  for  it  than  many  of  the  patent 
*•  infant  foods '  of  the  cheaper  kinds  commonly  given  in  good  faith  to 
the  children  of  the  poor.  If  medical  opinion  goes  for  anything,  many 
of  these  '  foods  '  are  little  better  than  slow  poisons.  Tennyson's  aw- 
ful charge  is  still  true,  that: — 

'  The  spirit  of  murder  works  in  the  very  means  of  life/ 

Nor  is  the  work  of  this  spirit  of  murder  confined  to  the  concoction 
of  '  patent  foods '  which  are  in  reality  patent  poisons.  The  adultera- 
tion of  milk  with  formaldehyde  and  other  base  adulterants  is  re- 
sponsible for  a  great  deal  of  infant  mortality,  and  its  ravages  are 
chiefly  confined  to  the  poor.  It  is  little  short  of  alarming  that  in 
New  York  City,  out  of  3970  samples  of  milk  taken  from  dealers 
for  analysis  during  1902,  no  less  than  2095,  or  52.77  per  cent.,  should 
have  been  found  to  be  adulterated.  Mr.  Nathan  Straus,  the  philan- 
thropist whose  Pasteurised  milk  depots  have  saved  many  thousands 

714 


SLAUGHTER   OF   THE    INNOCENTS 

of  baby  lives  during  the  past  twelve  years,  has  not  hesitated  to  call 
this  adulteration  by  its  proper  name,  child-murder.     He  says  •— 
'f  l  shuld  hire  ^^son  Suar 


,  1  Square  Garden  and  announce  that  at 

eight  o  clock  on  a  certain  evening  I  would  publicly  strangle  a  child, 
what  excitement  there  would  be! 

'  If  I  walked  out  into  the  ring  to  carry  out  my  threat,  a  thousand 
men  would  stop  me  and  kill  me  —  and  everybody  would  applaud  them 
for  doing  so. 

'But  every  day  children  are  actually  murdered  by  neglect  or  by 
poisonous  milk.  The  murders  are  as  real  as  the  murder  would  be 
if  I  should  choke  a  child  to  death  before  the  eyes  of  a  crowd. 

'It  is  hard  to  interest  the  people  in  what  they  don't  see.'     *     *     * 

"  One  poor  woman,  whose  little  child  was  ailing,  became  very  irate 
when  a  lady^  visitor  ventured  to  offer  her  some  advice  concerning  the 
child's  clothing  and  food,  and  soundly  berated  her  would-be-adviser. 
'  You  talk  to  me  about  how  to  look  after  my  baby  !  '  she  cried.  *  Why, 
I  guess  I  know  more  about  it  than  you  do.  I've  buried  nine  already!  ' 
It  is  not  the  naive  humour  of  the  poor  woman's  wrath  that  is  most 
significant,  but  the  grim,  tragic  pathos  back  of  it.  Those  four  words, 
'  I've  buried  nine  already  !  '  tell  more  eloquently  than  could  a  hundred 
learned  essays  or  polished  orations  the  vastness  of  civilisation's  fail- 
ure. 'For,  surely,  we  may  not  regard  it  as  anything  but  -failure  so 
long  as  women  who  have  borne  eleven  children  into  the  world,  as 
had  this  one,  can  say,  '  I've  buried  nine  already  !  '  ' 

Regarding  child  labour  in  the  United  States,  Eobert  Hunter  says, 
in  "  Poverty  :"  "  The  cotton  trade  is  growing,  the  South  is  pros- 
perous, and  children  of  from  five  to  fourteen-  years,  who  formerly 
ran  wild  in  the  fields,  can  now  have  ten,  twelve,  and  fourteen  hours 
of  work  and  earn  ten,  fifteen,  and  twenty  cents  a  day  —  in  a  cotton- 
mill!  England  was  once  proud  of  this  same  business  and  talked 
much  of  how  good  it  was  for  her  children  to  be  at  work  and  how 
much  the  children  liked  it;  but  latterly  she  has  become  concerned 
about  the  physical  deterioration  of  her  people  and  has  about  decided 
to  weigh  and  measure  every  workman  in  England  to  see  how  far  she 
has  been  ruined  by  her  cotton  and  other  trades. 

"  Not  less  than  eighty  thousand  children,  most  of  whom  are  little 
girls,  are  at  present  employed  in  the  textile  mills  of  this  country.  In 
the  South  there  are  now  six  times  as  many  children  at  work  as  there 
were  twenty  years  ago.  Child  labour  is  increasing  yearly  in  that  sec- 
tion of  the  country.  Each  year  more  little  ones  are  brought  in  from 
the  fields  and  hills  to  live  in  the  degrading  and  demoralising  atmos- 
phere of  the  mill  towns.  Each  year  more  great  mills  are  being  built 
to  reap  the  profits  which  these  little  hands  make  possible.  In  one 
Southern  town  there  are  five  great  mills  and  five  settlements  of  work- 
ers —  <  pest-ridden,  epidemic-filled,  filthy  '  settlements  '  to  be  shunned 
like  the  plague';  each  with  its  poverty-stricken,  hungry-looking  wage- 
slaves  ;  and  'each  with  its  group  of  box-houses,  looking  all  alike  and 
built  high  above  the  malarial  clay-mud.  Tin  cans,  rubbish,  filth,  are 
strewn  everywhere  inside  and  outside  the  houses.  The  great  mills 
shriek  at  4.45.  The  men,  women,  and  children  turn  out  of  bed  or  rise 
from  mattresses  on  the  floor,  gulp  down  some  handfuls  of  food,  and 

715 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

leave  the  home  for  the  mills.  Sleepy,  half-awake,  frowsy  girls,  sleepy, 
yawning,  half -dressed  children,  drowsy,  heavy  men  and  women,  hurry 
along  in  crowds  to  be  in  time  to  begin  their  twelve  or  more  hours  of 
continuous  work.  *  The  day  in  winter  is  not  born  when  they  start 
their  tasks;  the  night  has  fallen  long  before  they  cease.  In  summer 
they  are  worked  far  into  the  evenings/  And  after  the  day  of  labour 
'  they  are  too  tired  to  eat,  and  all  they  want  to  do  is  to  turn  their  ach- 
ing bones  on  to  their  miserable  mattresses  and  sleep/ 

"  In  the  worst  days  of  cotton-milling  in  England  the  conditions  were 
hardly  worse  than  those  now  existing  in  the  South.  Children  —  the 
tiniest  and  frailest  —  of  five  and  six  years  of  age  rise  in  the  morning 
and,  like  old  men  and  women,  go  to  the  mills  to  do  their  day's  labour ; 
and  when  they  return  home,  they  wearily  fling  themselves  on  their 
beds,  too  tired  to  take  off  their  clothes.  Many  children  work  all  night 
— '  in  the  maddening  racket  of  the  machinery,  in  an  atmosphere  in- 
sanitary and  clouded  with  humidity  and  lint/  It  will  be  long  before 
I  forget  the  face  of  a  little  boy  of  six  years,  with  his  hands  stretched 
forward  to  rearrange  a  bit  of  machinery,  his  pallid  face  and  spare 
form  showing  already  the  effects  of  labour.  This  child,  six  years  of 
age,  was  working  twelve  hours  a  day  in  a  country  which  has  estab- 
lished in  many  industries  an  eight-hour  day  for  men.  The  twelve- 
hour  day  is  almost  universal  in  the  South,  and  about  twenty-five  thou- 
sand children  are  now  employed  on  twelve-hour  shifts  in  the  mills  of 
the  various  Southern  states.  The  wages  of  one  of  these  children, 
however  large,  could  not  compensate  the  child  for  the  injury  this 
monstrous  and  unnatural  labour  does  him ;  but  the  pay  which  the 
child  receives  is  not  enough,  in  many  instances,  even  to  feed  him  prop- 
erly. If  the  children  fall  ill,  they  are'  docked  ,for  loss  of  time.  And 
if,  '  For  indisposition  or  fatigue,  they  knock  a  day  off,  there  is  a  man 
hired  (by  the  mill)  especially  for  this  purpose,  who  rides  from  house 
to  house  to  find  out  what  is  the  matter  with  them,  to  urge  them  to 
rise,  and,  if  they  are  not  literally  too  sick  to  move,  they  are  hounded 
out  of  their  beds  and  back  to  their  looms/  The  mill-hands  confess 
that  they  hate  the  mills,  and  no  one  will  wonder  at  it.  A  vagrant  who 
had  worked  in  a  textile  mill  for  sixteen  years  once  said  to  a  friend  of 
mine:  'I  done  that  (and  he  made  a  motion  with  his  hand)  for  six- 
teen years.  At  last  I  was  sick  in  bed  for  two  or  three  days  with  a 
fever,  and  when  I  crawled  out,  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would 
rather  go  to  hell  than  back  to  that  mill/  .  .  . 

"  When  the  people  of  the  North  learned  a  few  years  ago  of  the  con- 
ditions of  child  labour  in  the  South,  there  was  a  great  expression  of 
public  indignation.  But  while  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  condi- 
tions in  the  South  are  undoubtedly  worse  than  those  in  the  North, 
there  are  nevertheless  many  conspicuous  examples  of  child  slavery  of 
the  worst  kind  in  almost  every  section  of  the  Union.  The  South  is 
not  alone  in  its  violation  of  the  Jeffersonian  principle.  It  is  violated 
in  the  North,  East,  and  West  as  well. 

"  In  the  mining  districts  of  Pennsylvania  children  labour  under  con- 
ditions which  are,  if  possible,  even  more  injurious  to  them  than  the 
child  labour  of  the  cotton-mills  is  to  the  children  of  the  South.  In 
the  mines,  mills,  and  factories,  before  the  furnaces,  and  in  the  sweat- 

716 


shops  of  Pennsylvania,  that  state  of  colossal  industrial  crimes,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  little  ones  were,  in  the  year  1900,  sac- 
rificing a  part  of  their  right  to  life,  most  of  their  right  to  liberty,  and 
all  of  their  right  to  happiness  except  perhaps  of  a  bestial  kind.  The 
Commission  appointed  to  settle  the  anthracite  coal  strike  of  1902 
heard  the  cases  of  Theresa  McDermott  and  Eosa  Zinka.  These  chil- 
dren represented,  though  unknown  to  them,  seventeen  thousand  little 
girls  under  sixteen  years  of  age,  who  were  toiling  in  the  great  silk- 
mills  and  lace  factories  of  the  mining  districts  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
chairman  could  not  repress  his  indignation  when  these  two  eleven- 
year-old  children  told  the  Commission  how  they  left  their  homes  to 
report  at  the  factory  at  half  past-six  in  the  evening  and  spent  at 
work  the  long  hours  of  the  night  until  half-past  six  in  the  morning. 

"  The  girls  go  to  the  mills,  the  boys  to  the  breakers.  A  year  or  two 
ago  Mr.  Francis  H.  Nichols  said  regarding  these  working  children: 
'  I  saw  four  hundred  lads  working  in  the  breakers.  One  of  the  chil- 
dren told  me,  ( We  go  to  work  at  seven  in  the  morning  and  stay  until 
six  in  the  evening/  e  Are  there  many  in  the  breakers  younger  than 
you? '  he  asked  one  of  the  children.  '  Why,  sure,  I'm  one  of  the  old- 
est; I'm  making  sixty  cents.  Most  of  them  is  eight  and  nine  years 
old/  Mr.  Nichols  then  asked,  '  Did  you  ever  go  to  school  ?'  'To 
school  ? '  the  child  echoed ;  '  Say,  mister,  you  must  be  a  green  hand. 
Why,  lads  in  the  anthracite  doesn't  go  to  school;  they  works  in  the 
breakers ! '  They  do  not  go  to  school,  but  instead  they  are  put  to 
work  as  soon  as  they  may  be  trusted  not  to  fall  into  the  machinery 
and  be  killed.  There  is  hardly  an  employment  more  demoralising 
and  physically  injurious  than  this  work  in  the  breakers.  For  ten  or 
eleven  hours  a  day  these  children  of  ten  and  eleven  years  stoop  over 
the  chute  and  pick  out  the  slate  and  other  impurities  from  the  coal 
as  it  moves  past  them.  The  air  is  black  with  coal  dust,  and  the  roar 
of  the  crushers,  screens,  and  rushing  mill-race  of  coal  is  deafening. 
Sometimes  one  of  the  children  falls  into  the  machinery  and  is  terri- 
bly mangled,  or  slips  into  the  chute  and  is  smothered  to  death.  Many 
children  are  killed  in  this  way.  Many  others,  after  a  time,  contract 
coal-miner's  asthma  and  consumption,  which  gradually  undermine 
their  health.  Breathing  continually,  day  after  day,  the  clouds  of  coal 
dust,  their  lungs  become  black  and  choked  with  small  particles  of 
anthracite.  There  are  in  the  United  States  about  twenty-four  thou- 
sand children  employed  in  and  about  the  mines  and  quarries/' 

John  Spargo  says,  in  his  chapter  entitled  "  The  Blighting  of  the 
Babies " :  "  Perhaps  the  employment  of  mothers  too  close  to  the 
time  of  childbirth,  both  before  and  after,  is  almost  as  important  as 
the  subsequent  neglect  and  intrusting  of  children  to  the  tender  mer- 
cies of  ignorant  and  irresponsible  caretakers,  filie  Reclus  tells  us 
that  among  savages  it  is  the  universal  custom  to  exempt  their  women 
from  toil  during  stated  periods  prior  to  and  following  childbirth,  and 
in  most  countries  legislation  has  been  enacted  forbidding  the  employ- 
ment of  women  within  a  certain  given  period  from  the  birth  of  a 
child.  In  Switzerland  the  employment  of  mothers  is  prohibited  for 
two  months  before  confinement  and  the  same  period  afterwards.  At 
present  the  English  law  forbids  the  employment  of  a  mother  within 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

four  weeks  after  she  has  given  birth  to  a  child,  and  the  trend  of  pub- 
lic opinion  seems  to  be  in  favour  of  the  extension  of  the  period  of  ex- 
emption to  the  standard  set  by  the  Swiss  laws.  So  far  as  I  am  aware 
there  exists  no  legislation  of  this  kind  in  the  United  States,  in  which 
respect  we  stand  alone  among  the  great  nations,  and  behind  the  sav- 
age of  all  lands  and  ages."  .  .  . 

"  Not  long  ago,  in  one  of  the  largest  cigar  factories  in  New  York, 
a  woman  left  her  bench  with  a  cry  of  agony  and  sank  down  in  a 
corner  of  the  factory,  where,  in  the  presence  of  scores  of  workers  of 
both  sexes,  whose  gay  laughter  and  chatter  her  shrieks  had  stilled, 
she  became  a  mother.  The  poor  woman  afterwards  confessed  that  she 
had  feared  that  it  might  happen  so,  but  said  she  'wanted  to  get  in 
another  day  so  as  to  have  a  full  week's  pay  and  money  for  the  doc- 
tor/ Within  two  weeks  she  was  back  again  at  her  trade,  but  in  an- 
other shop,  her  baby  being  left  in  the  care  of  an  old  woman  of  seventy 
who  supports  herself  by  caring  for  little  children  at  a  charge  of  five 
cents  per  day.  In  another  factory  a  woman  returned  to  work  on  the 
seventh  day  after  her  confinement,  but  was  sent  back  by  the  foreman. 
This  woman,  a  Bohemian,  explained  that  she  did  not  feel  well  enough 
to  work  but  feared  that  she  might  lose  her  place  if  she  remained  longer 
away.  The  dread  prospect  of  unemployment  and  hunger  had  forced 
her  from  her  bed  to  face  the  awful  perils  attendant  upon  premature 
exertion  and  exposure.  Had  she  been  a  '  savage  heathen '  in  the  kraal 
of  some  Kaffir  tribe  in  Africa  she  would  have  been  shielded,  protected, 
and  spared  this  peril,  but  she  was  in  a  civilised  country,  in  the  richest 
city  of  the  world,  and  therefore  unprotected ! " 

The  brutality,  the  hyena-like  lack  of  sympathy  in  many  quarters  of 
our  present  cut-throat  competitive  system  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
following  quotation  from  the  same  author :  "  In  many  factories,  prob- 
ably a  majority,  women  in  whom  the  signs  of  approaching  mother- 
hood are  conspicuous  are  discharged.  '  It  don't  take  two  people  to 
run  this  loom/  or  '  Two  can't  work  at  one  job/  are  typically  brutal 
examples  of  the  language  employed  by  bosses  of  a  certain  type  upon 
such  occasions.  The  fear  of  being  discharged  causes  many  a  poor 
woman  to  adopt  the  most  pitiful  means  to  hide  her  condition  from  the 
boss.  '  It  wouldn't  be  so  bad  if  we  were  only  laid  off  for  a  few  weeks, 
but  it's  getting  fired  and  the  trouble  of  finding  a  new  job  that  hurts/ 
they  say." 

Mr.  Bobert  Hunter,  analysing  the  principal  data  available,  has  es- 
timated the  measure  of  privation  in  this  country.  He  concludes  that, 
in  normal  times,  there  are  at  least  10,000,000  persons  in  the  United 
States  in  poverty,  by  which  is  meant  that  there  are  so  many  persons 
underfed,  underclad,  poorly  housed,  and  having  no  security  in  the 
means  of  life.  He  has  observed  that  the  misery  of  poverty  seems  to 
fall  most  heavily  upon  the  children,  of  whom  not  less  than  from  sixty 
to  seventy  thousand  in  the  single  city  of  New  York  "  often  arrive  at 
school  hungry,  and  unfitted  to  do  well  the  work  required."  It  has 
been  pointed  out  that,  if  there  are  ten  millions  of  poverty-stricken 
people  in  the  United  States,  at  least  3,300,000  of  them  must  be  chil- 
dren under  14  years  of  age.  Eeturning  once  more  to  "  The  Bitter 
Cry  of  the  Children,"  we  extract  the  following  from  the  chapter  en- 

718 


SLAUGHTER   OF  THE    INNOCENTS 


,  1Child  "  :  "  This  Problem  of  P0^  in  its  relation 

to  childhood  and  education  is,  to  us  in  America,  quite  new.  We  have 
not  studied  it  as  it  has  been  studied  in  England  and  other  European 
countries  where,  for  many  years,  it  has  been  the  subject  of  much  in- 
vestigation and  experiment.  When  it  was  suggested  that  60,000  or 
70,000  children  go  to  school  in  our  greatest  city  in  an  underfed  condi- 
tion, and  when  Dr.  W.  H.  Maxwell,  superintendent  of  the  Board  of 
Education  of  New  York  City,  declared  in  a  public  address  that  there 
are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  children  in  the  public  schools  of  the 
nation  unable  to  study  or  learn  because  of  their  hunger,  something  of 
a  sensation  was  caused  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  But  in 
England,  where  for  more  than  twenty  years  investigators  have  been 
studying  the  problem  and  experimenting,  and  have  built  up  a  consid- 
erable literature  upon  the  subject,  which  has  become  one  of  the  most 
pressing  political  problems  of  the  time,  they  have  become  so  conversant 
with  the  facts  that  no  fresh  recital,  however  eloquent,  can  create  anv- 
thing  like  a  sensation.  And  what  is  true  of  England  is  true  of  almost 
every  other  country  in  Europe.  Only  we  in  the  United  States  have 
ignored  this  terrible  problem  of  child  hunger.  We  have  so  long  been 
used  to  express  our  commiseration  with  the  Old  World  on  account  of 
the  heavy  burden  of  pauperism  beneath  which  it  groans,  and  to  boast 
of  our  greater  prosperity  and  happiness,  that  we  have  hardly  observed 
the  ominous  signs  that  similar  causes  at  work  among  us  are  fast  pro- 
ducing similar  results.  Now  we  have  awakened  to  the  fact  that  here, 
too,  are  two  nations  within  the  nation,  —  the  nation  of  the  rich  and 
the  nation  of  the  poor,  —  and  that  Fourier's  terrible  prophecy  of  '  pov- 
erty through  plethora,'  has  found  fulfilment  in  the  land  where  he 
fondly  dreamed  that  his  Utopia  might  be  realised.  The  poverty  prob- 
lem is  to-day  the  supreme  challenge  to  our  national  conscience  and 
instincts  of  self-preservation,  and  its  saddest  and  most  alarming  fea- 
ture is  the  suffering  and  doom  it  imposes  upon  the  children."  .  .  . 

"  It  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasised  that  it  is  not  a  question  of 
whether  so  many  children  go  without  breakfast  occasionally,  but 
whether  they  are  underfed,  either  through  missing  meals  more  or  less 
frequently  or  through  feeding  day  by  day  and  week  by  week  upon  food 
that  is  poor  in  quality,  unsuitable,  and  of  small  nutritive  value,  and 
whether  in  consequence  the  children  suffer  physically  or  mentally,  or 
both.  Only  a  comprehensive  examination  by  experts  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  children  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  a  careful  inquiry  into 
their  diet  and  their  physical  and  mental  development,  would  afford  a 
satisfactory  basis  for  any  statistical  measure  of  the  problem  which 
could  be  accepted  as  even  approximately  correct.  Yet  such  inquiries 
as  those  described  cannot  be  ignored  ;  in  the  absence  of  more  compre- 
hensive and  scientific  investigations  they  are  of  great  value,  on  account 
of  the  mass  of  observed  facts  which  they  give  ;  and  the  results  certainly 
tend  to  show  that  the  estimate  that  fully  2,000,000  children  of  school 
age  in  the  United  States  are  badly  underfed  is  not  exaggerated.' 

From  an  "Appendix  to  Poverty,"  by  Robert  Hunter,  we  take  the 
following-  "'FALL  RIVER,  MASS.,  MARCH  11.—  Situated  in  the  very 
centre  of  Fall  River's  wharf  line  and  flush  with  the  waters  of  Mount 
Hope  Bay  is  the  mammoth  plant  of  the  American  Printing  Company, 

719 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  largest  establishment  of  the  kind  in  America,  and  the  individual 
property  of  Matthew  Chandler  Durfee  Borden,  the  millionaire  resident 
of  New  York. 

'  Hundreds  of  small  hoys  work  for  Mr.  Borden,  and  many  of  them 
toil  ten  hours  a  day  without  a  thread  of  clothing  on  their  bodies.  No 
one  except  employes  is  allowed  to  enter  the  works,  and  therefore  when 
it  was  stated  before  a  woman's  club  in  New  York,  last  week,  that  naked 
babies  were  at  work  in  the  Fall  River  mills,  much  interest  was  aroused. 

'  They  work  in  the  big  tanks  called  '  lime  keer/  in  the  bleach  house, 
packing  the  cloth  into  the  vats. 

'  This  lime  keer  holds  750  pieces  of  cloth,  and  it  requires  one  hour 
and  twenty  minutes  to  fill  it.  During  that  time  the  lad  must  work 
inside,  while  his  body  is  being  soaked  with  whatever  there  is  of  chem- 
icals which  enter  into  the  process  of  bleaching,  of  which  lime  is  a 
prominent  factor. 

'  The  naked  bodies  of  the  children  who  do  this  work  day  after  day 
are  never  dry,  and  the  same  chemicals  which  effect  the  bleaching  pro- 
cess of  the  gray  cloth  naturally  bleach  the  skin  of  the  operator,  and 
after  coming  out  of  the  vats  the  boys  show  the  effects  in  the  whiteness 
of  their  skins,  which  rivals  the  cotton  cloth/ — '  The  Child  Labour 
Evil/  by  Hon.  James  F.  Carey." 

Volumes  might  be  written  upon  the  modern  abuse  of  the  child,  but 
enough  has  been  said  to  show  all  good  men  and  women,  who  have  the 
love  of  humanity  at  heart,  that  there  is  urgent  need  of  radical  and 
widespread  reform  throughout  our  entire  social  system.  We  have  had 
far  too  much  of  an  ill-advised  "optimism,"  and  it  is  now  high  time 
that  we  face  the  issues  squarely,  and  tear  the  evils  up  roots  and  all. 
Those  who  contend  that  reform  is  not  good,  because  it  is  "  destruc- 
tive "  rather  than  "  constructive,"  deserve  no  more  consideration  than 
a  patient  afflicted  with  cancer  who  would  not  permit  a  surgeon  to  re- 
move it  until  he  should  be  informed  what  was  to  be  given  him  in  place 
of  it.  Let  the  evil  be  removed,  destroyed,  if  you  please ;  let  us  slough 
off  the  old  dead  skin  of  savagery  in  any  way  we  can,  confident  that  a 
new  and  better  skin  has  already  begun  to  form  beneath  it.  There  are 
signs  that  the  country  is  awakening.  God  speed  the  day  when  the  last 
doubt  of  it  may  have  vanished! 

Speaking  of  the  importance  of  our  treatment  of  the  child,  John 
Spargo  says :  "  Surely,  it  is  not  too  much  to  hope  that,  before  long, 
the  nation  will  realise  in  the  destruction  of  its  future  citizens  by  greed 
and  ignorance  a  far  more  serious  attack  upon  the  republic  than  any 
that  could  be  made  by  fleets  or  armed  legions.  To  sap  the  strength 
and  weaken  the  moral  fibres  of  the  children  is  to  grind  the  seed-corn, 
to  wreck  the  future  for  to-day's  fleeting  gain. 

"  A  great  Frenchman  once  said  of  the  alphabet,  '  These  twenty-six 
letters  contain  all  the  good  things  that  ever  were,  or  even  can  be,  said, 
—  only  they  need  to  be  arranged/  To  complete  the  truth  of  this 
aphorism,  he  should  have  included  all  the  bad  things  as  well.  And  so 
it  is  with  the  children  of  a  nation.  Capable  of  expressing  all  the  good 
or  evil  the  world  has  known  or  may  know,  it  is  essentially  a  matter  of 
arrangement,  opportunity,  environment.  Whether  the  children  of  to- 

720 


SLAUGHTER   OF   THE   INNOCENTS 

day  become  physical,  mental,  and  moral  cretins,  or  strong  men  and 
women,  fathers  and  mothers  of  virile  sons  and  daughters,  depends 
upon  the  decision  of  the  nation.  If  the  responsibility  of  this  is  fully 
recognised,  and  the  employment  of  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age 
is  forbidden  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  great  country ; 
if  the  nation  realises  that  the  demand  for  the  protection  of  the  chil- 
dren is  the  highest  patriotism,  and  enfolds  every  child  within  its 
strong,  protecting  arms,  then  and  not  till  then  will  it  be  possible  to 
look  with  confidence  toward  the  future,  unashamed  and  unafraid." 

Under  the  new  system  proposed  by  Mr.  Gillette  the  child  will  be 
given  back  his  childhood,  a  happier  childhood  than  the  race  has  ever 
known,  surrounded  as  it  will  be  by  the  environments  of  an  idealised 
social  system.  Under  the  new  system  justice  will  take  the  place  of 
philanthropy,  and  charity,  which  too  often  debases  the  giver  as  well  as 
the  recipient,  will  be  replaced  by  equity.  Under  our  present  system 
we  too  often  rob  the  labourer  of  his  just  due,  a  tithe  of  which  we  osten- 
tatiously dole  back  to  him  under  the  name  of  charity.  The  following 
poem  well  illustrates  the  present  sad  condition. 

CHARITY. 
(By  Charlotte  Perkins  Gilman.) 

Came  two  young  children  to  their  mother's  shelf 

(One  was  quite  little  and  the  other  big) ; 
And  each  in  freedom  calmly  helped  himself 

(One  was  a  pig). 
The  food  was  free  and  plenty  for  them  both, 

But  one  was  rather  dull  and  very  small: 
So  the  big,  smarter  brother,  nothing  loath, 

He  took  it  all. 
At  which  the  little  fellow  raised  a  yell 

Which  tired  the  other's  more  esthetic  ears; 
He  gave  him  a  crust  and  then  a  shell 

To  stop  his  tears. 
He  gave  with  pride,  in  manner  calm  and  bland 

Finding  the  other's  hunger  a  delight;  » 

He  gave  with  piety  —  his  full  left  hand 

Hid  from  his  right. 
He  gave  and  gave;  Oh,  blessed  Charity, 

How  sweet  and  beautiful  a  thing  it  is! 
How  fine  to  see  that  big  boy  giving  free 

What  is  not  his! 


46 


CONCLUSION 


723 


Unseen  hands  delay 

The  coming  of  what  oft  seems  close  in  ken, 
And,  contrary,  the  moment,  when  we  say 
"  Twill  never  come!  "  comes  on  us  even  then. 
Owen  Meredith  (Lord  Lytton)  —  Thomas  Munzer  to  Martin  Luther. 

That  which  is  unjust  can  really  profit  no  one;  that  which  is  just  can 
really  harm  no  one. 

Henry  George  —  The  Land  Question. 

It  is  impossible  to  have  an  industrial  revolution  without  political 
change.  The  good  of  society  demands  the  protection  of  every  class,  and 
this  can  only  be  assured  by  securing  to  each  such  voice  in  government 
as  will  check  and  eventually  eradicate  that  worst  of  all  tyranny  —  class 
domination. 

Walter  O.  Cooper —  The  Fate  of  the  Middle  Classes. 

The  present  wretched  social  arrangements  are  the  only  hindrances 
to  the  attainment  by  almost  all  of  an  existence  made  up  of  a  few  and 
transitory  pains  and  many  and  various  pleasures. 

John  Stuart  Mill. 

I  found  my  soul  lying  neglected,  and  I  picked  it  up  and  wondered  what 

the  strange  mechanism  was  for. 

I  went  to  school  to  learn  what  use  to  make  of  my  soul. 
They  taught  me  to  think  with  it,  but  it  strained  and  creaked  and  nearly 

gave  way  under  the  ordeal. 
They  showed  me  how  to  amuse  myself  with  it,  but  it  speedily  got  out  of 

order  and  refused  to  work. 
Then  they  trained  me  to  hate  with  my  soul,  but  it  broke  down  utterly  and 

nearly  fell  to  pieces. 

I  came  back  from  school  disgusted  with  my  soul  and  my  teachers. 
It  was  long  after  (alone,  lying  on  my  bed  in  the  nightwatches)   that  it 

flashed  upon  me  what  my  soul  was  for. 
Why  did  ncne  of  them  tell  me  that  my  soul  was  a  loving  machine? 

Ernest  Crosby  in  "  Broad-Cast." 


724 


CONCLUSION 

T  has  been  our  purpose  in  the  foregoing  chapters  to 
show  a  few  of  the  many  conditions  in  this  and  other 
countries  which  can  be,  and  ought  to  be,  improved. 
In  doing  this  we  have,  perforce,  been  led  to  cite  many 
things  which  we,  as  well  as  the  Reader,  most  heartily 
wish  were  otherwise.  We  do  not  contend  that  every- 
thing or  everybody  in  any  department  of  this  or  any  other  government 
is  bad.  Far  from  it.  We  appreciate  fully  the  truth  of  Victor  Hugo's 
assertion,  that  a  dislike  in  the  mass  is  always  a  prejudice.  Indeed  we 
recognise  much  truth  in  the  following  quotation  from  John  Adams' 
"  Opinions  of  Philosophers  " :  "  It  is  weakness  rather  than  wicked- 
ness, which  renders  men  unfit  to  be  trusted  with  unlimited  power. 
The  passions  are  all  unlimited ;  nature  has  left  them  so ;  if  they  could 
be  bounded,  they  would  be  extinct ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  they  are  of 
indispensible  importance  in  the  present  system.  They  certainly  in- 
crease, too,  by  exercise,  like  the  body.  The  love  of  gold  grows  faster 
than  the  heap  of  acquisition;  the  love  of  praise  increases  by  every 
gratification,  till  it  stings  like  an  adder,  and  bites  like  a  serpent ;  till 
the  man  is  made  miserable  every  moment  when  he  does  not  snuff  the 
incense.  Ambition  strengthens  at  every  advance,  and  at  last  takes 
possession  of  the  whole  soul  so  absolutely,  that  a  man  sees  nothing  in 
the,  world  of  importance  to  others  or  himself,  but  in  his  object.  The 
subtlety  of  these  three  passions,  which  have  been  selected  from  all 
others  because  they  are  aristocratical  passions,  in  subduing  all  others, 
and  even  the  understanding  itself,  if  not  the  conscience  too,  until  they 
became  absolute  and  imperious  masters  of  the  whole  mind,  is  a  curious 
subject  of  speculation.  The  cunning  with  which  they  hide  themselves 
from  others,  and  from  a  man  himself,  too;  the  patience  with  which 
they  wait  .for  opportunities ;  the  torments  they  voluntarily  suffer  for 
a  time,  to  secure  a  full  enjoyment  at  length;  the  inventions,  the  dis- 
coveries, the  contrivances  they  suggest  to  the  understanding,  some- 
times in  the  dullest  dunces  in  the  world,  if  they  could  be  described  in 
writing,  would  pass  for  great  genius." 

There  is  the  best  of  reason,  while  fighting  evil  early  and  late, 
why  we  should  spread  a  very  broad  mantle  of  philosophical  charity 
over  the  heads  of  evil  doers  with  their  direful  content  of  curdled 
brains.  Nor  is  the  story  by  any  means  a  hopeless  tale. 
..  There  are  many  noble  men  and  women  who  are  putting  forth  their 
utmost  endeavours  to  right  the  awful  wrongs  which  oppress  their  fel- 
lows on  every  hand.  There  are  many  others  who  wish  their  fellows  well, 
but  know  not  how  to  give  their  wish  the  impetus  of  an  act.  There 
are  still  others  who  have  no  love  for  the  evil  which  surrounds  them, 
and  who  would  strike  at  it,  if  they  were  conscious  of  its  presence  and 

725 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

could  find  it.  They  are  simply  misguided  individuals  who  are  pleased 
to  think  themselves  optimists,  but  who  are,  for  the  most  part,  of  that 
neutral,  negative,  static  brand  of  thought  which  is  the  essential  char- 
acteristic of  the  worst  kind  of  pessimism.  When  a  man  is  tempted 
to  do  an  evil  act  and  is  about  to  yield,  he  does  not  discuss  with  him- 
self in  all  its  bearings  the  sin  of  his  proposed  course.  Far  from  it. 
The  psychology  of  crime  shows  quite  another  course  of  procedure. 
What  the  wrong-doer  does  is  to  fasten  his  mind  upon  the  agreeable 
results  which  he  expects  to  follow  his  questionable  act.  If  the  thought 
of  its  harm  comes  into  his  mind  at  all,  it  is  dismissed  outright,  or 
laid  upon  his  intellectual  table  for  consideration  after  he  shall  have 
done  the  deed.  His  course  is  precisely  that  of  the  spurious  optimist 
who,  with  evil  all  about  him  which  he  should  assist  in  remedying, 
lolls  in  the  lazy  hammock  of  his  own  pleasant  thoughts,  shirking  the 
burden  upon  other  shoulders.  If  optimism  presuppose  that  all  is 
as  it  should  be,  it  would  certainly  not  wish  to  change  anything,  since 
that  could  but  make  perfection  less  perfect.  Such  optimism,  there- 
fore, would  be  inert,  static,  dead  and  futile,  and  an  Egyptian  mummy 
could  efficiently  perform  all  its  functions.  If  pessimism  be  held  to  be 
absolutely  hopeless,  then  it  offers  its  votaries  no  incentive,  whatsoever, 
for  any  effort  at  betterment,  since  by  the  terms  of  its  definition  all  such 
efforts  must  be  useless  and  abortive.  This,  too,  leads  to  a  static,  inert, 
and  inactive  condition  as  well  typified  by  death  as  by  anything  else. 
We  see,  therefore,  that  the  superlative  degree  of  optimism  and  the 
superlative  degree  of  pessimism  result  philosophically  in  the  same 
thing,  viz.,  inaction.  The  one  holds  it  foolish  to  attempt  to  better 
that  which  is  good  beyond  hope  of  improvement,  the  other  holds  it 
futile  to  attempt  to  better  that  which  is  bad  beyond  hope  of  improve- 
ment. Both  make  the  mistake  of  assuming  that  superlative  conditions 
exist.  Nothing  is  so  good  that  it  cannot  be  bettered,  nothing  is  so 
bad  that  it  may  not  be  worse.  The  20th  century  citizen  has  heard  a 
vast  deal  too  much  of  both  optimism  and  pessimism.  Why  need  a 
man  put  on  either  blue  or  pink  goggles,  if  he  have  visual  strength 
enough  to  stand  the  untempered  white  light  of  truth  ?  We  put  blind- 
ers on  our  horses  to  direct  their  vision  forward,  and  the  optimists 
and  pessimists  seem  to  have  borrowed  the  practice  with  a  singular  and 
somewhat  ridiculous  variation.  The  one  puts  blinders  below  his  eyes, 
so  that  his  vision  is  directed  entirely  at  the  skies,  until  he  is  as  innocent 
as  a  wooden  Indian  of  the  affairs  in  which  his  feet  are  immersed.  The 
other  puts  his  blinders  visor-like  above  his  eyes,  so  that  he  sees  only 
downward,  shutting  out  the  hope  and  the  promise  which  sings  in  the 
upper  sunshine.  What  folly !  Off  with  the  blinders  altogether.  Let 
us  have  men  and  women  who  can  face  the  truth  without  decking  it  in 
the  lying  livery  of  distorted  thoughts.  The  conditions  to-day  through- 
out the  world  are  very,  very  bad,  but  they  are  not  hopeless.  It  is 
always  darkest  before  the  dawn,  and  the  thick  blackness  which  now 
besets  us  still  leaves  us  faith  to  believe  that  the  morning  is  almost 
come. 

Can  there  be  any  cause  nobler  than  that  of  hastening  this  new 
day  ?  Should  we  not  all  strive  to  build  at  least  a  single  stone  into  this 
grand  temple  of  the  future,  deserving  thus,  and  surely  winning,  the 

726 


CONCLUSION 

gratitude  of  coming  ages?     Can  any  human  being  leave  behind  a 
better  history  ? 

"  If  so  men's  memories  not  thy  monument  be, 
Thou  shalt  have  none. 
Warm  hearts  and  not  cold  stone, 
Must  mark  thy  grave, 
Or  thou  shalt  lie  unknown. 
Marbles  keep  not  themselves;  how  then  keep  thee?" 

The  crying  evil  of  to-day  may  be  summed  up  in  a  single  phrase, 
lack  of  the  social  sense.  This  is  to  say,  that  most  of  us  are  selfish, 
a  few  only  selfial,  while  still  fewer  are  denizens  of  the  domain  of 
"  otherdom."  Man  is  a  gregarious  animal,  but  as  yet  he  is  only  half 
social.  This  is  due  to  the  environments  in  which  he  has  been  placed, 
and  not  to  any  inherent  inadaptibility  to  high  social  requirements. 
The  system  of  commercialism,  in  which  creation  now  wallows,  is  a 
veritable  sty  of  greed  and  corruption,  and  it  is  small  wonder  if  many 
a  man  scurries  through  life  like  a  pig  with  his  feet  in  the  trough. 

The  following,  entitled  "  The  Civilised  Pig,"  copied  from  Bolton 
Hall's  "The  Game  of  Life,"  is  not  without  food  for  thought:  "I 
couldn't  make  out  whether  the  animal  I  was  talking  to  was  a  man 
or  a  pig.  You  have  noticed  how  like  men  pigs  really  are?  They 
have  the  same  pinky,  hairless  skin,  their  dental  formulas  are  the  same, 
and  they  both  eat  anything1  they  can  get.  Then,  too,  they  have  the 
same  range  of  voice,  from  a  squeal  to  a  grunt. 

"  Said  the  Animal,  '  I  keep  several  wives/ 

'  Oh/  thought  I,  '  he  must  be  a  pig  —  unless  he  is  a  Mormon/ 

'  But,  I'm  not  married  to  them/  he  said. 

'  Ah/  thought  I,  '  surely  he  is  a  pig  —  unless  he  is  a  man  about 
town/ 

'  I  squeal  and  struggle  when  I'm  hurt/  said  the  Animal. 

'  Now/  said  I, '  I  know  he's  a  pig  —  unless  he's  a  Bryanite/ 

1  Do  you  pay  any  rent  ? '  I  asked  for  a  test. 

'  Kent/  said  he,  '  I  don't  know  what  it  is/ 

'  Now  I  am  sure  he  is  a  pig/  I  said,  '  unless,  indeed,  he  is  a  gen- 
tleman/ for  I  remembered  that  according  to  the  Irish,  the  pig  is  the 
'  gentleman  that  pays  the  rent/ 

"  I  tried  him  again :  '  Would  you  die  in  defense  of  your  hearth  and 
home  ? '  said  I. 

"  Said  he,  '  I  haven't  a  home/ 

"  Again  I  thought  he  must  be  a  pig,  till  I  remembered  that    home 
means  to  most  men  a  pig-sty  of  a  tenement. 

"  I  said,  *  You  are  dirty  and  sensual/ 

'  Not  more  than  others/  said  he,  '  that  are  shut  put  from  the  clean 
earth  and  clean  pleasures,  and  shut  in  to  the  slums/ 

"  Now  do  you  think  I  was  talking  to  one  of  you  or  to  a  pig? 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  the  age-long  saturnalia  of  com- 
petitive greed,  in  which  the  human  race  has  suffered  throughout  all 
history  has  developed  in  each  social  unit  an  e^o-centric  habit  of 
thought  which  makes  it  all  but  impossible  for  him  to  view  things  from 
that  aZfro-centric  position  so  necessary  to  the  realisation  of  the  true 

727 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

social  sense.  So  long  as  astronomers  viewed  our  planetary  system 
from  a  ^eo-centric  standpoint,  chaos  reigned  in  their  theories.  When, 
however,  Copernicus  gave  them  the  concept  of  a  /le/to-centric  system, 
chaos  gave  place  to  order.  In  like  manner,  when  man  evolves  to  the 
altro-centric  level,  the  present  e^o-centric  chaos  of  our  social  system 
will  give  place  to  the  perfect  order  of  that  highest  liberty  compatible 
with  equality  of  liberty. 

In  his  "  Politics  for  Young  Americans,"  Charles  Nordhoff  expresses 
the  current  theory  of  government,  when  he  says :  "  Governments  may 
be  said  to  be  necessary  evils,  their  necessity  arising  out  of  the  selfish- 
ness and  stupidity  of  mankind/'  The  selfishness  a_d  stupidity  of 
mankind !  There  is  the  difficulty  in  a  nut-shell.  We  are  all  so  like 
the  Illinois  farmer  who,  according  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  asserted ;  '  I 
ain't  greedy  'bout  land.  I  only  just  wants  what  jines  mine.'  That 
this  condition  obtains  is  no  marvel;  the  marvel  would  be  if,  under 
our  present  system,  it  did  not  obtain. 

"  The  imperfections  of  equality  of  competition,"  says  John  A.  Hob- 
son,  "may  be  met  and  overcome  by  securing  equality  of  opportunity 
for  individuals."  That  all  would  be  happier  if  this  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity obtained  is  a  matter  beyond  peradventure,  for  the  injury  done 
by  the  privileged  class  to  the  toilers  reacts  upon  themselves  and 
throughout  the  whole  social  fabric.  "  That  which  does  no  harm  to 
the  State,"  said  Marcus  Aurelius,  "  can  do  no  harm  to  the  citizen. 
That  cannot  be  for  the  good  of  a  single  bee  which  is  not  for  the  good 
of  the  whole  hive."  Conversely,  nothing  can  harm  a  single  bee  which 
does  not  harm  the  whole  hive.  Again  let  us  insist  that  the  body  cor- 
poreal is  a  perfect  analogue  of  the  body  social,  and  that  just  as  the 
well-being  of  the  physical  body  is  only  maintained  by  a  just  distribu- 
tion of  its  labour  and  its  nourishment,  so  the  well-being  of  the  social 
body  can  only  be  reached  through  a  similar  just  apportionment  of 
labours  and  amenities.  If  the  liver  enlarges  itself  at  the  expense  of 
the  other  organs,  it  brings  about  a  condition  which  shortly  reacts  upon 
itself,  to  its  own  annihilation.  Those  bloated  social  glands,  known  as 
multi-millionaires,  are  in  precisely  the  same  fix.  The  short-sighted  in- . 
dividual  who  thinks  to  exist  socially  in  spite  of  society,  and  who  never 
realises  that  each  injustice  he  practises  slashes  a  small  slice  off  his 
own  nose,  reminds  one  of  the  story  of  the  two  men  who  pooled  their 
money  for  the  purpose  of  buying  an  elephant.  After  a  time  one  of 
the  purchasers  got  disgusted  with  the  elephant  business  and  went  to 
his  partner  with  this  proposition :  "  I'm  not  going  to  interfere  with 
any  of  your  rights  in  our  partnership.  You  may  do  what  you  please 
with  your  half  of  our  elephant,  but  I'm  tired  of  my  half  and  I'm 
going  to  shoot  it." 

Now  the  man  who  wrongs  his  fellow  man  is,  in  a  sense,  shooting 
a  portion  of  the  social  elephant,  in  which  he  himself,  in  company 
with  all  others,  is  interested.  That  he  does  not  see  this  is  only  be- 
cause of  the  ignorance  and  selfishness  which  result  from  our  debauch- 
ing social  system. 

In  "  Everybody's  Magazine  "  for  March,  1906,  Mr.  Charles  Edward 
Eussell  says :  "  It  is  very  much  the  custom  in  our  country  to  regard 
our  problems  as  peculiar  to  ourselves.  We  are  not  accustomed,  for 

728 


CONCLUSION 

instance,  to  think  that  any  other  country  has  its  struggles  with  cor- 
porations, money  mania,  the  <  System,'  corruption,  political  debauch- 
ery, influence,  the  monstrous  cruelty,  rapacity,  and  savagery  of  awak- 
ened and  organised  greed ;  but  in  truth  these  conditions  are  world- 
wide. Some  differences  of  names,  some  of  methods  are  to  be  seen 
here  and  there,  but  the  essential  principle  of  the  contest  between  the 
decent  instincts  of  man  and  his  gainful  appetites  remains  the  same 
under  whatsoever  sophistical  disguise.  We  do  not  officially  admit  that 
human  slavery  exists  on  the  Kongo  and  in  the  South  African  mines, 
but  we  know  perfectly  well  that  it  does  exist  in  those  regions  and 
differs  nothing  from  the  human  slavery  that  we  suppressed  by  our 
Civil  War.  We  do  not  hear  much  about  political  and  official  cor- 
ruption in  other  countries,  Italy  and  Russia,  for  instance,  but  some- 
times it  is  as  richly  developed  abroad  as  here.  In  the  same  way,  to 
come  to  the  instances  I  have  in  mind,  the  recent  Cunard  Line  con- 
tract in  England,  the  contract  by  which  the  Government  used  the 
national  funds  to  supply  a  private  corporation  with  new  ships,  was 
as  rank  an  example  of  pull  and  influence  as  anything  we  have  achieved 
— as  rank,  and  somewhat  ranker.  It  outdoes  our  fat  mail  subsidies 
to  Mr.  Morgan's  American  Line,  or  our  Government's  tenderness  for 
the  Beef  Trust.  Nothing  could  make  it  worse  except  the  defence  of- 
fered for  it.  We  are  told  it  was  advisable  to  help  a  British  company 
to  compete  with  the  fast  new  German  boats.  If  that  argument  were 
good  for  anything  you  could  defend  with  it  any  perversion  of  govern- 
ment functions  for  private  profits. 

"  Or  consider  that  singular  alliance  between  the  British  Government 
and  the  British  Telephone  Trust,  a  thing  that  has  a  hall-mark  both 
familiar  and  evil.  The  Telephone  Trust  has  certain  lines  and  the 
Oovernment  has  certain  other  lines,  and  the  agreement,  as  reported  in 
the  London  newspapers,  is  'to  prevent  rate-cutting  and  provide  a  di- 
vision of  territory.'  It  is  hard  to  see  what  more  any  trust  could  ask  of 
any  government.  The  British  Telephone  Trust  is  an  offensive  and 
grasping  monopoly;  it  exacts  exorbitant  rates  and  it  meddles  with 
politics  for  its  own  great  gains,  and  now  it  seems  to  have  secured  the 
Government  for  its  partner.  We  have  seen  in  the  story  of  the  fight  at 
Tunbridge  Wells  how  the  Trust  manipulated  elections  and  how  in  its 
schemes  against  the  citizens  it  had  the  national  post-office  department 
for  accessory.  These  things  do  not  look  as  if  the  British  corporations 
needed  instructions  from  our  own,  nor  as  if  the  situation  in  Great 
Britain  were  essentially  different  from  the  situation  in  the  United 
States.  No,  nor  anywhere  else.  What  are  all  these  terrible  revela- 
tions of  the  so-called  *  Labour  Trade '  in  the  Pacific  Islands  but  so 
much  evidence  of  the  universal  struggle  ?  There  is  no  corner  of  the 
world  in  which  the  problem  of  keeping  greedy  hands  from  the  throat 
of  free  government  is  not  chronic  and  growing." 

Mr.  Russell  but  voices  the  perception  of  all  close  observers,  that  the 
struggle  is  on  in  good  earnest.  It  may  be  presumptuous  to  predict 
just  what  the  outcome  will  be,  but  it  requires  no  great  penetration  to 
ascertain  that  some  social  change  more  radical  than  history  has  yet 
-known  is  sadly  needed,  and  to  perceive  many  evidences  of  determina- 
tion upon  the  part  of  the  world's  creators  of  wealth,  to  see  that  this 

729 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

radical  change,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  brought  about.  Labour  now 
demands  bread  in  just  and  sufficient  quantities.  It  no  longer  suppli- 
cates. It  demands,  and  it  keeps  its  voice  up  in  a  way  that  implies  an 
alternative,  should  its  demand  not  be  complied  with.  Perhaps,  asking 
for  bread,  it  will  accept  a  stone  —  and  perhaps  not.  Slowly,  but  none 
the  less  surely,  is  the  best  economic  thought  of  the  country  coming  to 
realise  the  truth  and  the  importance  of  Adam  Smith's  asserveration : 
"  Labour,  therefore,  is  the  only  universal  as  well  as  the  only  accurate 
measure  of  value,  or  the  only  standard  by  which  we  can  compare  the 
values  of  different  commodities  at  all  times  and  at  all  places." 

Similarly  John  Euskin  has  said :  "  A  mans  labour  for  a  day  is  a 
better  standard  of  value  than  a  measure  of  any  produce,  because  no 
produce  ever  maintains  a  consistent  rate  of  productibility." 

De  Tocqueville  has  said:  "A  new  and  fair  division  of  the  goods 
and  rights  of  this  world  should  be  the  main  object  of  those  who  con- 
duct human  affairs." 

Such  a  division  can  only  be  made  upon  a  ratio  of  exchange  which 
deals  with  labour  as  the  one  great  unit  of  value.  That  current  polit- 
ical economy,  of  a  certain  school,  does  not  define  the  value  of  a  com- 
modity as  proceeding  entirely  from  the  labour  expended  in  its  produc- 
tion, is  regrettable  but  true.  For  instance,  J.  M.  Gregory  says,  in  the 
second  chapter  of  his  "  Political  Economy/'  "  Value  is  made  up  of 
three  essential  notions  or  elements,  (1)  Utility,  .  .  .  (2)  Effort, 
or  labour  required  in  procuring  or  producing  the  article  valued,  (3) 
Ownership  or  appropriation." 

We  believe  that  a  little  thought  on  the  part  of  the  discerning  Eeader 
will  convince  him  that  Mr.  Gregory's  definition  is  unnecessarily  com- 
plex. These  complicated  and  erroneous  definitions  of  value  have  been 
sedulously  promulgated  by  those  for  whose  interests  it  is  to  keep  the 
working-man  in  ignorance  of  the  truth.  This  for  the  reason  that, 
being  ignorant  of  the  truth,  he  will  likewise  be  ignorant  both  of  his 
rights  and  of  the  means  whereby  he  is  to  attain  them.  Once  perceive 
that  the  value  of  a  commodity  is  measured  in  terms  of  labour,  and  two 
things  at  once  suggest  themselves  as  inevitable  corollaries,  first,  that 
the  labouring  class  should  be  the  wealthy  class,  and,  second,  that  all 
exchanges  should  be  upon  a  basis  of  labour  units.  The  Chinese  say- 
ing :  "  All  the  grains  of  rice  that  are  in  the  soup  have  been  matured 
by  the  sweat  of  labour,"  is  indisputable  and,  when  its  significance  is 
fully  realised,  the  labouring-man  will  perceive  that  to  labour  belongs 
the  total  product  of  labour.  The  Danish  say :  "  Adam  got  a  hoe  and 
Eve  got  a  spinning-wheel  and  thence  came  all  the  nobles/'  and,  lest 
these  nobles  should  be  asked  to  get  off  the  Labouring-man's  back,  they 
have  busied  themselves  early  and  late  in  writing  so-called  political 
economies  with  the  primary  intent  of  throwing  sand  in  the  toilers'  eyes. 

One  would  think,  to  read  the  creations  of  the  privileged  class  and  of 
their  paid  makers  of  public  opinion,  that  the  present  socialistic  trend, 
which  is  visible  in  some  quarters,  contained  a  menace  to  the  human 
race  second  only  to  the  flood.  That  several  of  our  present  most  effi- 
cient and  successfully  performed  governmental  functions,  as  for  ex- 
ample, our  postal  service,  public  roads,  public  schools  and  the  like,  are 
entirely  socialistic  in  principle,  one  would  never  suspect  from  a  pe- 

730 


CONCLUSION 

rusal  of  this  anti-socialistic  literature,  neither  would  one  suspect  that 
any  phase  of  socialism  had  ever  been  successfully  tried  in  any  com- 
munity in  the  world.  Great  pains  are  taken  to  create  the  impression 
that  all  forms  of  socialism  are  so  radically  different  from  anything 
which  has  been  successfully  tried,  that  it  is  all  but  certain  civilisation 
would  go  to  pieces  if  any  of  these  shocking  social  programmes  were 
ever  carried  out.  This  is  not  to  say  that  we  ourselves  are  advocates 
for  any  form  of  socialism  which  has  thus  far  been  given  to  the  world 
nor  is  it  to  say  that  we  would  not  be,  had  we  not  had  what  seems  to 
us  a  better  solution  of  the  problem  presented  to  us.  That  almost  any 
kind  of  socialism  would  be  an  immense  improvement  over  the  present 
iniquitous  system  we  make  no  doubt.  We  are  merely  desirous,  at  this 
juncture,  to  point  out  the  gross  unfairness  of  the  anti-socialistic  side, 
which  never  tires  of  referring  to  socialism  as  an  unproved  thesis  —  a 
dangerous  and  socially  disorganising  experiment  never  yet  successfully 
tried.  This  is  most  emphatically  false,  as  we  shall  show. 

In  a  large  and  valuable  work  entitled  "  Great  Japan,"  Mr.  Alfred 
Stead  says :  "  There  are  even  at  the  present  moment  in  existence 
several  socialistic  communities  within  the  empire.  These  are  recog- 
nised and  are  not  interferred  with.  So  interesting  are  these  communi- 
ties that  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  the  conditions  there  is  of 
value  to  give  guidance  and  instruction  to  those  anxious  for  the  age  of 
practical  socialism." 

In  one  division  of  the  Japanese  Empire  it  is  stated  that  the  Single- 
Tax  has  been  in  operation  for  centuries.  This  community  levies  all 
the  tax  on  its  land  as  advocated  by  Henry  George,  with  this  important 
variation,  to  wit,  every  eleven,  thirteen  or  seventeen  years  the  land 
is  impartially  apportioned  among  the  people.  In  describing  this  com- 
munity, Mr.  Stead  quotes  a  detailed  account  of  it  given  by  the  leading 
socialist  writer  of  Japan,  Mr.  Katayama,  who  says: 

"  We  can  show  a  most  convincing  proof  of  socialism  fully  and  ac- 
tually in  force  for  centuries  in  a  land  once  a  kingdom  and  now  one  of 
the  prefectures  of  our  empire.  This  prefecture  is  Okinawa,  formerly 
the  kingdom  of  Eiukiu.  Kiukiu  comprises  thirty-six  islands,  with  170 
miles  ^nd  170,000  people.  Here  in  these  islands  we  have  a  complete 
and  well-developed  socialism  that  has  had  long  practice.  The  peace- 
loving  islanders  have  been  living  under  the  system  of  socialism  undis- 
turbed for  several  centuries.  They  have  their  own  land  system;  one 
that  may  surprise  the  world  in  this  age  of  competition  and  greed.  It 
has  been  a  long  and  time-honoured  institution  with  these  people  that 
every  eleventh  year,  in  some  cases  thirteenth  or  seventeenth  year,  the 
whole  land  is  equally  divided  into  as  many  as  there  are  able-bodied 
persons  in  the  community.  During  this  term  each  is  obliged  to  pay 
nothing  but  a  tax  imposed  upon  him  for  the  section  of  land  allotted  to 
him.  Besides  these  allotments  the  community  owns  a  large  tract  of 
land  as  common  land,  where  they  plant  banana  trees.  These  plants 
are  cultivated  and  preserved  carefully  to  feed  all  the  people  on  them 
in  time  of  famine.  Thus  these  islanders  are  assured  of  their  means  of 
subsistence  as  long  as  they  are  willing  to  cultivate  their  allotted  piece 
of  land.  The  taxes  on  the  land  are  very  light,  and  they  are  secure  of 
attacks  from  greedy  capitalists  or  landlords.  There  is  no  landlord  in 

731 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  whole  of  the  islands.  No  one  owns  the  land,  but  every  one  is  en- 
titled to  get  an  allotment  and  live  on  the  fruits  of  his  own  labour. 
There  is  no  anxiety  for  him  to  increase  his  portion  by  acquirement  or 
by  intrigue  or  by  purchase,  as  is  so  common  a  fact  and  a  miserable 
burden  in  the  so-called  civilised  communities.  They  do  not  own  land, 
therefore  they  cannot  mortgage  or  sell  the  land  which  they  cultivate, 
but  they  are  fully  assured  of  possessing  the  results  of  their  own  labour. 
Thus  every  one  owns  his  own  income,  which  is  the  result  of  his  own 
work.  Private  property  is  not  in  the  land,  but  in  the  income  from  the 
land;  there  is  no  rent  because  there  is  no  landlord,  and  there  is  no 
capitalist  who  may  squeeze  and  exploit  the  poor,  because  there  are  no 
poor  in  the  whole  community.  Every  one  can  live  by  his  own  labour, 
because  he  owns  a  piece  of  land  to  cultivate  so  long  as  he  is  a  member 
of  the  community.  They  have  not  lost  individuality  or  independence, 
but  maintain  fully  their  own  personality.  The  very  absence  of  poor 
in  the  whole  island  is  the  strongest  argument  in  favour  of  socialism. 
There  are  no  poor  there,  and  at  the  same  time  there  are  no  rich,  be- 
cause private  monopoly  consists  of  income  only.  It  is  said  that  the 
richest  in  the  island  is  no  wealthier  than  200,000  yen  (£20,000).  In 
spite  of  some  attempts  to  encroach  upon  their  institutions,  so  far  the 
people  have  been  able  to  maintain  the  land  system.  They  are  opposed 
to  change,  lest  the  happiest  and  best  form  of  socialism  should  be  done 
away  with  within  a  few  years.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  the  unde- 
niable fact  that  there  has  existed  for  centuries  the  workability  of  so- 
cialism." 

In  a  most  excellent  study  of  Mr.  Stead's  work,  "  The  Arena  "  for 
March,  1906,  says  in  part :  "  In  concluding  his  discussion  on  the  sim- 
ple life  our  author  observes : 

'  The  Japanese  people  are  the  happiest  people  in  the  world,  and  they 
derive  their  happiness  from  their  innate  simplicity  of  nature,  which 
they  have  obtained  from  their  long  association  with,  and  loving  study 
of,  the  beauty  of  the  universe,  of  the  sky,  and  of  the  world.  Gradu- 
ally the  eyes  of  the  people,  accustomed  to  look  at  and  to  enjoy  beauti- 
ful things,  instinctively  seek  out  the  beautiful,  and  the  best  points  in 
the  new  things  which  come  into  their  lives,  and  thus  attain  tranquility, 
if  not  happiness/  ...  .  . 

"  Perhaps  the  chapter  that  will  be  of  greatest  interest  to  our  readers 
is  entitled  '  Socialism  and  the  Condition  of  the  People/  Mr.  Stead 
holds  that  a  modified  form  of  Socialism,  in  all  probability,  will  be  ere- 
long introduced  by  the  national  government.  Indeed,  he  inclines  to 
believe  that  Japan  will  be  the  first  of  the  nations  to  practically  enter 
upon  a  Socialistic  regime"  .  .  . 

"  However,  from  the  consistent  course  of  the  government  in  promptly 
meeting  the  wishes  of  the  majority  of  the  people,  and  often  in  going 
far  in  advance  of  them  in  radical  innovations  along  democratic  lines, 
and  from  the  further  fact  that  different  forms  of  Socialism  have  been 
in  successful  practice  in  parts  of  Japan  for  centuries,  and  finally  be- 
cause the  attitude  of  the  government  has  been  strongly  favourable  to 
communal  and  Socialistic  experiments,  as  has  been  amply  shown,  he 
believes  that  the  hour  approaches  when  the  government  will  decide 
upon  a  modified  form  of  Socialism,  and  that  at  such  a  time  Mr.  Kata- 

732 


CONCLUSION 

yama,  the  foremost  Socialist  leader,  will  be  called  to  the  cabinet  and 
entrusted  with  the  working  out  of  a  scheme  along  general  Socialistic 
lines;  but  Mr.  .Stead  is  confident  that,  owing  to  the  deep-rooted  love, 
veneration  and  reverence  on  the  part  of  the  nation  for  the  Mikado, 
no  form  of  Socialism  will  be  entertained  by  the  people  that  should 
seek  to  eliminate  the  head  of  the  nation  from  the  position  he  holds. 

"  Mr.  Stead  holds,  however,  that  '  the  idea  of  modern  Socialism  is 
not  objected  to;  in  fact,  the  idea  recommends  itself  to  many  of  the 
thinking  Japanese.  But  just  as  everything  else  has  been  altered  and 
adapted  before  obtaining  full  acceptance  by  the  people,  so  Socialism 
in  Japan  is  likely  to  develop  along  lines  vastly  different  to  those  fol- 
lowed in  other  lands.  Japanese  Socialism  will  have  less  of  the  de- 
structive, and  more  of  the  improving,  idea  as  its  base/ 

"  He  insists  that  the  government  has  no  '  decided  objections  to  So- 
cialistic ideas  in  themselves/  'Japan  presents  the  paradox  of  being 
at  one  and  the  same  time  the  most  communistic  of  nations  and  a  modi- 
fied absolute  empire.  It  has  solved  the  problem  of  preserving  the 
rights  of  the  people  and  of  the  sovereign.  There  are  even  at  the  pres- 
ent moment  in  existence  several  Socialistic  communities  within  the 
empire.  These  are  recognised  and  not  interferred  with.  So  interest- 
ing are  these  communities  that  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  the  con- 
ditions there  is  of  value  to  give  guidance  and  instruction  to  those  anx- 
ious for  the  age  of  practical  Socialism/ 

"  In  this  connexion  Mr.  Stead  gives  detailed  descriptions  of  three 
Socialistic  village  communities,  as  published  by  the  Home  Office  of 
the  Government  for  the  purpose  of  leading  other  communities  to  imi- 
tate the  model  villages/'  .  .  . 

"  We  close  this  notice  with  the  final  paragraph  of  Mr.  Stead's  vol- 
ume: 

'  The  Japanese  feel,  in  the  words  of  one  of  their  writers,  that  '  we 
have  been  raised  by  Providence  to  do  a  work  in  the  world,  and  that 
work  we  must  do  humbly  and  faithfully  as  opportunity  comes  to  us. 
Our  work,  we  take  it,  is  this;  to  battle  for  the  right  and  upbold  the 
good,  and  to  help  make  the  world  fair  and  clean,  so  that  none  may 
ever  have  cause  to  regret  that  Japan  has  at  last  taken  her  rightful 
place  among  the  nations  of  the  world/ '' 

In  his  series  of  excellent  articles  entitled,  "  Soldiers  of  the  Common 
Good,"  Mr.  Charles  Edward  Russell,  says  in  the  instalment  entitled 
"Japan,  The  Economic  Revolutionist,"  published  in  "Everybody's 
Magazine"  for  July,  1906:  "For  many  years  after  Commodore 
Perry's  historical  visit  it  was  the  custom  of  Western  nations  to  regard 
Japan  as  peopled  chiefly  by  amusing  idiots  that  existed  to  supply  us 
with  curios  and  consume  our  surplus  products.  Presently  we  discov- 
ered that  these  amusing  people  were  duplicating  our  products  instead 
of  consuming  them.  This  jolted  the  Western  complacency  until  some 
one  formulated  the  theory  that  the  Japanese  were  merely  '  a  nation 
of  imitators/  With  joy  we  laid  hold  of  this  emollient ;  with  fond  per- 
sistent faith  we  still  cling  to  it.  Even  when  we  see  Japan  with  new 
methods  and  a  new  efficiency  crushing  the  fleets  and  armies  of  one  of 
the  greatest  of  European  nations,  when  we  see  it  making  unprece- 
dented and  sinister  records  in  mobilisation,  maneuvering,  tactics,  com' 

733 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

missariat,  hospital  service,  still  we  cling  to  it.  And  when,  the  war 
being  over,  there  begins  to  appear  a  huge  Japanese  plan  for  commer- 
cial supremacy  and  commercial  activities  as  strange  and  startling  as 
any  the  Japanese  forces  used  in  war,  still  with  pathetic  confidence  we 
hug  the  old  delusion. 

"  A  nation  of  imitators !  As  soon  as  may  be  we  should  come  out  of 
that  trance.  Imitation  as  practised  by  the  Japanese  consists  of  taking 
the  best  thing  done  by  the  Europeans  and  improving  it  and  perfecting 
it  and  excelling  it,  and  then  turning  it  in  its  bettered  state  against 
its  originators.  Something  in  this  may  be  fortifying  to  Western  com- 
placency, though  I  do  not  know  what  it  is;  but  in  any  event  we  are 
now  face  to  face  with  one  development  of  it  that  may  well  make  us 
gasp  and  give  grave  heed." 

In  this  article  Mr.  KusselT  gives  the  figures  which  illustrate  the  un- 
paralleled strides  which  Japan  is  making  in  practically  every  direction. 
He  shows  that  the  "  little  brown  man  "  is  speedily  developing  a  system 
in  which  internal  competition  is  rapidly  being  made  a  thing  of  the 
past,  and  he  points  out  that  the  successful  competition  of  other  na- 
tions, in  the  East  at  least,  will  soon  be  but  a  memory.  Eegarding 
this,  he  says  of  the  Japanese :  "  They  h^ave  pitted  themselves  against 
Europeans  and  have  won ;  the  holy  white  man  has  no  awe  for  them, 
and  now  they  feel  assured  that  they  can  beat  him  at  any  game  he  may 
choose. 

"  More  than  this,  these  wise,  keen-eyed  people  that  sit  watching  in- 
tently the  daily  trend  of  the  world's  progress  know  well  enough  that 
the  real  struggles  for  world  power  are  to  be  commercial,  not  military ; 
and  it  is  on  commercial  and  industrial  fields  that  chiefly  they  expect 
to  win  glory  and  domination  and  empire  for  Japan. 

"  For  such  contests  they  have  two  weapons  of  astounding  and  unpre- 
cedented power. 

"  First,  a  working  population,  intelligent,  capable,  facile,  orderly, 
extremely  industrious,  and  having  a  low  standard  of  living. 

"Second,  a  government  astute  as  to  modern  conditions,  resolutely 
determined  to  force  Japanese  manufacturing,  and  Japanese  commerce, 
and  utterly  unscrupulous  as  to  the  means  it  uses  to  that  end. 

"  The  world  has  never  seen  anything  like  this  combination ;  it  has 
never  seen  nor  imagined  nor  dreamed  of  the  stupendous  results  that 
can  be  secured  by  it.  With  cheap  and  efficient  labour  Japan  can  pro- 
duce at  lower  cost  than  any  other  nation ;  with  its  skilful  and  indomi- 
table government  it  can  build  its  industrial  forces  to  imposing  great- 
ness ;  with  the  two,  in  existing  conditions  of  private  enterprise,  it  can 
annihilate  competition. 

"  For  individuals  can  compete  with  individuals,  firms  with  firms, 
corporations  with  corporations,  trusts  with  trusts;  but  neither  indi- 
vidual, firm,  corporation,  nor  trust  can  compete  with  a  government. 
And  back  of  every  great  manufacturing,  commercial,  or  financial  en- 
terprise in  Japan,  back  of  it  or  actively  involved  in  it,  is  the  Japanese 
Government,  the  greatest  governmental  trader  in  the  world. 

"  More  and  more  it  becomes  clear  that  this  is  the  new  political  econ- 
omy of  Japan,  these  are  the  tactics  by  which  she  expects  to  win  on 
the  commercial  battle-field.  The  Government  is  not  merely  to  foster 

734 


CONCLUSION 

manufactures  and  encourage  trade ;  the  Government  itself  is  to  do  the 
manufacturing,  the  Government  is  to  do  the  trading. 

"  In  all  the  world  not  one  individual,  private  firm,  corporation,  or 
trust  will  be  able  to  compete  in  the  Japanese  market  with  this  Gov- 
ernment, thus  gone  into  manufacturing  and  trading." 

One  of  the  most  impressive  arguments  adduced  by  Mr.  Russell  in 
verification  of  his  conclusions  is  found  in  the  following  two  lines  of 
figures  which  he  offers  with  this  comment :  "  Here  is  the  curt  story 
of  thirteen  years : 


JAPAN    EXPORT    TEADE 

1891  1904 

To  China $291,292 $33,997,936 

To  Korea 733,020 10,199,861  " 

With  quite  delicious  humour  Mr.  Russell  thus  comments  upon  the 
problem  which  Japan  is  day  by  day  preparing  for  American  com- 
merce :  "  In  old  days  the  experts  were  wont  to  derive  great  satisfac- 
tion from  proving  how  wrong  were  all  Napoleon's  tactics,  how  they 
violated  precedent,  practice,  and  all  the  rules  of  the  game  and  would 
have  been  condemned  by  the  authorities  and  all  the  learned  writers. 
He  attacked  by  night,  he  made  forced  marches,  he  performed  be- 
wildering flanking  movements  —  all  illegitimate  and  most  reprehensi- 
ble. But  he  won  the  victories,  which  is  something  never  provided  by 
the  learned  writers ;  he  won  the  victories  and  made  himself  master  of 
Europe  and  rewrote  the  art  of  war  to  suit  himself. 

"  Doubtless  it  is  very  wrong  for  Japan  to  go  into  trade  and  govern- 
ment ownership.  Properly  conducted  governments  have  no  right  to 
become  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  transportation  agents.  All 
precedent  is  against  it,  the  learned  writers  condemn  it,  the  accepted 
rules  of  the  government  game  forbid  it.  But  there  she  goes  day  after 
day  plunging  farther  upon  her  evil  course,  and  the  plain,  practical 
question  for  nations  like  ours  is  not  how  far  Japan  has  wandered  from 
the  true  faith  of  Adam  Smith,  but  what  are  we  to  do  to  keep  our 
trade  from  being  batted  to  pieces  by  her. 

"  For  evil  as  Japan's  course  may  be,  no  one  can  deny  that  it  is  plan- 
ned with  amazing  skill  and  with  a  knowledge  of  Western  world  condi- 
tions both  accurate  and  exasperating,  and  that  it  means  mischief  to 
the  rest  of  us." 

Mr.  Russell  pays  a  glowing  tribute  to  the  intelligence  and  thorough- 
ness of  the  "  little  brown  man  "  in  the  following  paragraphs :  "  The 
Japanese  Government  knows  quite  well  what  is  going  on  elsewhere. 
For  years  it  has  been  in  the  habit  of  quietly  sending  abroad  commis- 
sions of  its  grave,  silent,  obseryant  citizens  to  study  various  conditions. 
These  bodies  are  wont  to  beat  no  tom-toms  and  to  make  no  proclama- 
tions of  their  errands.  Noiselessly  they  go  from  place  to  place  to 
study,  to  watch,  to  compare,  to  weigh,  and  when  they  are  done  they 
have  absorbed  every  phase  of  the  subject.  Thoroughness  is  the  first 
of  the  Japanese  virtues ;  when  these  people  embark  upon  an  undertak- 
ing they  leave  nothing  for  any  one  else  to  show  them.  With  these 

7o5 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

commissions  and  its  own  vigilant  observations,  the  Government  seems 
to  have  mastered  about  everything  worth  knowing  in  the  modern  Eu- 
ropean experience,  whether  of  economics  or  finance.  Not  a  new  in- 
dustry has  been  established  in  Japan  until  the  Government  has  sent 
one  or  more  of  these  commissions  to  study  it  wherever  it  exists,  to 
study  it  and  what  conditions  affect  it,  and  how  it  can  be  improved, 
and  then  report  upon  it,  cold-bloodedly,  without  enthusiasm,  purely  on 
the  basis  of  practical  advantage  to  Japan.  Not  an  important  national 
policy  has  been  adopted  without  the  like  deliberate  study.  If  two, 
three,  five  years  be  consumed,  if  the  inquiry  lead  around  the  world,  no 
matter.  First  the  whole  subject  must  be  turned  inside  out,  then  the 
Government  decides  whether  the  enterprise  or  policy  will  be  to  Japan's 
benefit ;  and  if  the  judgment  be  affirmative,  the  Government  proceeds 
to  establish  or  adopt  the  policy. 

"  One  of  the  first  conclusions  of  this  astute  Government  was  that  a 
nation's  money-supply  is  the  very  heart's  blood  of  its  commerce,  and 
that  private  control  of  the  money-supply  not  only  gives  too  much 
power  to  individuals,  but  subjects  the  nation's  commerce  to  many  dan- 
gers of  arbitrary  and  selfish  influences.  Hence  it  arranged  to  keep  in 
its  own  hands  the  control  of  the  Japanese  banking  business.  This  is 
effected  through  three  great  institutions,  all  practically  owned  by  the 
Government:  the  Central  Bank  of  Japan  (the  leading  bank  of  issue 
and  the  Government's  financial  exponent)  ;  the  Hypothec  Bank,  whose 
function  is  to  care  for  agricultural  interests ;  and  the  Industrial  Bank, 
whose  specialty  is  to  supply  manufacturing  concerns  and  to  foster 
trade  extension.  Besides  these  the  Specie  Bank  of  Yokohama  has  spe- 
cial functions  in  looking  after  foreign  commerce.  Through  these  in- 
stitutions the  Government  has  in  its  control  the  vital  supply  for  every 
commercial  interest  of  Japan." 

We  cannot  too  strongly  urge  upon  our  Eeaders  a  thorough  perusal 
of  all  of  Mr.  Eussell's  articles,  for  they  are  all  preeminently  worth  an 
earnest  reading  on  the  part  of  every  really  patriotic  American. 

We  have  heard  a  deal  about  the  "  Yellow  Peril,"  and  we  are  wont  to 
look  upon  it  as  some  more  or  less  remote  social  pestilence.  We  be- 
lieve that  a  knowledge  of  the  facts,  however,  will  lead  the  thinking  to 
realise  that  our  real  danger,  if  such  a  thing  can  be  called  a  danger, 
is  that  the  Orient  will  develop  a  fitness  to  exist  superior  to  our  own. 
Certain  it  is  that  the  present  progress  of  Japan  will  soon  outstrip  our 
wildest  imaginings,  unless  —  unless  she  fall  a  prey  to  that  almost  in- 
evitable toxin  of  success,  namely,  cranial  enlargement.  Had  the  Uni- 
ted States  not  gotten  the  idea,  as  the  result  of  its  phenominal  develop- 
ment, that  it  was  all  there  was,  that  it  represented  the  political,  eco- 
nomic and  educational  summum  bonum  of  the  earth,  there  is  no  know- 
ing to  what  an  extent  we  might  have  developed.  It  was  only  our  inor- 
dinate pride  which  prevented  us  from  learning  many  a  much- 
needed  lesson  from  humbler  peoples.  We  preferred,  however,  to  estab- 
lish ourselves  as  the  chief  representative  of  Omniscience  among  nations, 
with  the  result  that  we  are  rapidly  becoming  politically  an  economic- 
ally archaic  —  a  back  number,  if  you  please.  This  disintegration  has 
not  gone  far  enough  as  yet  to  slap  a  blind  man  in  the  face,  but  it  has 
gone  far  enough  to  attract  the  fearful  attention  of  those  who  have 

736 


CONCLUSION 

eyes  anchored  in  a  suitable  intelligence.  Up  to  the  present  writing, 
Japan  seems  to  have  steered  so  clear  of  that  national  egotism  which 
has  been  our  greatest  drawback  that  we  cannot  but  conclude  that  her 
clever  commissioners  have  correctly  diagnosed,  reported  and  warned 
their  countrymen  against  the  great  American  malady.  Should  Japan 
remain  immune  from  this  ailment,  there  is  no  reason  in  the  world 
that  we  can  see  why  the  ultimate  course  of  Empire  should  not  be  east- 
ward instead  of  westward.  The  earth  has  never  produced  a  nation 
which  could  compare  with  Japan  as  an  organiser.  Between  her  and 
China  and  Korea  there  exists  a  natural  community  of  interests,  senti- 
ments and  customs.  The  European  is  not  a  kindred  race.  What,  then, 
may  We  expect  from  the  East  when  Japan  arouses,  stimulates  and  or- 
ganises Eastern  Asia?  Every  fourth  man  in  the  world  is  a  China- 
man, and  it  is  quite  within  the  range  of  possibilities  that  a  Japan- 
China  alliance  may  knock  at  the  gates  of  India  before  the  supposedly 
imminent  Russian  menace  moults  a  practical  feather.  If  we  Ameri- 
cans are  to  hold  our  place  on  the  national  and  commercial  map  of  the 
world,  it  behooves  us  at  once  to  quit  listening  to  the  siren  song  of  in- 
dividual greed,  and  bestir  ourselves  toward  some  form  of  co-operative 
effort  which  may  have  the  seeds  of  life  within  it.  The  knell  of  war- 
like competition  has  struck,  and  those  nations  which  fatuously  cling 
to  this  dying  relic  of  barbarism  must  inevitably  go  down  with  it. 

Competition,  as  we  know  it,  is  not  social,  it  is  individual,  and  the 
world  is  passing  into  the  social  stage.  We  say  competition  "  as  we 
know  it,"  because  we  do  not  care  to  split  hairs  over  what  competition 
might  be  if  it  were  to  become  something  which  it  never  has  been,  that 
is,  perfectly  free.  Were  we  to  discuss  such  a  thing  we  should  prefer  to 
begin  by  finding  an  entirely  new  name  for  it,  since  it  does  not  repre- 
sent any  condition  which  society  has  ever  known.  Competition  "  as 
we  know  it "  is  doomed.  It  is  un-Christian,  immoral,  corruptive,  un- 
just, inequitable,  iniquitous,  wasteful,  brutal,  uncertain,  chaotic  and 
inefficient.  All  these  things  it  would  seem  the  clever  Japanese  has 
perceived.  Whether  or  not  he  has  arrived  at  a  perfect  system  which 
corrects  all  these  defects  is  not  for  us  to  say,  but  we  will  hazard  a 
guess- that,  if  not,  he  will  approach  it  by  swift  strides  with  which  it 
will  greatly  trouble  us  to  keep  pace. 

Our  economic  self-sufficiency  is  capitally  hit  off  by  the  opening 
lines  of  Mr.  Russell's  article,  from  which  we  have  already  quoted. 
He  says:  "To  sit  at  ease  and  discuss  the  academic  theories  of 
government  and  the  dark  secrets  of  political  economy  is  one  of  the 
most  delightful  and  useless  occupations  known  to  mankind.  With 
the  help  of  the  learned  authorities  one  minded  to  these  gentle 
pursuits  can  demonstrate  beyond  cavil  that  the  state  should  not 
engage  in  trade,  that  industrial  enterprises  should  be  left  to  indi- 
vidual effort,  that  all  profits  are  legitimate,  however  secured,  that 
without  a  system  of  reciprocal  robbery  there  would  be  no  incen- 
tive to  trade,  that  the  way  anything  has  been  done  in  the  past  is 
exactly  the  way  it  should  be  done  in  the  future,  and  the  like  com- 
fortable doctrines.  So  readily  can  these  truths  be  shown  that  by  most 
of  our  hearthstones  all  such  problems  have  been  pleasantly  and  defi- 
nitely «ettled  forever.  But  while  we  are  engaged  in  making  these 
47  737 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

philosophical  mud-pies,  Evolution,  which  has  no  sense  of  propriety 
and  cares  not  a  whit  for  theories,  schools,  dogmas,  university  profes- 
sors, nor  even  for  the  sainted  Adain  Smith,  is  preparing  for  our  heads 
the  club  that  is  likely  to  put  an  end  to  all  these  diversions  and  dislo- 
cate (for  us)  the  whole  sanctified  science  of  economics." 

In  this  connexion  we  cannot  refrain  from  calling  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  Japanese  development  furnishes  yet  another  instance  of 
a  natural  law,  to  which  we  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  seen  any 
reference,  the  law  that  all  radical  improvements  almost  invariably 
come  from  the  outside.  The  psychology  of  this  is  simple.  Long  famil- 
iarity with  a  subject  breeds  dogmas.  Thought  crystallises  in  adaman- 
tine structures.  All  intellectual  roads  become  so  deeply  rutted  that 
each  specialist  finds  his  "  wheels  "  confined  to  them.  The  invention 
of  all  such  tends  ever  to  be  along  the  line  of  slight  and  progressive 
improvements.  Now  comes  a  strong  mind  from  without.  The  breadth 
of  his  intellectual  running-gear  has  never  been  adjusted  to  specialistic 
ruts,  and  he  forthwith  takes  a  short  cut  across  lots  and  wins  the  race. 
So  Japan,  a  country  without  any  commercial  traditions,  is  able  after 
a  careful  study  of  conditions  to  take  an  economic  short  cut  to  the  de- 
sired goal  of  supremacy,  while  the  United  States,  hampered  by  a 
deeply  grooved  system,  cloyed  with  befogged  legislators,  befuddled 
by  college  economists,  with  a  superstitious  reverence  for  authority 
which  is  truly  monkish,  and  tricked  by  the  designing  greed  of  those 
who  are  willing  to  pluck  the  American  eagle  naked  so  they  may  have 
soft  feathers  to  loll  upon,  backs  and  fills  in  opposing  currents,  driven 
now  this  way  and  now  that,  until  the  observing  despair  of  our  ever 
making,  without  something  akin  to  a  revolution,  that  substantial 
headway  which  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  our  place 
among  nations.  Where  we  should  have  taken  Emerson's  advice  and 
hitched  our  waggon  to  a  star,  we  have  bolted  it  to  the  headstone  of  the 
dead  past,  and  now  wonder  why  the  wheels  do  not  turn  faster.  Even 
the  sleepiest  of  us  will  awake  ere  long  to  the  realisation  that  we  have 
overslept ;  for,  just  as  sure  as  effect  follows  cause,  we  shall  be  driven  in 
self-protection  to  adopt  a  more  rational,  because  more  successful,  eco- 
nomic system. 

All  assertions  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  there  has  never  been  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  when  the 
various  phases  of  socialism  excited  as  much  interest  as  they  command 
today.  This  is  not  to  say  that  everyone  who  is  interested  in  socialistic 
literature  necessarily  endorses  all  the  tenets  of  any  particular  phase  of 
this  much  mooted  doctrine,  but  it  is  to  say  that  there  is  a  widespread 
and  constantly  increasing  social  unrest,  born  of  the  conviction,  which 
is  seising  the  unprejudiced  thinking  intellect,  that  social  conditions 
the  world  over  are  bad,  and  yearly  growing  worse.  To  stem  this  tide, 
the  privileged  classes  and  those  who  plead  their  cause  are  at  present 
making  frantic  efforts  to  convince  the  public  that  the  recent  disclos- 
ures of  political,  social  and  commercial  rottenness  have  been  greatly 
exaggerated ;  that  they  are  very  exceptional,  and  that  all  they  need  .is 
a  little  gentle  and  kindly,  pressure  .to  guide  the  erring  feet  of  the; 
wrong-doers  back  into  paths  of  holiness. 

In  a  current  number  of  a  magazine,  John  E.  Jones  makes  "  a  pleat 

738 


CONCLUSION 

for  conservatism"  along  such  lines.  In  this  he  makes  hysterical 
efforts  to  prove  that  the  labouring-man  is  paid  better  than  ever  before, 
and  that  he  is  better  off  in  all  respects.  The  well-known  fact,  that 
year  after  year  labour  has  been  getting  a  smaller  and  smaller  portion 
of  its  production,  does  not  in  the  least  trouble  Mr.  Jones  nor  the 
writers  of  similar  articles.  The  following  diagram  is  all  the  refutation 
needed  by  such  optimistic  falsehoods  whatsoever  their  source. 

Mr.  Jones  proceeds  to  mention  and  to  hold  up  to  admiration  some 
of  the  worst  political  measures  of  this  and  the  preceding  century. 
The  Reader  may  gather  some  idea  of  the  accuracy  of  Mr.  Jones'  ob- 
servation from  the  following :  "  The  rich  are  not  specially  privileged 
in  this  country  except  in  so  far  as  the  possession  of  money  grants  spe- 
cial privileges  to  its  possessors  in  all  countries.  The  rich  can  employ 
the  best  lawyers  and  doctors,  and  can  have  the  most  luxuries,  of  course. 
The  remedy  for  that  is  to  get  rich.  The  race  is  open  to  all,  and  most 
of  those  who  are  rich  to-day  were  poor  ten  or  twenty  years  ago.  If  a 
man  cannot  get  rich  in  this  free  and  prosperous  country,  it  is  often 
either  his  own  fault,  through  lack  of  moral  stamina,  or  his  misfor- 
tune, through  lack  of  physical  or  mental  ability.  In  either  case,  are 
the  laws  and  his  neighbours  to  blame  ?  In  the  first  case  he  himself  is 
to  blame;  in  the  second  case  his  quarrel  is  with  his  ancestors  or  with 
God/' 

Mr.  Jones  denies  that  the  tariff  affords  anyone  special  privilege! 
Indeed  his  indignation  against  newspaper  and  magazine  criticism  of 
existing  evils  so  sweeps  away  his  sense  of  proportion  and  of  humour 
that  he  cries  —  now  of  all  times !  —  "  Why  should  American  citizens 
desert  their  tried  and  true  leaders  and  follow  these  false  prophets  and 
blind  guides  ?  "  He  loses  the  subtle  point  that,  if  all  our  leaders  are 
determined  to  reach  a  political,  moral,  and  social  Gehenna,  the  only 
hope  of  the  good  citizen  is  in  joining  the  standard  of  one  who  is  so 
blind  that  he  can't  find  the  perdition  for  which  he  searches.  Mr. 
Jones  is  but  a  sample  of  many  another  who  does  not  want  present 
predatory  methods  disturbed,  only  most  men  have  a  respect  for  facts 
and  a  sense  of  humour  which  does  not  permit  of  their  making  a  plea 
so  ridiculous  that  one  has  to  read  it  twice  to  determine  whether  or  not 
it  is  a  serious  or  humourous  article,  and  even  then  puts  it  down  with  a 
lingering  fear  that  perhaps,  after  all,  the  laugh  is  upon  him. 

We  submit  that  present  conditions  in  this  country  and  in  all  other 
countries  are  capable  of  great  and  radical  improvement.  We  believe 
we  have  thoroughly  sustained  our  contention  that  the  United  States  is 
leaving  behind  her  most  glorious  and  cherished  ideals  faster  than  the 
Empire  of  the  Czar  is  departing  from  Russian  standards.  We  think 
we  have  made  it  clear  that  the  just  way  of  determining  the  social  trend 
of  a  country  or  the  physical  trend  of  an  individual  —  whether  toward 
health  or  disease  —  is  not  by  comparing  the  nation  with  other  nations, 
or  the  person  with  other  persons,  but,  rather,  by  comparing  the  con- 
dition of  each  to-day  with  their  condition  yesterday.  In  this  way  only 
can  countries  or  persons  determine  whither  they  are  going.  We  have 
offered  a  vast  amount  of  material  from  able  writers  and  publicists,  in 
order  that  the  Reader  should  be  convinced  that  our  contentions  were 
not  mere  personal  crotchets,  but  were  endorsed  and  verified  by  a  great 

739 


1! 


SI 

I 


Value  of  Product  Produced  per  Worker 


Average  Wages  Paid  in  Dollars 


oo 
o 
c 


Decreasing  %  of  Product  which  Went  to  Labour  as  Wages 


CONCLUSION 

number  of  our  ablest  writers  and  closest  observers,  men  the  sanctity  of 
whose  word  and  the  honesty  of  whose  purpose  we  do  not  believe  the 
Reader  will  feel  impelled  to  question. 

In  conclusion,  we  wish  once  more  to  remind  the  Reader  that  careful 
diagnosis  is  the  first  step  toward  the  intelligent  application  of  a  reme- 
dial agency,  on  the  one  hand,  and  that,  on  the  other,  a  doctor's  inter- 
est naturally  centres  in  those  conditions  which  need  a  doctor's  care. 
We  are  quite  aware  that  in  this  and  in  all  other  countries  in  varying 
degree,  there  is  much  that  is  noble,  true,  generous  and  just.  This  will 
take  care  of  itself,  it  needs  no  altering.  What  we  contend  is  that 
there  is  in  every  country  a  shocking  amount  of  what  is  ignoble,  untrue, 
selfish  and  unjust,  so  much,  indeed,  that  it  constitutes  a  stinging  and 
unanswerable  indictment  of  all  existing  social  systems,  and  affords 
every  thinking  man,  who  has  at  heart  the  good  of  the  race,  unques- 
tionable warranty  for  the  most  careful  and  painstaking  investigation 
of  any  system  which  claims  to  be  able  to  cure  forever  the  awful  social 
ills  under  which  the  race  now  groans.  These  are  precisely  the  claims 
made  by  Mr.  Gillette's  system,  and  the  reason  for  their  promulgation 
will  be  fully  given  in  the  next  volume.* 

This  new  system  will  give  the  wealth  of  the  world  to  those  who 
produced  it.  It  will  usher  in  the  reign  of  justice  and  equity.  It  will 
revolutionise  the  present  egregiously  unjust  distribution  of  wealth  by  a 
process  so  gentle  and  -evolutionary  that  it  will  hardship  no  one.  Our 
present  iniquitous  social  system  will  be  replaced  by  a  conscience-quick- 
ened and  morally  revivified  regime,  even  as  the  dead  leaf  of  last  year 
is  silently  pushed,  from  the  bough  by  this  year's  young  bud  without 
violence,  without  animosity,  and  with  only  the  best  good  of  life's  tree 
at  heart.  The  change  will  emancipate  the  poor,  but  it  will  free  the 
rich  also.  Want  and  the  Fear  of  Want,  which  spreads  a  black  wing  in 
every  sky,  will  be  driven  forever  from  men's  thoughts,  and  there  will 
be  born  in  every  soul  that  high  social  sense  which  has  been  the  distin- 
guishing mark  of  all  saviours  of  the  race.  Liberty  will  reign  supreme, 
the  highest  liberty  compatible  with  equality  of  liberty.  Every  man  will 
be  free  to  choose  any  line  of  work  suitable  to  his  ability  and  inclina- 
tion, and  he  will  do  as  much  or  as  little  of  this  work  as  he  pleases, 
receiving  in  return  therefor,  the  full  equivalent  of  the  labour  per- 
formed. 

The  abolition  of  masters,  as  we  now  know  them,  will  abolish  ser- 
vants as  now  known,  thus  effecting  an  emancipation  at  both  ends 
of  the  social  scale,  since  slavery  enslaves  the  master  even  more  than 
it  does  the  slave.  Work  under  this  system  is  defined  by  the  terms 
which  we  now  use  for  play,  and,  being  freely  chosen  and  spontaneous, 
it  will  indeed  be  play.  The  vast  social  mechanism  will,  under  the 
new  order  of  things,  be  run  for  the  common  good  in  a  way  that  makes 
possible  a  productiveness  almost  beyond  belief,  since  it  eliminates  en- 
tirely all  that  pulling  and  hauling,  that  waste  and  strife,  that  crime, 
want  debauchery  and  that  loss  of  energy,  which  arise  from  the  pro- 
duction of  useless  and  futile  commodities,— in  short,  it  removes  from 
the  social  machine  all  that  friction  which,  though  veritable  sand  in  its 
bearings,  is  the  result  of  our  present  competitive  system. 

*For  a  brief  description  of  the  Gillette  System  see  Appendix  "  A." 

741 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL   REDEMPTION 

Under  the  new  order,  all  men  regardless  of  race,  nationality  or 
colour  will  become  as  brothers  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  The  newly-born  social  sense  will  become  a  guiding  conscience, 
permitting  us  to  enjoy  the  millennium  now.  These  are  indeed  strong 
claims,  but  they  are  to  be  backed  by  proof  quite  sufficient,  we  believe, 
to  demonstrate  every  one  of  them.  The  evidence  will  be  spread  before 
you,  and  we  are  quite  sure  that  its  faithful  perusal  will  convince  you, 
even  as  it  has  convinced  others,  that  the  time  is  close  at  hand  when 
Liberty  shall  light  her  torch  with  a  Promethean  fire  which  will  dispel 
the  heavy  pall  of  slavery  from  every  heart  to  the  uttermost  ends  of 
the  earth.  Too  long  by  far  have  we  been  obliged  to  say  with  the  poet : 

"  My  soul  is  sick  with  every  day's  report 
Of  wrong  and  outrage  with  which  earth  is  filled." 

Let  us  thank  God  for  the  cries  of  discontent  which  are  pouring  in  to 
us  from  every  corner  of  the  earth,  for  they  are  harbingers  of  better 
things.  They  bring  to  us  the  knowledge  that  the  down-trodden  are 
regaining  their  feet,  that  the  victims  of  slavish  fear  are  at  last  finding 
their  voices.  All  honour  to  him  who  flashes  the  indignant  search-light 
of  truth  into  every  dark  cranny  of  injustice  and  corruption,  and  shame 
to  him  who  for  a  selfish  mess  of  poor  pottage  seeks  to  screen  from  in- 
Vestigation  these  dark,  dank  devil-vaults  of  corruption. 

Well  may  we  all  exclaim  with  the  Bev.  L.  A.  Banks:  "I  thank 
God  for  every  indication  of  discontent,  on  the  part  of  the  labouring 
men  and  women,  at  conditions  which  cramp  or  fetter  the  free  utter- 
ance of  their  manhood  or  womanly  glory.  In  that  divine  discontent 
Is  the  hope  of  the  race." 

1  There  is  nothing  whatever  to  be  gained  by  an  attempt  to  serve  God 
without  offending  the  devil  —  to  fight  for  the  good  without  hurting 
the  evil.  We  live  in  the  age  of  the  red  corpuscle,  and  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  with  the  man  who  thinks  that  truth  should  be  presented 
to  the  people  on  a  salver  of  apologies.  For  ourselves,  we  glory  in  the 
nimble  of  social  thunder,  since  our  faith  finds  in  it  the  promise  of  a 
bow  of  hope  which  shall  not  be  sprung  in  vain,  an  irridescent  and 
arched  glory  following  which  shall  come  such  peace  that  man  shall  cry 
with  Othello: 

"  If  after  every  tempest  come  such  calms, 
May  the  winds  blow  till  they  have  wakened  death! 
And  let  the  labouring  bark  climb  hills  of  seas 
Olympus  high,  and  duck  again  as  low 
As  hell's  from  heaven!  " 

The  ringing  words  of  our  own  poet,  Lowell,  are  no  less  inspiring 
than  prophetic. 

"  The  hope'  of  truth  grows  stronger  day  by  day. 
I  hear  the  soul  of  man  around  me  waking, 
Like  a  great  sea  its  frozen  fetters  breaking, 
And  flinging  up  to  heaven  its  sunlit  spray, 
Tossing  huge  continents  in  scornful  play, 
And  crushing  them  with  din  of  grinding  thunder 
That  makes  old  emptinesses  stare  in  wonder. 
742 


CONCLUSION 

The  memory  of  a  glory  passed  away 
Lingers  in  every  heart,  as  in  the  shell 
Resounds  the  by-gone  freedom  of  the  sea. 
And  every  hour  new  signs  of  promise  tell 
That  the  great  soul  shall  once  again  be  free; 
For  high  and  yet  more  high  the  murmurs  swell 
Of  inward  strife  for  truth  and  liberty." 

Let  us  hope  that  this  strife  may  be  peaceful,  and  that  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  the  high  and  the  low,  the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  the 
powerful  and  the  weak,  may  all  realise  that  the  struggle  is  their  cause, 
and  that  whatever  superficial  differences  may  seem  to  exist  between 
the  various  social  stratas  are  as  nothing  to  the  underlying  unity  of 
interest  which  the  issue  exhibits  to  all  who  look  below  the  surface. 
Well  may  we  heed  the  tender  adjuration  of  Zoroaster:  "Hate  not 
each  other  because  you  differ  in  opinion  —  rather  love  each  other ;  for 
it  is  impossible  that  in  such  a  variety  of  sentiments  there  should  not 
be  some  fixed  point  on  which  all  men  ought  to  unite." 

That  there  is  such  a  point  we  ourselves  are  thoroughly  convinced, 
and  it  will  be  the  purpose  of  the  work  following  this  to  explain  what 
this  is.  In  the  meantime  pending  the  issuance  of  the  forthcoming 
work  we  must  content  ourselves  with  putting  before  the  Reader  the 
brief  outline  of  the  system  contained  in  our  Appendix. 

Were  the  Gillette  System  to  be  stated  in  a  single  word  that  word 
would  be  Justice  —  Justice,  the  highest  soul-product  of  the  evolving 
human  race.  Says  Lewis  Berens  "  The  basic  principles  of  Economics, 
of  the  art  of  ordering  the  social  relations  of  mankind,  may  then  be 
summed  up  in  the  word  Justice."  Upon  the  same  subject  the  Rev. 
L.  A.  Banks  says :  "  No  investment  exacts  such  cruel  usury  as  in- 
difference to  Justice/' 

Charity,  philanthropy,  generosity,  these  are  all  noble,  all  tender,  all 
kind,  but  they  are  not  substitutes  for  justice;  and  when  the  day  of 
justice  is  finally  ushered  in,  there  will  be  but  little  occasion  for  these 
pleasant  makeshifts.  That  the  dawn  of  such  a  day  even  now  reddens 
the  east,  in  fulfilment  of  Thomas  Wentwprth  Higginson's  prophecy,  is 
to  us  a  hope  whose  strength  presses  the  confines  of  certainty. 

*  Not  ermine  clad,  nor  clothed  in  state, 

Their  title  deeds  not  yet  made  plain; 
But  waking  early,  toiling  late, 

The  heirs  of  all  the  earth  remain. 

Some  day,  by  laws  as  fixed  and  fair 

As  guide  the  planets  in  their  sweep, 
The  children  of  each  outcast  heir 

The  harvest  fruits  of  time  shall  reap. 

Some  day  without  a  trumpet's  call, 

This  news  shall  o'er  the  earth  be  blown: 
The  heritage  comes  back  to  all; 

The  myriad  monarchs  take  their  own." 


743 


APPENDIX  A 


745 


SENATORIAL   CONSEQUENCES. 

Senator  Hush  was  as  good  as  gold; 

He  always  did  as  the  railroad  told. 

He  never  asked  if  a  thing  was  just 

Or  gave  offense  to  the  Sugar  Trust; 

He  never  sniffed  at  the  tainted  dough 

Which  lobbyists  dropped  in  his  hand  of  snow. 

He  never  squealed  when  the  gang  kept  still 

Or  stood  in  way  of  a  land-grab  bill : 

And  the  consequence  was  he  advanced  in  station 
And  died  at  the  head  of  a  corporation. 

Senator  Growl  was  a  naughty  boy; 

To  start  reforms  was  his  chiefest  joy. 

He  wouldn't  vote  as  his  Boss  decreed; 

He  wouldn't  pander  to  private  greed; 

He  said  rude  things  to  the  Wall  Street  man 

When  he  came  round  with  the  whitewash  can; 

And  he  often  wrote  with  a  fiendish  gall, 

Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  on  the  Senate  wall: 

And  the  consequence  was  when  his  term  was  over 
He  faded  back  to  the  tall,  tall  clover. 

Wallace  Irvin  in  Life. 


THE   SONG   OF   THE   VESTED   RIGHT. 

Oh,  I  am  the  Cause  and  the  Capital  too, 
And  the  Lord's  anointed  as  well; 

I'm  a  Vested  Right  and  I'm  sitting  tight, 

And  the  rest  may  go  to . 

The  Public. 

Arms  nor  the  man  I  sing, 

Observe  1  humbly  beg, 
HoMv  steadfast  Traction  pulls  upon 

Your  Uncle  Sam,  his  leg." 


746 


APPENDIX  'A 

THE  SYSTEM  OUTLINED. 

The  following  adapted  from  an  article  written  by  the  author  for  mag- 
azine publication  will  give  the  Reader  a  brief  glance  at  some  of  the  more 
cardinal  points  of  the  Gillette  System. 

At  no  time  in  the  history  of  this  country,  if  indeed  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  has  there  been  such  an  intense  and  wide-spread  interest 
in  social  questions  as  exists  to-day.  The  theories  put  forth  for  the 
amelioration,  or  radical  cure,  of  the  diseases  of  the  body  politic  are 
legion  and,  as  we  examine  them  in  deadly  parallel,  we  are  astonished 
to  find  how  little  they  have  in  common  in  the  matter  of  diagnosis. 
Tacking  a  great  name  to  a  published  theory  seems  to  have  no  other 
significance  than  to  show  that  even  the  so-called  upper  classes  are  in- 
terested in  social  subjects.  The  chaos  of  thought  upon  these  topics, 
—  if,  indeed,  it  may  be  called  thought,— is  well  illustrated  by  the 
following  utterance  of  President  Roosevelt :  "  Single  Tax  won't  do 
any  good ;  Socialism  won't  do  any  good ;  none  of  these  things  will  do 
any  good  so  long  as  our  factories  produce  more  goods  than  the  people 
can  buy.  There  are  bound  to  be  idle  mills  and  factories  and  idle 
workers,  whenever  there's  a  general  overproduction  such  as  we've  been 
having  lately." 

Another  illustration  of  the  same  thing  is  found  in  the  following,  by 
Prof.  George  Gunton :  "  The  people  have  ceased  to  buy,  hence  the 
production  has  stopped.  Overproduction  is  the  real  cause  of  financial 
depression." 

Still  another  proof,  if  more  be  needed,  is  found  in  the  following  sin- 
gular .utterance  of  Prof.  Richard  T.  Ely  of  Wisconsin  University: 
"  Yet  the  statement  that  the  cause  of  hard  times  is  prosperity,  para- 
doxical as  it  seems,  has  a  large  element  of  truth  in  it  and  suggests  one 
line  of  fruitful  thought." 

We  have  illustrated  in  these  quotations  the  danger  to  which  truth 
is  subjected  when  men  talk  about  terms  rather  than  the  concrete 
things  for  which  the  terms  stand.  Even  a  child  can  see  that  if  over- 
production pdr  se  were  the  cause  of  poverty,  a  rich  man,  or  rich  com- 
munity, might  be  impoverished  by  flooding  it  with  wealth  which  it 
could  not  assimilate;  or,  to  change  the  simile,  fat  Prosperity  sitting 
at  his  bountiful  repast  could  be  driven  to  the  verge  of  starvation  by 
overloading  the  table  with  viands  too  plentiful  for  his  appetite. 

To  such  an  extent  have  these  ridiculous  ideas  of  political  economy 
been  disseminated,  in  some  cases  ignorantly,  in  more  cases  viciously, 
that  to  get  the  people  at  large  to  view  the  subject  in  any  sane  light  is 
no  easy  task,  yet  it  is  to  just  such  a  task  that  Mr.  Gillette  has  ad- 
dressed himself,  confident  that  the  Single  Tax  could  not  have  gained 

747 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  intelligent  supporters  it  now  has,  and  that  the  various  schoois  of 
Socialism  could  not  have  secured  the  following  they  now  show,  had 
not  these  systems  possessed  at  least  certain  essential  points  of  truth. 
Eealising  further  that  these  two  systems  would  probably  have  coalesced 
had  either  of  them  been  right  in  all  particulars,  he  has  aimed  to  secure 
a  generalisation  broad  enough  not  only  to  include  the  truths  of  both 
of  these  systems,  but  also  the  best  part  of  our  present  system  as  it 
exists  to-day,  and  to  weld  all  together  into  an  harmonious  whole  which 
shall  solve  the  social  problem  once  and  for  all. 

The  task  involved  in  the  presentation  of  Mr.  Gillette's  system  is 
one  of  more  than  ordinary  proportions.  It  is  impossible,  therefore, 
in  the  limits  of  a  short  article,  to  give  anything  like  the  full  details 
of  this  new  plan  for  the  redemption  of  the  human  race.  This  we  re- 
serve for  another  work  to  be  published  at  an  early  date.  We  shall  at- 
tempt here  merely  to  give  a  sufficiently  complete  outline  of  the  sys- 
tem's essential  characteristics  to  enable  the  Eeader  to  form  some  idea 
of  the  magnificent  results  it  is  expected  to  achieve.  Let  us  then  begin 
at  the  beginning. 

In  imagination  place  yourself  in  the  midst  of  any  body  of  toilers  to 
be  found  in  America  to-day.  Now  look  about  you.  What  do  you  see 
and  hear?  It  is  Saturday  afternoon.  The  men  are  tired  with  their 
week's  work,  yet,  as  you  listen,  you  hear  them  discussing  the  probable 
outcome  of  the  game  of  baseball  they  are  about  to  play  with  ,a  rival 
factory.  Maybe  they  are  doing  a  little  betting.  Presently  one  of  the 
older  and  more  staid  men  says : 

"  Can't  you  fellows  get  work  enough  into  a  week  without  tearing 
yourselves  to  pieces  over  a  fool  game  of  ball?  If  you  had  to  do  it 
you'd  demand  pay  for  time  and  a  half  and  think  it  hard  work  at  that." 

To  this  one  of  the  younger  men  replies : 

"  Do  you  hear  that,  fellows  ?  Crusty  is  trying  to  make  us  think 
playin'  ball  is  work !  " 

Perhaps  were  we  not  at  your  elbow  you  would  not  give  these  remarks 
a  second  thought,  but,  as  we  jog  your  attention  with  the  statement  that 
they  are  most  significant,  you  lend  them  a  careful  consideration.  And 
what  is  the  net  result  thereof  ?  This.  That  certain  kinds  of  exertion 
are  called  "work"  and  shunned,  while  certain  other  kinds,  often 
physically  more  taxing,  are  called  "  play  "  and  eagerly  sought.  It  is 
like  the  experience  of  the  farmer  who  long  tried  in  vain  to  get  his 
sons  to  pick  stones  out  of  his  :mowing  field,  but  who  finally  hit  upon  a 
clever  plan  for  attaining  his  end.  He  put  a  tomato  can  on  the  bound- 
ary wall,  and  then,  going  into  the  middle  of  the  field,  began  throw- 
ing stones  at  it.  The  boys  thought  their  father  was  renewing  his 
youth,  joined  him  in  the  sport,  and  kept  it  up  as  long  as  there  was 
any  ammunition  in  the  field. 

Throwing  stones  at  the  target,  to  see  if  they  could  hit  it,  was  rare 
sport,  while  throwing  the  same  stones,  in  precisely  the  same  way,  for 
the  purpose  of  getting  them  out  of  the  field,  would  have  been  irksome 
work.  In  each  case,  however,  physical  effort  would  have  been  identi- 
cal. Wherein  is  the  difference  ?  Is  it  not  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
one  case  the  act  is  the  result  of  desire,  and  in  the  other  the  result  of 
compulsion?  Herbert  Spencer  says:  "Just  as  food  is  rightly  taken 

748 


APPENDIX 

only  when  taken  to  appease  hunger,  while  the  having  to  take  it  when 
there  is  no  inclination  implies  deranged  physical  state,  so,  a  good  act 
or  act  of  duty  is  rightly  done  only  if  done  in  satisfaction  of  immediate 
feeling,  and  if  done  with  a  view  to  ultimate  results  in  this  world  or 
another  world,  implies  an  imperfect  moral  state." 

The  Gillette  System  carries  this  reasoning  one  step  further  and 
says :  "  Physical  effort  is  only  ideally  performed  when  performed  as 
the  result  of  physical  craving." 

In  an  ideal  social  state,  then,  men  would  do  those  things  which  were 
pleasant  for  them  to  do.  We  fancy  we  hear  you  say :  "  If  that  were 
the  case  a  great  many  would  do  nothing,"  but,  fortunately  for  human- 
ity, that  statement  is  not  true. 

Life  is  a  struggle,  and  all  our  pleasures  come  from  some  sort 
of  activity.  It  is  as  natural  for  the  children  of  men  to  exercise  their 
bodies  as  it  is  for  the  offspring  of  cats  to  play.  Now,  were  work  made 
pleasurable,  it  would  become  to  all  intents  and  purposes  play.  This 
assertion  needs  no  proof,  since  it  is  a  fact  of  common  observation  that 
men  engaged  in  pleasurable  pursuits  enjoy  their  work  to  such  a  degree 
that  they  could  not  be  enticed  away  from  it  to  indulge  in  so-called  play. 

Take  the  biologist  with  a  new  bug  under  his  microscope,  or  the 
botanist  with  a  new  specimen  which  he  is  itching  to  dissect,  and  see 
how  he  will  regard  an  invitation  to  play  golf.  We  see,  therefore,  that 
were  it  possible  so  to  alter  social  conditions  that  every  man  could 
make  play  of  his  work,  the  whole  face  of  human  creation  would  take 
on  such  a  smile  as  has  never  been  known  to  the  sons  of  men.  Now 
this  is  precisely  one  of  the  things  which  the  plan  known  as  Gillette's 
Social  Redemption  aims  to  accomplish.  At  first  thought  it  would, 
perhaps,  seem  to  you  that  were  everyone  permitted  freely  to  select  his 
vocation,  two  difficulties  would  immediately  become  apparent;  first: 
that  each  one  would  choose  the  pleasantest  and  least  onerous  work, 
and,  second :  many  would  select  pursuits  for  which  they  were  not  qual- 
ified. The  system  in  question,  however,  perfectly  meets  both  of  these 
objections. 

The  number  of  workers  in  any  pursuit  is  regulated  by  the  amount 
paid  for  that  particular  class  of  work,  and  this,  in  turn,  is  regulated 
by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  If  there  be  a  dearth  of  any  com- 
modity the  price  paid  for  the  production  thereof  is  increased  until 
the  supply  equals  the  demand.  The  determination  of  the  exact  price 
which  shall  be  paid  to  the  producer  of  any  article  is  one  of  the  most 
ingenious  features  of  the  system,  and  one  which,  so  far  as  we  know, 
has  never  before  been  proposed.  We  refer  particularly  to  the  method 
by  which  the  ratio  of  supply  to  demand  is  made  automatically,  and 
without  the  intervention  of  human  judgment,  to  fix  the  price  with  ab- 
solute justice.  We  regret  that  space  does  not  permit  us  to  explain 
this  self-adjusting  social  mechanism  in  sufficient  detail  to  enable  the 
Reader  thoroughly  to  understand  it.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  it  is  as 
unfailing  and  impersonal, —  as  free  from  favouritism  and  as  coldly 
exact, —  as  a  perfectly  interacting,  self-regulating  mechanism  of  steel. 
•  Now  as  to  the  choice  of  pursuits  by  those  who  are  not  properly  fitted 
-to  follow  them.  It  is  frankly  admitted  that  ordinarily  this  would  in 
some  cases  occur,  and  the  new  system  adjusts  itself  perfectly  to  this 

749 


prospective  condition  of  affairs.  It  holds  that  public  opinion,  and 
that  great  law  of  human  nature  which  makes  most  of  us  like  to  do 
those  things  which  we  can  do  best,  would  prevent  this  condition  from 
attaining  the  significance  of  an  actual  menace,  were  no  pains  taken  to 
guard  against  such  an  eventuality,  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  renders 
such  an  outcome  impossible  by  providing  that  each  applicant  shall 
prove  his  fitness  for  the  work  he  elects  to  perform  before  a  competent 
tribunal. 

This  at  once  raises  the  question;  who  shall  be  judge?  Clearly,  if  it 
were  possible  for  a  certain  clique  or  class  to  arrogate  to  itself  the  right 
to  determine  for  what  pursuits  each  worker  were  eligible,  the  whole 
system  might  result  in  a  dangerous  autocracy.  Such  a  thing,  how- 
ever, is  rendered  impossible  by  provisions  too  carefully  worked  out 
to  permit  of  brief  statement.  The  succeeding  work  will  go  into  this 
matter  in  detail.  We  must  here  content  ourselves  with  stating  the 
broad  fact  that  this  plan  for  social  redemption  is  built  upon  the  bed- 
rock of  fundamental  democracy.  Its  government  is  centralised,  as  will 
be  seen,  only  for  the  purpose  of  decentralising  it  again, —  giving  it 
back  to  the  people,  as  it  were.  The  initiative,  the  referendum,  and 
the  power  of  recall  are  riveted  into  its  very  corner-stone.  In  all  de- 
partments, and  at  all  times,  the  people  hold  the  tiller  of  this  social 
ship.  If  they  let  any  chosen  official  captain  place  his  hand  upon  it, 
they  place  their  hand  upon  his,  and  keep  it  there. 

Imagine  a  merit  system,  a  civil  service  regime,  where  politics  could 
not  become  a  consideration,  and  where  every  official  head  habitually 
had  a  basket  under  it,  and  a  sword  over  it,  and  you  can  get  a  fair 
idea  of  the  regime  we  are  describing.  Another  illustration  might  be 
the  ordinary  public  school  system,  determining  as  it  does,  the  different 
grades  which  the  abilities  of  the  various  students  warrant  them  to  enter 
upon,  provided  that  you  imagine  the  school  examiners  as  servants  of 
the  people  in  such  close  touch  with  them  that  they  could  be  summarily 
called  to  account  immediately  they  swerved  either  from  justice  or  effi- 
ciency,—  a  condition,  by  the  way,  which  by  no  means  obtains  with 
our  present  school  system. 

Considering  present  conditions  still  further  what  are  some  of  the 
other  most  noticeable  defects?  What  are  the  things  which,  were  it 
possible,  we  would  like  to  cure?  Do  we  not  find  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  toiling  like  slaves  for  a  mere  sustenance,  while  the  fa- 
voured few  are  living  in  luxurious  idleness  upon  the  products  of  their 
labour  ?  Do  we  not  find  that  he  who  produces  the  most  consumes  the 
least,  while  he  who  ostentatiously  wastes  the  sustenance  of  a  small 
army  usually  produces  nothing,  and  never  produces  anything  at  all 
commensurate  with  his  destructive  consumption.  The  one  effects  so- 
ciety like  a  harvest,  the  other  like  a  famine;  and  the  harvest  starves, 
while  the  famine  gluts  itself  to  satiety. 

As  the  weeks  go  by,  the  wage  question  grows  ever  more  insistent. 
More  and  more  clearly  is  labour  coming  to  recognise  its  rights. 

Horace  Traubel  sums  up  the  whole  issue  in  a  single  paragraph: 
"  The  world  is  tired  of  hearing  that  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire. 
The  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  product."  We  believe  it  was  Proudhon 
who  said  that  to  labour  belonged  the  total  product  of  labour. 

750 


"  I  hold  if  the  Almighty  had  ever  made  a  set 
of  men  that  should  do  all  the  eating  and  none 
of  the  work,  he  would  have  made  them  with 
mouths  only,  and  no  hands;  and  if  he  had  ever 
made  another  class  that  he  had  intended  should 
do  all  the  work  and  none  of  the  eating  he  would 
have  made  them  without  mouths  and  with  ail 
hands."  -  A.  L-c°  Beard. 


APPENDIX 

If  the  factors  of  production  are  land,  labour  and  capital,  the  re- 
turns from  these  factors  must  be  respectively,  rent,  wages  and  interest 

The  only  point,  therefore,  to  be  considered  in  reference  to  wages 
is  the  estimation  of  just  what  part  of  the  total  production  is  the  pro- 
duction of  labour,  and  to  see  that  labour  gets  all  of  this,  no  more  no 
less.  Would  we  not  like  to  bring  about  a  condition  in  which  nobody 
would  consume  where  he  did  not  produce;  where  there  would  be  no 
drones  in  the  social  hive ;  and  where  everyone  would  receive  just  what 
his  labour  produced ;  that  is  to  say,  a  regime  under  which  every  human 
being,  from  the  greatest  to  the  humblest,  could  with  perfect  freedom 
transmute  his  effort  intp  whatever  kinds  of  wealth  he  needed  for  the 
gratification  of  his  desires  ? 

Were  this  consummation  brought  about  there  would  be  no  tawdry 
plutocrats  attending  horse-shows  with  rows  of  diamonds  around  the 
heels  of  their  boots,  and  no  sweat-shop  victims  forced  to  work  babies, 
four  years  old,  in  order  to  stave  off,  as  long  as  may  be,  the  slow  starva- 
tion which  is  as  certain  as  fate  finally  to  seise  them. 

It  seems  to  us  that  the  mere  fact  that  this  new  social  system  would 
cure,  for  all  time,  not  only  the  pangs  of  poverty,  but  those  offences 
against  morality  and  good  taste  which,  like  maggot-holes,  afflict  the 
upper  crust  of  society,  should  be  enough  to  insure  its  enthusiastic  wel- 
come and  adoption  by  all  lovers  of  their  kind. 

Under  the  proposed  regime  there  will  be  no  compulsion.  A  man 
may  work  as  much  or  as  little  as  he  pleases,  but,  and  here  is  the  great 
point,  he  cannot  consume  one  iota  more  than  he  actually  produces. 
If  you  imagine  that  great  storehouse  of  wealth,  the  earth,  to  be  a  lake, 
and  human  endeavours  to  be  dippers,  you  will  be  able  to  form  a  mental 
picture  of  conditions  as  they  would  exist  under  the  new  system.  Each 
social  unit  would  be  free  to  dip  up  whatever  water  he  needed  to  satisfy 
his  thirst.  If  he  cared  for  much,  he  would  dip  up  much.  If  he  were 
not  thirsty  he  would  not  be  compelled  to  dip  up  any,  but  in  no  case 
could  he  idrink  a  drop  which  he  had  not  dipped  up.  Compare  this 
with  the  present  system,  where  men  are  forced  to  dip  from  mom  till 
night,  and  to  go  thirsty  meanwhile,  being  only  permitted  to  take  into 
their  mouth,  to  satisfy  their  thirst,  about  what  oozes  through  their 
skin  as"  the  sweat  of  their  thankless  task ;  and  this,  while  the  few,  who 
never  dip  at  all,  are  enabled  to  maintain  ostentatious  and  geyser-like 
fountains  from  the  water  furnished  by  an  army  of  thirsty  toilers 
while  they  themselves  in  many  cases,  do  not  so  much  as  know  the  feel 
of  the  dipper. 

Were  the  great  wastes  of  our  present  system  eliminated,  and  effort 
rewarded  upon  a  system  of  equity,  man  would  be  able  abundantly  to 
supply  all  his  present  needs  by  three  or  four  hours'  work  a  day.*  The 
foregoing  pages  have  abundantly  proven  the  truth  of  this  assertion, 
and  have  shown  a  wastefulness  resulting  from  our  present  social  chaos 
which  is  little  short  of  appalling  to  the  average  layman. 

As  the  Eeader  will  probably  want  to  know  how  this  new  system  is 
to  attain  to  that  perfect  justice  to  which  we  have  referred,  we  will  en- 
deavour to  outline  a  few  of  the  more  cardinal  points  of  the  plan, 

*See  Chart  C,  page  659. 

751 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

frankly  admitting  at  the  start  that  we  cannot  go  into  its  details,  and 
must  do  scant  justice  even  to  its  main  features. 

Commercially,  the  system  is  a  further  evolution  of  the  strongest 
business  tendency  with  which  we  are  to-day  confronted,  namely,  the 
trust  principle.  So  brazenly  lawless  and  atrociously  greedy  are  our 
present  trusts,  that  it  is  hard  for  the  average  layman  to  imagine  that 
their  underlying  principle  contains  anything  but  unalloyed  evil,  yet 
the  truth  of  the  matter  is,  that  the  trust,  like  fire,  is  a  good  servant  but 
a  bad  master.  Thus  far  we,  in  America,  have  only  seen  it  with  the 
eyes  of  slaves,  looking  at  a  maste?  with  the  heart  of  an  Apache  savage. 

The  persistence  of  the  trust,  and  its  world-wide  application,  fur- 
nish together  quite  sufficient  evidence  to  show  that  there  is  something 
in  the  principle  so  closely  in  line  with  nature's  methods, —  so  fit  to 
survive  if  you  please, —  that  it  cannot  be  gainsaid  by  any  amount  of 
human  legislation.  Not  to  go  into  detail,  we  may  say  that  this  fitness 
chiefly  inheres  in  the  trust's  ability  to  eliminate  unnecessary  waste ; 
its  simplicity  and  directness  of  action ;  and  its  transformation,  within 
the  field  of  its  own  operations,  of  that  war  and  chaos  known  as  com- 
petition, into  the  orderly  and  efficient  co-operation  of  productice  peace. 

We  should  no  more  blame  the  trust  principle  per  se  for  our  present 
social  ills  than  the  shipwrecked  mariner  should  blame  gravitation  for 
the  sinking  of  his  foundered  vessel.  It  is  by  this  same  law  that  he 
floats  as  well  as  sinks,  and  it  is  by  the  trust  principle  rightly  applied, 
that  the  social  ship  shall  yet  float  on  sunny  seas  beneath  a  smiling  sky. 

In  a  word,  the  new  system  proposes  to  bring  about  the  amelioration 
of  the  race  by  organising  a  world-wide  corporation  with  an  unlimited, 
elastic,  and  constantly  self-adjusting  capitalisation,  —  a  capitalisation 
which  shall  always  represent  the  exact  amount  of  the  corporate  assets, 
—  falling  as  they  fall,  rising  as  they  rise.  This  corporation  will  make 
no  distinctions  of  locality,  race,  colour,  nationality,  social  condition, 
age,  sex  or  occupation.  Its  purposes  are  manifold.  First;  it  aims 
to  offer  to  every  human  being  an  opportunity  for  investing  his  earn- 
ings with  a  more  absolute  assurance  of  profitable  results,  and  with  a 
completer  and  a'  more  far-reaching  safeguard  against  loss,  than  any 
proposition  heretofore  presented  to  the  human  race.  This,  indeed, 
seems  like  a  strong  statement,  but  let  us  analyse  it  a  bit.  Montaigne 
has  written :  "  One  man's  profit  is  another  man's  loss."  Let  us  not 
pass  by  this  remark  without  realising  its  full  significance.  Losses  of 
wealth  are  of  two  Tcinds.  First,  those  which  destroy,  and  second,  those 
which  merely  displace.  The  losses  from  fire,  earthquakes,  floods,  and 
the  like  elemental  forces,  are  destructive.  They  simply  blot  wealth,  as 
such,  out  of  existence.  With  them  political  economy  has  nothing  to  do. 
It  is  with  the  second  kind  of  losses,  and  their  accompanying  gains, 
that  business  concerns  itself.  In  this  domain,  as  Montaigne  has  re- 
marked :  "  One  man's  profit  is  another  man's  loss."  We  see,  there- 
fore, that  the  whole  competitive  business  struggle  to-day,  is  an  effort 
to  acquire  wealth  on  the  one  hand,  and  to.  prevent,  on  the  other,  that 
displacement  of  wealth  which  is  called  loss. 

Imagine,  if  you  please,  a  house  of  as  many  rooms  as  there  are  com- 
mercial nations  on  the  planet.  Give  to  each  nation  one  of  these 
rooms.  Suppose  now,  that  the  wealth  of  these  nations  be  represented 

753 


APPENDIX 

by  books  placed  upon  the  shelves  of  bookcases  in  each  room.  Now, 
let  us  paraphrase  what  is  occurring  to-day  all  over  the  world,  omitting, 
for  the  sake  of  simplicity,  the  question  of  creation  of  wealth,  and 
dealing  merely  with  the  trading  of  the  wealth  this  moment  on  hand. 
What  is  the  picture  ?  Is  it  not  this  ?  Each  nation  is  striving  to  en- 
large its  own  library,  not  only  by  creating  wealth,  which  act  at  the  mo- 
ment does  not  interest  us,  but  by  displacing  the  wealth  upon  the 
shelves  of  the  other  nations. 

America  is  burning  the  midnight  oil  to  find  out  how  it  may  give 
one  book  to  England  and  get  two  back,  and  when  it  is  able  to  increase 
the  number  of  books  on  one  of  its  shelves,  it  chuckles  in  satisfaction 
and  tickets  it,  "  our  favourable  balance."  To  follow  the  simile  fur- 
ther in  imagination,  we  may  see  how  most  of  the  books  might  ulti- 
mately get  into  one  or  two  of  the  rooms  of  our  hypothetical  house,  and 
we  can  also  see  how  the  occupants  of  those  rooms  whose  shelves  were 
depleted  might  complain  bitterly  of  their  losses.  Yet  there  would  be 
just  as  many  books  in  the  house  as  before.  They  would  simply  be  in 
different  rooms.  Suppose  now,  the  occupants  of  these  rooms  should 
all  meet  on  a  front  porch,  called,  perhaps,  "  The  Hague,"  and  agree 
to  form  a  book  corporation,  all  of  the  books  to  be  owned  by  said  cor- 
poration and  each  nation  to  own  stock  therein  upon  a  basis  of  absolute 
equity.  The  conditions  would  then  be  very  like  your  condition, 
Eeader,  in  your  own  house.  Your  books  are  not  lost,  in  a  commercial 
sense,  when  they  are  taken  from  the  library  to  the  sitting-room. 

Now  it  is  the  object  of  the  new  system  to  abolish, —  more  and  more 
completely  as  it  develops, —  every  sort  of  loss  to  which  we  have  referred 
as  losses  caused  by  the  displacement  of  wealth,  until,  in  the  end,  such 
loss  will  cease  entirely.  How  is  this  to  be  brought  about  ?  In  brief 
the  plan  is  as  follows,  omitting  details. 

The  world-wide  corporation  with  the  unlimited,  elastic  capitalisa- 
tion, to  which  we  have  referred,  will  be  organised  for  the  purpose  of 
purchasing  and  ultimately  controlling  all  means  for  the  production  of 
wealth  throughout  the  world.  Its  capital  will  consist  of  the  money 
paid  in  by  the  people,  and  these  funds  will  be  used  for  the  purchase 
outright  of  approved  standard,  dividend-paying  securities  of  well- 
known  and  unquestionable  valud. 

The  corporation  by-laws  will  provide,  with  the  utmost  care,  for  the 
selection  of  the  finance  board  which  has  the  matter  in  charge,  and  the 
investor  will  be  safeguarded  in  every  way  against  the  inefficiency,  or 
wrong-doing  of  this  board.  The  purchases  made  by  the  corporation 
will  be  spread  over  such  a  number  of  standard  securities  as  will  make 
loss  impossible.  Tbe  principle  here  taken  advantage  of  is  that  of  the 
insurance  company  which,  while  it  cannot  tell  how  long  Jones  or 
Smith  will  live,  can  yet  figure,  within  a  very  narrow  margin  of  error, 
how  many  men  out  of  ten  thousand  will  die  in  a  given  time.  In  the 
case  of  this  corporation  which  had  spread  its  investments  over  a  list, 
say  of  two  hundred  unquestionable  securities,  any  fortuitous  decrease 
in  the  dividends  of  one  or  two  of  these  would  be  more  than  counter- 
balanced by  the  unexpected  similar  increase  in  the  earnings  of  others. 
In  this  way  would  the  investor  be  safeguarded  as  never  before.  More- 
over, by  this  ingenious  plan,  he  would  be  able  to  invest  his  money, 
'  48  753 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

and  draw  his  dividends  at  the  same  time  that  he  held  his  earnings  sub- 
ject to  check;  for  the  corporation  purposes  the  establishment  of  banks 
all  over  the  world,  —  banks  in  which  depositors  become  investors  and 
sharers  in  the  profits  of  the  whole  system,  without  losing  any  of  their 
rights  as  depositors. 

It  needs  not  to  be  said  that  we  have  omitted  most  of  the  financial 
details  of  this  plan.  No  other  course  was  open  to  us,  considering  the 
space  at  our  disposal.  We  would  like  to  enlarge  upon  a  beautiful  bit 
of  financial  mechanism,  whereby  the  people  secure  by  purchase,  the 
entire  wealth  of  the  world,  with  safety  to  all,  with  hardship  to  none, 
with  universal  justice  and  without  invoking  a  single  syllable  of  legisla- 
tion in  its  favour.  We  would  like  to  call  attention  to  what  we  have 
said  in  the  early  part  of  this  article,  namely,  that  this  plan  for  social 
redemption  is  a  generalisation  broad  enough  to  include  the  most  highly 
evojved  business  practice  of  the  day,  the  essentials  of  the  Single  Tax 
doctrine,  those  of  Socialism  and  of  many  other  plans  for  social 
amelioration,  and  to  reconcile  all  those  points  of  divergence  which 
have  been  partisan  bones  of  contention  from  the  earliest  promulgation 
of  these  various  theories.  It  would  be  a  pleasant  task  to  explain  how 
the  earth  should  be  given  back  to  the  inhabitants  thereof,  and  the 
gross  injustices  of  economic  rent  entirely  abolished,  without  in  the  least 
hardshipping  the  man  who  has  given  an  honest  quid  pro  quo  for  his 
land,  under  a  system  in  which,  though  evil  and  unjust,  all  humanity  is 
particeps  criminis  with  him. 

We  would  gladly  enlarge  here  upon  all  these  details,  yet  we  are 
obliged  to  content  ourselves  with  this  mere  allusion  to  them.  The 
crucial  difference  between  the  Single  Tax  and  Socialism,  were  it  to  be 
stated  in  a  single  sentence,  would  formulate  itself  thus:  The  Single 
Tax  aims  to  free  competition ;  Socialism  aims  to  abolish  it.  The  ex- 
ponent of  the  former  system  holds  that  when  competition  is  properly 
freed,  it  will  have  scarcely  any  other  function  than  that  of  determining 
the  exchange  value  of  products.  The  Gillette  plan  recognises,  as  fully 
as  any  socialist  could,  the  awful  indictment  which  is  justly  brought 
against  our  present  competitive  system,  and,  therefore,  it  aims  to 
eliminate  entirely  all  that  cruel  and  wasteful  strife  which  forms  what 
we  colloquially  mean  by  the  term  competition.  It  holds  that  such 
competition  is  the  fruitful  cause  of  social  friction,  and  shows  that  it 
has  absolutely  no  logical  basis  for  existence. —  In  short,  the  new  sys- 
tem saves  that  part  of  competition  upon  which  the  advanced  Single 
Taxer  insists,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  abolishes  that  other  part  of 
it  to  which  the  logical  Socialist  so  strenuously  objects. 

In  the  determination  of  the  exchange  value  of  commodities  the  new 
system  makes  use,  as  aforesaid,  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  but 
there  is  none  of  that  competitive  strife  with  which  we  are  now  so  famil- 
iar. Men  do  not  compete  with  each  other  for  positions,  because,  under 
the  new  system,  the  number  of  men  who  can  work  at  any  calling  is  lim- 
ited only  by  the  number  of  men  who  are  qualified  to  perform  its  duties. 
If  ten  thousand  men  could  make  all  the  shoes  the  whole  world  needed, 
there  would  be  nothing  whatever  to  hinder  one  hundred  thousand 
properly  qualified  men  from  becoming  shoemakers  on  any  Monday 
morning, — -  nothing  except  their  own  desires,  —  for  the  sign,  "  no 

754 


APPENDIX 

more  help  will  be  employed  in  this  department,"  will  never  be  used 
under  the  new  system.  We  have  said :  '•'  nothing  except  their  own  de- 
sires," by  which  we  mean  to  convey  the  thought  that  the  diminished 
returns  which  would  come  to  these  men  under  the  conditions  named, 
would  operate  to  prevent  their  wishing  to  overcrowd  any  department, 
and  these  returns,  as  we  have  hinted,  would  not  be  arbitrarily  appor- 
tioned, but  would  be  automatically  self -adjusting,  and  as  unfailing  as 
mathematics  in  their  equity. 

The  first  partial  publication  of  tlie  Gillette  plan  occurred  in  a 
pamphlet  entitled  "  The  Human  Drift "  which  Mr.  Gillette  published 
in  1894.  In  view  of  prophecies  then  made  and  since  justified,  this 
publication  makes  most  interesting  reading  at  this  time.  Since  is- 
suing "  The  Human  Drift "  Mr.  Gillette  has  constantly  been  perfect- 
ing his  system  until  it  is  now  confidently  believed  that  this,  and  the 
forthcoming  publication,  will  exhibit  a  plan  so  thoroughly  worked  out 
in  all  its  details,  so  practical  in  all  its  applications,  and  so  far-reaching 
and  desirable  in  all  its  results,  that  its  speedy  success  will  be  assured. 

We  cannot  refrain,  in  closing,  from  pointing  out  a  few  of  the  effects 
of  such  an  eventuality.  Under  the  new  regime  the  horrible  figure  of 
War  would  forever  be  blotted  from  the  human  landscape.  No  men 
are  anxious  to  discharge  cannon  against  their  own  property.  They 
who  live  in  glass  houses,  if  they  throw  stones,  do  not  throw  them 
towards  home !  Since  all  the  world  would  then  have  a  common  in- 
terest in  all  the  created  wealth  of  the  planet,  there  would  be  no  likeli- 
hood of  anyone  desiring  to  destroy  his  own  possessions.  Human  life 
would  then  be  an  asset  of  the  entire  racial  community,  and,  as  such, 
would  be  sacred.  The  loss  of  lives  through  any  cause,  instead  of  de- 
creasing the  burden  of  those  who  survive,  as  many  hold  in  this  present 
day  of  heartless  competition,  would  then  operate  to  increase  it,  since, 
where  all  are  brothers  joining  in  a  common  task,  the  death  of  one 
leaves  a  larger  proportion  of  effort  to  the  share  of  each  of  the  others. 

Under  the  new  regime,  patriotism,  which  has  now  degenerated  to  a 
mere  prejudice  of  locality  would  then  become  a  world-wide  humanita- 
rian sentiment,  without  meridian  or  parallels  of  latitude;  without 
distinctions  of  race  or  colour;  without  discrimination  in  the  matter  of 
nationality  or  social  status ;  and  without  differences  in  the  matter  of 
belief,  age  or  sex.  All  mankind  would  then  be  one  common  brother- 
hood. For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  race  all  the  members 
of  the  human  family  would  be  integrated  into  one  compact  social 
organism,  correlated  in  all  its  parts,  and  informed  by  a  composite  in- 
telligence which,  on  the  clock  of  the  world,  would  make  the  minute- 
hand  mark  hours,  so  rapid  would  be  the  march  of  human  progress. 
The  present  irksome  toil  of  the  masses  would  become  play,  in  which 
the  classes  would  share,  until  all  distinctions  of  class  consciousness 
utterly  broke  down.  The  drones  turned  into  workers;  the  waste  of 
the  hive  eliminated;  each  social  unit  would  have  ample  time  for  the 
development  of  mind  and  soul,  as  well  as  body.  A  hitherto  unknown 
esprit  de  corps,  a  delightful  comradery,  a  sympathy  which  feels  not 
only  for,  but  with,  would  then  pervade  the  whole  human  fabric.  Then, 
and  for  the  first  time,  would  society  attain  to  anything  worthy  the 
name  of  organisation,  for  our  present  so-called  organisation  is  that  of 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

the  cancer  and  the  tumor,  rather  than  of  the  healthful  human  body. 
Under  the  new  regime  a  few  great  cities,  possibly  only  one  or  two 
to  a  continent,  would  spring  up  under  the  magic  touch  of  perfect  co- 
operation. They  would  be  dreams  of  architectural  beauty,  exaggerat- 
ing in  size  and  marvellous  loveliness  the  Columbian  Exposition  many 
hundred  fold.  Their  sites  would  be  chosen  with  a  view  to  natural 
advantages,  and  in  them  would  be  gathered  the  art,  the  literature  and 
the  science  of  the  world.  The  beauties  of  all  creation  would  be  at 
the  very  door  of  every  human  soul.  Into  this  atmosphere  would  the 
new  child  be  born,  and  surrounded  by  these  uplifting  environments 
would  the  new  soul  gain  its  strength  and  solidify  its  character.  Pub- 
lic opinion,  which  is  the  social  conscience,  would  become  so  keenly  alive 
to  the  petty,  the  mean  and  the  unjust,  that  lawyer  and  court  of  law 
would  be 

"  As  idle  as  a  painted  ship, 
Upon  a  painted  ocean." 

If  they  are  best  governed  who  are  governed  least,  they  are  ideally 
governed  who  are  governed  not  at  all.  The  new  regime  would  usher 
in  the  age  of  altruism,  and  give  to  every  human  creature  that  keenly 
alive  social  sense  which  is  now  possessed  only  by  the  few  high  heads 
of  the  race, —  they  who  are  the  heralds  of  the  coming  dawn  which  one 
day  shall  spread  its  glad  smile  over  the  face  of  the  whole  human  race. 
The  ravening  wolves  of  greed  which  are  now  devouring  the  weak,  as 
well  as  the  gaunt  spectres  of  crime,  debauchery  and  disease,  would  be 
laid  forever.  With  the  collected  knowledge  of  the  world, —  as  well  as 
the  living  specialists  upon  all  scientific  subjects, —  in  one  accessible 
locality,  discovery  and  invention  would  leap  like  an  unleashed  hound, 
till  disease,  with  all  its  attendant  ills,  were  reduced  to  all  but  a  vanish- 
ing minimum.  The  "  great  white  plague  "  which  takes  every  seventh 
human  being  in  the  world,  would  soon  be  made  a  mere  memory.  Pas- 
teurs,  eager  to  sacrifice  their  lives  if  need  be  for  the  cause  of  humanity, 
would  be  almost  as  numerous  as  those  miscalled  patriots  who  are  now 
glad  to  offer  themselves  to  the  disreputable  cause  of  enslaving  a  free 
people.  With  the  advent  of  such  a  system  would  come  the  negenera- 
tion  of  the  human  race,  and  that  final  universal  brotherhood  for  which 
the  grandest  men  who  ever  lived  have  given  up  their  lives. 

Let  those  who  will,  think  this  an  idle  dream,  but  let  the  thoughtful 
realise  that  if  life  is  not  forever  to  continue  an  idle  jest  and  hollow 
mockery,  this  thing  must  come.  Could  there  be  a  fitter  time  than 
now?  Is  not  this  the  psychological  moment?  Will  not  this  system 
sustain  its  every  specification?  Will  it  not  make  good  its  every  prom- 
ise ?  The  ultra-conservative  will  doubt  and  question  and  quibble,  "  for 
God  hath  made  them  so,"  but  doubting  is  not  reasoning,  questioning 
is  not  proof,  and  quibbling  is  not  argument. 

The  millennium  is  within  our  reach.  The  Gillette  plan  offers  a  way 
which  can  be  adopted  to-day  without  asking  for  a  word  of  legislation; 
without  creating  any  new  political  party,  and  without  seeking  to  make 
use  of  any  of  the  existing  political  machines.  A  way,  moreover,  which 
is  along  the  lines  of  present  commercial  and  social  evolution.  A  way 
which,  once  adopted,  will  quickly  gather  invincible  headway,  growing 
by  what  it  feeds  upon.  A  way,  quiet,  unobstrusive,  effective,  just, 

756. 


APPENDIX 

kind  and  beneficent ;  beneficial  alike  to  the  rich  and  to  the  poor,  since 
it  gives  the  former  a  wholesome  psychic  atmosphere,  while  it  recog- 
nises in  the  latter  that  right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness which  has  so  long  been  denied  him.  Is  not  this  "  a  consumma- 
tion devoutly  to  be  wished  ?  " 


757 


APPENDIX  B 

While  this  book  has  been  in  press  the  railway  carnival  of  death 
has  gone  merrily  on.  As  the  old  year,  1906,  drew  to  its  close,  acci- 
dent followed  accident,  and  horror  piled  itself  upon  horror,  until 
it  fairly  seemed  as  if  a  new,  and  terribly  fatal,  epidemic  had  seised 
our  transportation  companies.  This  sad  condition  of  affairs  has 
called  forth  several  caustic  criticisms  from  able  journalists.  Among 
these,  we  recommend  for  the  perusal  of  those  interested  in  this  sub- 
ject, an  article  by  Charles  Edward  Russell,  published  in  "  Ridgway's  " 
for  December  29,  1906.  The  title, 

"  WALL  STREET  AND  RAILROAD  RUIN 

HOW  THE  COUNTRY'S  TRANSPORTATION  SYSTEM  HAS  BROKEN  DOWN  UNDER  THE 
FINANCIAL  SYSTEM  OF  THE  CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTRY  " 

is  significant  of  the  importance  which  attaches  to  Mr.  Russell's  treat- 
ment of  the  subject.  Among  other  things,  Mr.  Russell  makes  the 
following  statement, —  a  statement,  which  cannot  fail  to  astonish  the 
average  reader.  "  Of  the  215,000  miles  of  railroad  in  the  United 
States,  200,000  are  single-track  lines.  No  other  country  in  the  world 
has  any  such  condition.  It  is  just  as  impossible  to  carry  the  present 
traffic  on  single-track  lines  as  it  is  to  fly  to  Mars. 

"  Almost  every  railroad  in  the  country  is  single-tracked.  Almost 
every  railroad  should  be  double-tracked  to  handle  its  business.-  Al- 
most every  railroad  would  be  double-tracked  if  it  were  on  the  basis 
of  a  reasonable  capitalisation.  It  is  because  of  the  dizzy  financial 
juggleries  of  the  Kings  of  Finance  that  we  have  single  tracks  and 
unprotected  crossings,  junk-pile  locomotives  and  Noah's  Ark  cars  — 
simply  for  this  reason  and  no  other." 

Referring  to  the  rapidly  increasing  perilousness  of  railway  travel, 
Mr.  Russell  says:  "Meantime^  also,  the  accidents  increase  in  start- 
ling fashion,  and  the  death  lists  grow  upon  us.  Travel  upon  Ameri- 
can railroads  daily  becomes  more  perilous.  Not  only  are  more  people 
killed,  but  the  percentage  increases  of  passengers  slain  to  passengers 
carried,  so  that  every  day  the  travelers'  chances  of  safety  are  les- 
sened. ...  As  observe  in  this  table  of  fatal  railroad  acci- 
dents in  the  United  States,  compiled  from  the  annual  reports  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission: 

758 


APPENDIX 

Passengers 

Employes 

Other  Persons 

Total 

killed. 

killed. 

killed. 

killed. 

1897                      222 
1898                      221 
1899                      239 

1,693 
1,958 
2,210 

4,522 
4,680 
4,674 

6,437 
6,859 
7,123 

1900                      249 
1901                      282 
1902                       345 
1903                       355 

2,550 
2,675 
2,969 
3,606 

5,006 
5,498 
5,274 
5,879 

7,'805 
8,455 
8,588 
9,840 

1904                       441 
1905                       537 
1906  (three-         418 
fourths 

3,632 
3,261 

3,807 

5,973 
not  given 
not  given 

10,046 
not  given 
not  given 

of  the  year  only.) 

'•'  There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  slaughter  is  really  larger 
even  than  these  terrible  figures  indicate,  and  that  many  accidents  are 
not  reported  at  all." 

^  We  extract  the  following,  bearing  upon  the  same  subject,  from  an 
Editorial  in  the  "  Boston  American/'  of  January  4,  1907,  apropos  of 
two  railway  disasters,  one  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  the 
other  on  the  Eock  Island.  In  these  two  accidents  about  100  persona 
were  killed  and  many  more  than  that  number  were  injured.  The 
Editorial  says  in  part: 

"  It  took  a  good  deal  of  writing  and  talking  to  wipe  out  slavery, 
the  right  of  one  man  to  own  another's  life.  It  will  take  a  great  deal 
of  writing  and  talking  to  wipe  out  that  peculiar  property  right  which 
gives  the  man  the  right  to  take  another's  life. 

"We  shan't  worry  you  with  fifteen  arguments  in  connexion  with 
these  shameful  murders  of  women  and  children  by  railroad  corpora- 
tions. We  call  your  attention  to  only  two. 

"  Here  is  the  first  one : 

"  In  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  wreck  a  light  engine  and  a  light  train 
of  empty  cars  ran  into  a  passenger  train  filled  with  human  beings. 
They  were  in  the  railroad's  estimation  cheap  human  beings,  not  the 
very  prosperous  kind,  and  they  were  riding  in  the  ordinary  'day 
coaches.'  Day  coaches,  you  know,  are  matchboxes  that  smash  like 
pasteboard  when  anything  hits  them. 

"  If  those  had  been  well-built  cars,  cars  as  well  built  as  the  ordinary 
Pullmans,  there  would  have  been  little  and  probably  no  loss  of  life. 
There  would  have  been  a  shaking  up.  But  well-built  cars  would  not 
crush  like  eggshells. 

"The  dispatch  tells  us  that  the  engine  which  ran  into  the  train 
went  through  the  flimsy  cars,  smashing  them  like  paper,  without 
damaging  the  engine,  injuring  the  cowcatcher  or  the  engineer  or 
fireman. 

"  Do  you  know  why  the  cars  in  which  those  people  were  killed  were 

like  matchboxes? 

"  It  is  because  the  difference  between  the  cost  of  a  good  car  and 
the  cost  of  a  cheap  car  goes  into  the  pockets  of  the  men  that  own  the 

759 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

railroads.  That  difference  helps  to  pay  dividends  on  the  millions  of 
watered  stock  that  represent  and  create  the  fortunes  of  the  hundred- 
time  millionaires. 

"  Of  course,  with  government  ownership  we  should  have  some 
stealing,  although  the  people  would  soon  begin  to  vote  wisely  and  the 
railroads  would  soon  be  well  managed. 

"But  under  government  ownership  no  one  would  be  interested  in 
building  cheap,  flimsy  passenger  cars.  On  the  contrary,  the  profit  of 
the  grafters  would  come  from  the  cost  of  building  the  cars,  and  it 
would  be  to  their  interest  to  build  the  cars  strong  and  expensive. 
The  people  would  be  robbed  of  some  money,  but  their  lives  would  be 
saved. 

"  Now  they  are  robbed  of  their  money  and  of  their  lives  at  the  same 
time.  Government  ownership  would  be  some  improvement,  wouldn't 
it?" 

There  is  much  food  for  thought  in  the  following  paragraphs  taken 
from  a  recent  Boston  daily :  "  Discussing  the  recent  terrible  wrecks 
due  to  disregard  of  the  regulations  of  the  block  system,  a  member  of 
the  cabinet  told  the  following  story  to-day : 

'  I  was  in  New  York  recently  and  met  while  there  James  J.  Hill, 
the  railroad  magnate.  He  deplored  the  conditions  resulting  in  so 
many  disasters  and  said :  '  Every  time  I  undertake  a  railroad  jour- 
ney nowadays  I  wonder  whether  it  is  to  be  my  last.  It  is  a  fact 
that  in  this  day  from  two  to  three  trains  enter  at  times  into  every 
block  of  every  system  in  the  country.  There  is  danger  in  it/  " 

An  exceedingly  able  and  trenchant  article  upon  this  subject,  by 
Arthur  Warren,  was  published  in  the  "  Boston  Herald,"  of  January  3, 
1907,  under  the  caption  "  Terrible  Sacrifice  for  Big  Dividends."  In 
the  course  of  the  article  Mr.  Warren  says: 

"  There's  a  funny  inconsistency  about  us.  We  think  bull  fights  are 
degrading.  The  other  night  a  great  railroad  had  a  great  accident 
and  killed  its  great  president.  He  was  asleep  in  his  private  car.  So 
were  several  friends.  They  were  killed,  too.  A  freight  train  came 
up  behind,  and  in  30  seconds  Charon  had  a  new  lot  of  passengers. 
A  train  can  be  as  killing  standing  as  running.  There  were  several 
columns  in  the  papers,  but  nothing  happened  for  three  or  four  days, 
except  the  funerals.  Then  there  was  another  lovely  killing  on  the 
same  division  of  the  same  road,  in  the  same  way.  And  the  commis- 
sioner who  investigated  found  that  the  striking  engine  had  tin  win- 
dows! Don't  laugh.  It's  a  fact.  Why  should  an  engine  have  glass 
windows  ? "  .  .  . 

"  When  a  railroad  starts  out  to  kill,  it  must  have  full  rights  and 
facilities.  And  that  road  has  helped  so  many  of  us  to  die !  Are  we 
glad  ?  Listen : 

'  Corporation  Commissioner  Henry  C.  Stuart  said,  with  reference 
to  the  recent  wreck  on  the  Southern  railroad  at  Danville,  that  the 
evidence  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  trainmen  are  often  on  duty  48 
hours  at  a  time.  This  must  not  be  understood  as  being  compulsory, 
however.  It  is  a  matter  of  choice  on  the  part  of  the  trainmen  who 
do  the  extra  work  to  their  own  advantage/  . 

760 


APPENDIX 

"  Of  course  it  is  not  compulsory.  It's  permitted  by  the  great  man- 
agement of  the  great  railroad,  whose  great  president  was  killed  bv 
this  great  method.  We  like  it.  We  live  in  hope  that  our  turn  will 
come  next. 

"Again  Mr.  Commissioner  Stuart:  'It  developed  at  the  hearing 
that  the  telegraph  operators  are  not  responsible  to  anyone.  They 
are  required  to  make  no  reports.  ...  The  engine  had  a  window 
on  the  engineer's  side  blocked  with  tin,  completely  obstructing  his 
view  of  the  track  ahead  of  him/  Bless  him  for  that  happy  innova- 
tion! Let  all  engines  have  tin  windows!  We  shall  perish  the 
quicker/' 

Referring  to  the  alarming  increase  in  railway  fatalities  this  well- 
known  journalist  says:  "Ten  years  ago  our  majestic,  moist  and 
happy  railway  systems  killed  and  injured  only  38,687  of  us,  a  mere 
nothing,  a  trifle,  sheer  experimentation!  Behold  the  last  official 
twelve  months  —  vastly  better;  you  can  be  killed  while  you  wait; 
95,711  of  us  burned,  carved,  dismembered  to  killed.  We  progress. 
'Tis  an  illustrous  age."  .  .  . 

"  It's  a  really  sublime  progress  we  are  making.  Ten  years  ago 
one  passenger  was  killed  for  every  2,984,832  carried  on  the  railroads 
of  our  self-sacrificing  country.  But  that  proposition  was  unsatisfac- 
tory. We  have  improved  upon  it.  Last  year  we  killed  one  passenger 
out  of  every  1,375,856.  But  that's  not  the  only  measure  of  our  mas- 
terly advance.  Ten  years  ago  one  passenger  in  every  213,651  was 
injured.  A  futile  tale.  Last  year  we  injured  one  in  every  70,655. 
Injuring,  alas!  is  not  killing.  There  are  so  many  of  us  who  ought 
to  be  killed.  But  have  patience.  Give  the  railroads  a  chance. 
They'll  smash  us  all  if  we  continue  our  present  eager  quest  for  crash- 
ing death. 

"  Safety  ?  Laws  for  safety  ?  Let  the  coward  nations  have  'em, 
not  we.  We  can  buy  death  coupons  at  any  ticket  office.  'Tis  easier 
than  buying  poison,  and  cheaper  than  buying  guns.  Listen  to  the 
engineer  whose  death-bound  train  piled  up  a  splendid  mass  of  corpses 
and  wounds  just  outside  of  Washington  this  week :  '  The  fog  was 
so  thick  I  couldn't  see  any  signal  lights,  but  I  kept  up  full  speed/ 
No  torpedoes,  no  flares,  no  sense,  no  anything  but  fog  and  speed  and 
hospitable  death.  Dear,  delightful,  ever-ready  Death;  we  rush  to 
him  on  wheels." 

The  "  rush  "  is  becoming  more  and  more  swift.  On  January  19, 
1907,  ten  railroad  accidents  occurred  in  different  parts  of  the  United 
States,  four  of  them  in  Indiana.  In  one  of  the  worst  of  these  wrecks 
it  is  estimated  that  27  persons  were  killed.  The  bodies  were  so  com- 
pletely dismembered  that  it  was  difficult  to  ascertain  the  exact  number 
of  the  dead.  In  another  16  were  killed  or  burned  to  death.  In  four 
others  several  more  were  killed,  and  in  all  many  were  injured. 

Ten  accidents  in  24  hours !  What  a  record  for  one  day !  And  yet 
there  are  many,  neither  commonly  known  to  be  insane  or  foolish,  who 
oppose  government  ownership  of  railroads  and  the  like,  lest  the  "ef- 
ficiency of  the  service  should  be  cut  down.  Think  of  it! 

As  we  write  tidings  come  to  us  of  another  shocking  accident.     On 

761 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Saturday  night,  February  16,  1907,  the  New  York  Central  electric 
express  was  wrecked,  killing  22  persons,  and  injuring  145,  some  fa- 
tally. Another  case  of  insufficient  road  equipment,  the  rails  being 
too  light  for  the  giant  motors.  When  the  accident  took  place  the  train 
was  rounding  a  curve  at  the  rate  of  70  miles  an  hour.  Everywhere 
carelessness  and  inefficiency  are  found  and  the  slaughter  goes  on ! 

'  From  an  article  entitled,  "  It's  Time  to  Stop  Railroad  Slaughter," 
by  Prof.  Frank  Parsons,  published  in  the  "  Boston  American "  of 
January  30,  1907,  we  extract  the  following: 

"  The  German  railways,  which  are  operated  by  the  State,  kill  only 
one  passenger  in  11,701,354  and  injure  one  in  2,113,171,  making  the 
total  killed  and  injured  about  half  a  passenger  per  million  against 
15  per  million  in  the  United  States. 

"  In  other  words,  it  is  about  thirty  times  as  dangerous  to  travel  on 
our  private  railways  as  on  che  public  roads  of  Germany. 

"  It  is  evident  that  Germany  is  way  behind  the  times.  She  has 
the  old  fogy  notion  that  it  is  part  of  the  business  of  a  railroad  to 
look  out  for  the  safety  of  its  passengers  and  provide  all  available 
appliances  for  that  purpose. 

"  Germany  has  not  yet  grasped  the  modern  American  idea  that  the 
sole  business  of  a  railroad  is  to  make  money  for  its  owners,  and  that 
as  safety  appliances  are  costly,  they  must  be  dispensed  with  as  far 
as  possible. 

"  Railway  employes  are  just  as  cheap  as  passengers,  and  they  get 
killed  with  a  regularity  and  rapidity  that  keeps  the  great  law  of  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  in  vigourous  operation.  One  in  every  21  railway 
employes  was  injured,  according  to  last  year's  statement,  and  one  in 
411  was  killed.  Among  the  trainmen  one  in  133  was  killed. 

"  That  beats  the  passenger  record  for  the  same  year  10,000  times, 
and  the  passenger  record  for  ten  years  ago  20,000  times. 

"It  is  twenty  times  more  dangerous  to  be  a  railroad  employe  on 
our  roads  than  to  be  a  railway  employe  on  the  German  roads.  A 
comparison  of  the  mortality  statistics  on  our  railroads  with  the  rec- 
ords of  the  Rebellion  proves  that  it  is  more  dangerous  to  be  a  brake- 
man  on  our  roads  than  it  was  to  enlist  in  the  armies  of  the  Republic 
for  service  of  the  Civil  War. 

"  What  are  the  causes  of  the  terrible  accidents  that  give  our  roads 
their  sad  supremacy  in  the  field  of  slaughter?  The  chief  causes  are 
overworking  of  employes  and  failure  to  provide  adequate  safety  ap- 
pliances. 

"  A  flagman  on  duty  sixteen  hours,  a  telegraph  operator  on  duty 
eighteen  hours  straight  and  half  dead  with  sleep,  a  switchman  twenty 
hours  without  rest,  an  engineer  forty-eight  hours  on  duty  with  two 
short  intervals  of  rest  —  that  is  one  sort  of  thing  the  accident  record 
brings  out.  And  another  is  the  absence  of  the  block  system  with  the 
automatic  device  that  sets  the  brakes  on  any  train  which  attempts 
to  enter  a  block  that  contains  another  train. 

"  Only  22  per  cent,  of  our  railways  are  protected  by  any  block  sig- 
nal system,  and  only  5  per  cent,  have  the  automatic  system/' 

To  all  this  a  goodly  number  of  disasters  on  water  might  be  added, 

762 


APPENDIX 

one  of  the  latest  showing  a  record  which  for  suffering,  brutality  and 
cowardice  it  would  be  hard  to  excel.  We  refer  to  the  disaster  which 
occurred  on  February  11,  1907,  off  Block  Island,  K.  I.  It  is  estimated 
that  150  persons  perished  as  the  result  of  the  collision  between  the 
steamer  Larchmont,  of  the  Joy  line,  and  a  three-masted  schooner. 
Although  a  zero  gale  was  blowing  and  a  heavy  sea  was  running,  there 
is  no  question  but  that  a  larger  number  of  passengers  might  have  been 
saved  had  the  Captain  and  crew  not  been  the  first  to  leave  the  sinking 
steamer.  The  fact  that  while  18  per  cent,  of  the  crew  were  saved, 
only  6  per  cent,  of  the  passengers  were  rescued,  is  significant  and 
needs  no  further  comment. 

In  addition  to  these  transportation  accidents  are  to  be  mentioned 
the  factory,  mining  and  foundry  horrors,  all  tending  to  force  home  the 
conviction  that  among  us  as  a  nation,  the  increasing  value  of  the 
dollar  means  the  decreasing  value  of  life. 

We  cannot  refrain,  in  closing  this  subject,  from  calling  attention 
to  an  article  by  Arthur  B.  Reeve,  entitled  "  Our  Industrial  Jugger- 
naut," published  in  "  Everybody's  Magazine "  for  February,  1907. 
The  prefatory  note  by  the  Editor  will  give  the  Reader  a  fair  hint 
of  the  subject  matter  of  the  article.  It  runs  as  follows:  "Half 
a  million  men,  women,  and  children  killed  and  maimed  is  the  annual 
blood  bill  of  the  American  people.  This  is  part  of  the  cost  of  our 
precious  industrial  supremacy.  When  a  nation  has  more  railroads, 
greater  mines,  taller  buildings  than  any  other  nation,  and  is  running 
its  trains  faster,  operating  its  mines  more  extensively,  and  erecting  its 
buildings  at  a  higher  rate  of  speed  than  any  other  on  the  footstool 
dares  attempt  —  and  incidentally  cares  little  about  the  lives  of  its 
toilers  —  that  is  about  the  slaughter  record  you  may  expect.  Day 
and  night  this  killing  and  maiming  goes  on  in  the  every-day  occupa- 
tions of  life,  and  for  the  most  part  is  due  to  sheer  brutal  carelessness, 
absence  of  rails  or  safeguards  or  security  appliances  of  one  kind  or 
another.  No  one  seems  to  care  very  much  if  we  do  kill  more  people 
in  one  year  of  peace  than  were  slain  and  wounded  throughout  the 
terrible  Russo-Japanese  war.  Law  departments  and  human  life  are 
cjieap  —  at  ieast  cheaper  than  the  cost  of  protecting  the  army  of  toil- 
ers from  the  whirring  machinery  of  the  industrial  Juggernaut." 

Mr.  Eeeve  calls  emphatic  attention  to  what  we  have  been  at  such 
pains' to  point  out,  namely,  the  rapidly  decreasing  value  of  human 
life  in  the  United  States.  He  says:  .  .  .  "how  many  of  us 
know  that  in  this  same  civilised  world  of  ours,  human  life,  under 
certain  conditions,  is  held  as  cheaply  as  in  India  or  in  China  .•'How 
many  of  us  realise  that  out  of  the  29,000,000  workers  in  these  United 
States,  one  is  killed  or  injured  every  minute  of  the  day  —  in i  o  her 
words  that  every  year  more  than  500,000  irien,  women,  and  children 
"are  killed  or  crippled  as  a  direct  result  of  the  occupations  in  which 
thev  are  engaged?  The  total  is  bad  enough;  what  renders  it  appall- 
ing is  the  fact  that  more  than  one-half  of  this  tremendous  sacrifice 
of  life  is  needless;  is  due  in  great  measure  to  the  carelessness  of 
greedy  employers  who  are  morally,  if  not  legally,  responsible  for  the 

lives  of  their  men." 

Too 


GILLETTE'S    SOCIAL    REDEMPTION 

Considering  special  localities  Mr.  Keeve  says:  "In  New  York 
City  occur  ten  violent  deaths  a  day,  as  a  direct  result  of  daily  activi- 
ties. In  Chicago  the  number  falls  to  six  a  day,  according  to  Dr. 
Thomas  Grant  Allen.  But  the  storm-centre  of  the  country  is  Alle- 
gheny County,  Pennsylvania,  in  which  the  city  of  Pittsburg  is  situ- 
ated, combining  steel,  iron,  and  coal  industries,  mills,  mines,  railroads, 
and  building  operations.  Over  seventeen  thousand  deaths  and  in- 
juries a  year  in  all  industries  is  the  record  for  this  single  county. 

'  Conditions  are  such  that  the  life  of  a  foreigner  employed  in  the 
mills  is  given  less  consideration  than  is  the  life  of  a  horse  or  mule/ 
says  the  coroner  of  Allegheny  County.  '  During  my  first  month  in 
office  I  was  astounded  to  find  that  within  the  thirty  days  twelve  men 
were  killed  in  one  plant  alone  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corpora- 
tion/ '  If  even  the  present  laws  were  enforced,'  the  Hungarian  con- 
sul has  protested,  '  conditions  would  not  be  so  bad.' '' 

The  author  closes  his  remarkable  presentation  with  this  significant 
paragraph :  "  For  the  fact  remains  that  the  only  measures  that  will 
prove  adequate  are  not  remedial,  but  preventive.  Not  until  employ- 
ers are  willing  to  spend  the  money  necessary  for  providing  proper 
safeguards  for  their  men;  not  until  contractors  have  ceased  to  say, 
as  one  in  New  York  said -recently,  'It  is  cheaper  not  to  protect  the 
men  —  plenty  more  where  they  came  from ! ' —  not  until  we  realise 
that  in  our  disregard  for  human  life  we  are  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously fast  approaching  the  callousness  of  the  Oriental,  will  the 
wanton  slaughter  of  the  toilers  cease." 

Think  of  it !  A  half  a  million  people  killed  and  maimed  every  year 
and  this  only  the  schedule  of  risk  among  the  toilers!  To  this  stu- 
pendous roll-call  of  Death  must  be  added  the  long  retinue  of  transpor- 
tation accidents  sustained  by  the  travelling  public. 


764 


INDEX 


765 


INDEX 


Addicks  Bay  Gas  State  Co.,  422 

Addickism  a  synonym  lor  political 

putrefaction,  421 
Adulteration 

Amount  of  adulterated  food  con- 
sumed annually,  500 

Of  food,  497 

Of  lood  and  drugs  reported  in  Mass. 
State  Board  of  Health  Bulletin, 
503 

Of  whisky,  504 

Potato  flour,  504,  537 

Public  prefer  not  to  know  truth  re- 
garding, 498 

George  F.  Angell's  campaign  against, 
501-503 

Paraffine  used  in  candy,  504 

The  extent  of,  500 
Advertising 

Cost  of,  634 

In  America  and  England,  6,31 

In  newspapers,  in  periodicals,  631 

"  Letter  broker  "  method  of,  634 

P.  T.  Barnum  originated  posters,  632 

Power  of,  632 

Orlando  Bourne  first  agent,  633 

Remarkable  progress  in  art  of,  633 

Success  of  patent  medi'cines  due  to, 

631 
American  Ideals 

On  the  down  grade,  112 

Which  Washington  bequeathed,  115 

Jefferson's,  115,  116 

Benjamin  Franklin's,  117,  118 

James  Madison's,  118,  119 

James  Monroe's,  118,  119 

Patrick  Henry's,  119 

John  Adams',  120 

John  Stuart  Mill's,  122 

Broken  down  by  commercialism  and 
imperialism,  179 

Of  liberty  debased  to  Russian  level, 
189 

An  offence  to  publish  the  Declaratic 
of  Independence,  194 

Dishonored    in     Filipino  -  America: 
war,  197,  235 

Present  condition  of  corruption  U 
effacing,  423 


Anarchist 

Treatment  of  John  Turner,  181-183, 

297 
Treatment  of  Emma  Goldman,  183, 

297 

Case  of  so-called  Chicago,  29.3,  423 
Dynamiting  station  at  Independence, 

Colorado,  322 
Reign  of  anarchy  in  Colorado,  298, 

320 

Colony  at  Home,  Wash.,  358 
Areas  and  Populations 

Table  of,  258,  259 
Art 

Corruption  in,  592 

Awarding  prizes  without  regard  to 
merit  at  an  exhibit  in  Boston,  592 
Association 

Employers'  Liability  responsible  for 
mortality    among    railroad     em- 
ployees, 477 
Automobiles 

A  menace  to  life,  480 

Beef  Trust 

Water  thefts  from  city  of  Chicago 

by,  457-460 
What  a  stranger  sees  when  visiting 

Packingtown,  460 
Death  and  desolation  by,  481 
Juggled    prices   for   live   stock   and 

dressed  meat,  482 
Herman  Hirschauer,  on  the,  483 
Defence  of,  by  J.  Ogden  Armour,  540 
Belgium 

Rate  of  illiteracy  in,  10 
Density  of  population,  11 
Bench,  The 

A  deadly  foe  to  the  law,  381 
Supreme,    a   dangerous    menace    to 
human  liberty  and  social  develop- 
ment, 382 
Blackest     chapter     in    history.     The. 

17 
Blackest  chapter  in  American  history, 

197 
"  Bucket-shop  Bill  " 

Bribery  in  connexion  with.  572 
Bucklin  Amendment,  321,  403 


767 


INDEX 


Business  man,  little  short  of  divine, 

419 

A  commercial  hunter,  419 
Covetousness  of,  575 

Cancer 

Increase  and  cause  of,  518 
Capt.  of  industry  articles,  481,  597 
Caste,  or  class-consciousness 
In  India,  59,  556,  557 
In  Russia,  59 

Has  desire  to  advance  self,  339,  340 
Exists  on  every  hand,  583 
Censorship 
In  Russia,  64 
Of  the  press,  184,  185 
Power  of  the  press,  185 
Power  of    the    Federal    Bureau    at 

Washington  regarding,  185 
In    United    States   worse    than    in 

Russia,   185,  186 
Congressional  protection  of,  185 
Power  of  post-office,  186 
Suppression  of  "  Lucifer,"  187 
Present  system  of,  should  be  abol- 
ished, 188 

Of  Rebecca  J.  Taylor,  189 
Of  the  "  Ladies  Home  Journal,"  190 
Of  the  "  Unique  Monthly,"  190 
Of  "  Discontent,"  190 
Of  "  Appeal  to  Reason,"  190 
Of  "Wilshire's  Magazine,"  190 
Extended  to  individuals,  190 
Delivery  of  mail  prohibited  to  the 

People's  U.  S.  Bank,  191,  193 
Delivery  of  mail  prohibited  to  E.  G. 

Lewis,  191,  192 
The  postal  power  of,  unparalleled, 

192 

Of  Mrs.  Williams,  193 
Of  "  Our  Dumb  Animals,"  193,  194 
In  Philippines,  221,  222 
Chemistry 

Coal-tar  products  used  in  medicine 

—  also  in  some  dyes,  497 
Chicago 

Four  young  men  committed  eight 
murders  and  one  hundred  hold-ups 
in,  407 

Corruption  in,  454 
Child  labor 

First  act  for  abatement  of  evils  of, 

697 

Felix  Adler  on,  697-699,  700,  701 
Children  fed  to  the  machine,  697 
In  tenement  houses,  698 
The  effects  on  young  children,  699 
Babes  eighteen  months  old  at  work, 

699 

In  the  United  States,  700 
Some  aver  the  necessity  of,  701 
Mrs.  Van  Vorst  on  conditions  in  the 
South,  701-703 


Argument  that  children  are  better 

off  at  work,  702 
Robert  Hunter  on,  715 
Number  of  children  at  work  in  tex- 
tile mills  in  United  States,  715 
Is  increasing,  715 
Conditions  of,  in  Pennsylvania,  716- 

717 
Conditions   of,    in    factory   in    Fall 

River,  Mass.,  719-720 
Conditions    of    cotton     milling    in 

United    States    equal    worst    in 

England,  716 
Children 

Death  rate  of,  638 
Death  rate  in  New  York,  639 
Buried  at  public  expense,  639 
Economic    conditions    which    affect 

birth  rate  of,  640 
Birth  rate  of,  in  New  South  Wales, 

640 
Should  be  taught  proper  breathing 

in  public  schools,  681 
Of  to-day,  the  republic  of  the  future, 

703 
Nature  starts  all  physically  equal, 

704 

John  Spargo  regarding,  704-706 
Death  rate  in  England  and  Wales, 

.711 

Diseases  of,  712-714 
Ignorance  the  cause  of  deaths  of,  in 

France  and  the  United  States,  713- 

715 

Patent  "  infant  foods,"  714 
Underfed  school,  719 
Treatment  of,  720 
China 

Density  of  population  in,  1 1 
Chinaman 

Cannot  understand  American  energy, 

466 

Every  fourth  man  a,  737 
Christ 

Life   of,    not    imitated    by   modern 

Christians,  12 
Christianity 

"  Modern    Christianity    a    civilized 

Heathenism,"  12 
As  practised  by  Mr.  Baer  and  other 

coal  barons,  469-470 
Verestchagin    regarding    Christians. 

594 
Commercialism     makes    impossible, 

631 
Cities 

"  The  Shame  of  Cities,"  437 
Corruption  in  Philadelphia,  447 
Corruption  in  Minneapolis,  448 
Corruption  in  St.  Louis,  448 
Fred'k  C.  Howe  on,  454 
"The  Bondage  of  the  Cities,"  456- 

457 


768 


INDEX 


Clergy 

Little  more  than  unproductive  con- 
sumers, 379 

Beginning  to  be  active  for  good  in 
social  matters,  379 

Catholic,  in  politics,  594-597 
Coal 

How  the  people  are  compelled  to 
pay  for,  467 

Dan  Beard  regarding  exorbitant 
prices  for,  468 

Richard  Olney  in  reference  to  mil- 
lionaire heads  of  coal  companies, 
468-469 

Brutal  treatment  received  by  miners 
during  coal  strikes,  470 

Accidents  in  mines,  479 
Colombia 

Our  treatment  of,  19 
Colorado 

Trouble  in,  298 

Dynamiting  of  station  in  Independ- 
ence, 298-322 

Reign  of  anarchy  in,  320-331 

Henry  George,  Jr.,  on  strikes  in, 
620-628 

Judge  Steele's  opinion  of  treatment 
ofMoyer  and  others  in,  324 

R.  S.  Baker  on  lawlessness  in,  320, 
326-329 

"  Bull-pen  "  treatment,  327 
"  World  Herald  "  (Omaha),  on  crime  in, 
329 

Jas.  H.  Teller  regarding  conditions  in, 
329 

Every  outrage  known  to  military 
despotism  practised  during  strike 
in,  330 

Springfield  "  Republican  "  on  condi- 
tions in,  330 

Haywood-Moyer  outrage,  423-429 

Pinkerton  detective,  McPartland, 
428 

Press  censorship  in,  330 
Commercialism 

The  system  a  pigsty  of  greed  and 
corruption,  727 

"  The  Civilised  Pig,"  727 
Competition 

Physical,  12 

Every  man's  hand  on  another  man's 
throat,  12 

Commercial,  a  rapacious  warfare,  12 

Wages  fixed  at  cost  of  existence  by, 
604 

Ninety-five  per  cent,  of  business  en- 
terprises fail,  609 

Birth  of,  609 

Illustrations  of,  610 

Choice  between  monopoly  and,  610 

Reaches  equity,  611 

Buying  and  selling,  611 

Walter  G.  Cooper  on,  611-612 


John  Graham  Brooks  regarding  wage 

system,  613 
Wm.  Miller  Collier  on  wastefulness 

of,  613,  614,  616 
The  mother  of  trusts,  617 
Bolton  Hall  on  free,  618 
The  war  of,  617 
W.  H.  Ghent  on  free,  623 
Of  to-day  wasteful,  cruel,  and  un- 

philosophical,  624 
Louis  F.  Post  on,  624-626 
Abolition  of  monopoly  will  restore 

freedom  to,  626 
Sidney  A.  Reeve  on,  626,  628 
Adam  Smith's  exposition  of  effects 

of,  626 
Cost  of,  to  the  community,  626,  627, 

628 
The  imperfections  of,  how  overcome, 

728 

As  we  know  it,  is  doomed,  737 
Congo  Free  State 
Description  of,  83 
King  Leopold's  rule  in,  83-96 
Methods  of  obtaining  rubber  in,  85, 

93 
Condition    in,  at    the  time  of  the 

advent  of  the  white  trader,  86-91 
Amount    of   rubber    annually    pro- 
duced in,  95 
Cannibalism  in,  95 
Atrocities  in,  95,  104-106 
Wages  for  labor,  95 
Prices  of  rubber,  95 
Description  of  a  "  rubber  raid  "  in, 

104-106 

Depopulation  of,  105,  107 
Testimony  of  natives  regarding  treat- 
ment in,  105-106 
Computation     of     King     Leopold's 

murders  in,  107 
Abortion  prevalent  in,  641 
Congress 

Disciplining  of  "  Billy  "  Mason  by, 

127 
Chargeable  with  knowledge  of  land 

graft,  128,  257,  282 
Abolition  of  United  States  Senate, 

128 
Composed  largely  of  lawyers,   128, 

131,  383 
United  States  Senate  called  "  House 

of  Dollars,"  135 
Power    of,    regarding   legal   tender, 

164 
Serves  creditor  class  by  contracting 

legal  tender,  164,  165,  168 
Has     constitutional     authority     to 

relieve  debtor  class,  164,  165 
In  censorship,  185 
Not  expected  to  aid  Gillette's  plan 

for  social  redemption,  258 
"  The  Beneficient  Assistance  of  our 


769 


INDEX 


Congress,"  an  act  relating  to  land 

thefts,  278 

Passed  bill  providing  civil  govern- 
ment for  Alaska,  283 
No  account  of  money  appropriated 

by,  417 
Senate  at  bidding  of  Standard  Oil, 

421 
H.  H.  Rogers  can  swing  more  than 

two  dozen  votes  in,  421 
"  Ecclesiastical  lobby,"  596  , 

Free  gifts  to  the  Providence  hospital 

by,  597 
Corporations 

Imprisonment  for  contempt  of,  314 
Have  no  difficulty  in  controlling  a 

legislative     body     composed     of 

lawyers,  383 
We  are  deprived  of  our  rights  at 

behest  of,  457 
"  The  Organisation  and  Control  of 

Industrial  Corporations,"  465 
Railroad,  make  use   of   Employers' 

Liability  Associations,  477 
Corruption 

Legislative  and  judicial,  127. 150, 290 

In  Congress,  127-131 

In  presidential  campaigns,  129 

In  Life  Insurance  Companies,   129, 

408,  409,  414 
In  railroad  companies,  136,  139,  140, 

148,  471 

Of  the  press,  141,  598-603 
Of  judges,  151-160 
Exposed  by  land  graft  in  Alaska,  290 
Disfranchisement  of  the  negro,  401- 

403 

Bucklin  Amendment,  403 
Ripperism,  403-404 
Mayoralty  election  in  New  York,  406 
Effect  of,  on  the  courts,  408 
Thomas  Lawson  regarding,  408 
Henry  George,  Jr.,  on  political,  416 
State     legislatures     more     vendible 

than  national,  422 
"  The  Shame  of  the  Cities,"  437 
Emerson  on,  440 
Bolton  Hall  on  political,  445 
"  The  Source  of  Corruption,"  456 
Municipal,  461 
In  mercantile  pursuits,  572 
In  Boston  State  House,  572-574 
Thomas   Lawson  regarding  bribery 

in  Massachusetts  legislature,  573 
In  the  church,  593 
Court 

Supreme  judges  appointed  by  Presi- 
dent, 157 

Ages  of  judges  of  Supreme,  158 
New  York  statute    pronounced  un- 
constitutional by,  159 
Fourteenth  Amendment  disregarded 

by,  159 


Federal,  refuses  to  adjudicate  upon 
postal  censorship,  191 

Decision  regarding  land  thefts,  281 

Standard  Oil  defies  Supreme,  297 

Chancery  Court  of  Appeals,  case  of 
Dixon  vs.  Holden,  300 

Case  of  Sherry  vs.  Perkins,  301 

Eugene  V.  Debs  arrested  for  con- 
tempt of,  304 

Nature  of,  to  draw  aristocratic  power 
to  itself,  313 

The  Supreme,  of  New  York  managed 
a  brothel  through  receivers,  314 

Grasping  at  governmental  power  of 
legislation  and  administration,  314 

Federal,  acts  in  defiance  of  constitu- 
tional guarantee,  316 

Monopoly  has  used,  to  strike  at  the 
ballot,  316 

Perversion  of  a  court  of  equity,  317 

Contempt  of,  by  H.  H.  Rogers,  388 

Fostering  care  bestowed  on  railroads 

by  the,  479 
Crime,  murders,  and  homicide 

Statistics  on,  646 

Highest  rate  of,  in  Russia,  646 

Ratio   of,    increasing    all    over   the 
world,  646 

Social    and    commercial    conditions 

cause  of,  646 
Cunard  Line 

Contract  with  England,  729 
Currency 

Contraction  of,  163 

Articles  used  as,  163-169 

Diagrams  illustrating  chain  lightning 
of  prices,  166,  167 

History  of,  163,  170 


Death  rate 

Decreased  in  nearly  every  country, 
647 

Infant  mortality,  706,  711-715 

Why  statistics  mislead,  648 

Chart  of,  707 
Deportation 

Of  John  Turner,  181-183 

Of  Colorado  men,  423-429 
Declaration  of  Independence 

An  offence  to  publish,  194 

The  repeal  of,  19 

Given  for  a  "  ditch,"  19 
Diseases 

Some  have  increased,  some  have  de- 
creased, 648 

United  States  a  nation  of  invalids, 
648 

Of  children,  711-713 

See  "  Plague  "  and  "  Death  rate  " 
Doctors 

Exorbitant  and  dishonest  prices  of, 
593 


770 


INDEX 


Dramatic    and    literary    criticism    a 
farce,  593 

England 

Enjoys  more  freedom  than  United 

States,  35 

Government  of  India  by,  120,  121 
Postal  facilities  in,  149 
Jury  selected  from  aristocracy  in,  152 
Two  high-toned  avocations  in,  379 
Human  beings  not  as  well  cared  for  as 

animals  in,  690 

"  The  White  Slaves  of  England,"  692 
Effect  of  poverty  in  childhood  in,  711 
Infant  mortality  in,  711 
Density    of    population    in    Great 
Britain,  11 

Express  companies 

Special  privileges  to,  147 
Opposed  to  parcels  post,  150 

Factory 

Life  in  Russia,  66,  67 

Casualties  in,  479 

Women  and  children  working  in,  671 

Home  workers  for,  and  their  condi- 
tion, 674-676 

Condition  in,  in  Fall  River.  Mass., 

719-720 
France 

Management  of  railroads  in,  147,  148 

Density  of  population  in,  11 
Free  pass  system 

Is  forbidden  by  law,  141 

Corrupts  the  press,  141 

Chas.  Ed.  Russell  in  reference  to,  139, 
141 

Germany 

Can  teach  us  in  insurance  matters, 
413 

Density  of  population  in,  11 
Germs 

Small-pox,  in  expensive  coat,  499 
Government 

The  least  governed  the  best  gov- 
erned, 435 

No  man  great  enough  to  rule  his 
fellow  man,  436 

Do  the  people  want  good,  438 

Of  United  States  mulcted  of  large 
sums  of  money  in  construction 
of  public  building,  490 

Donations  for  Indian  boarding- 
schools,  596 

Catholic  influence  at  Washington 
497 

A  necessary  evil,  728 
Graft 

Land,  128,  257-292 

Postal,  147 

Beginning  and  history  of,  289 

"  Gradations  of  Theft,"  290 


Governor  Hanley  on  public,  420 

Politics  degenerated  into  a  special- 
ised, 435 

Books    the    size    of    Encyclopedia 
Britannica  could  not  contain  his- 
tory of  United  States,  437 
Grain  Trust 

Exposed,  482 

Hawaiian  Islands 

Our  coup  d'etat  in,  19 
Holland 

Intensive  farming  of,  9 

Density  of  population  in  the  Nether- 
lands, 11 
Human  race 

Accommodated  in  a  single  state,  9 

Also  chart  opposite  page  9 
Hypocrisy 

Commercial,  13 

Russian,  17 

Of  Mr.  Baer,  58 

Of  J.  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  58 

In  Dred  Scot  case,  58 

Bred  by  mixing  commercialism  and 
Christianity,  631 

Illiteracy 

Rate  of,  in  Great  Russia,  10 

In  Belgium,  10 
Immigration 

Atrocities  laid  at  door  of,  407 

Political  corruption  charged  to,  436 

Race  suicide  charged  to,  640 
India 

Prince  of  Wales'  visit  to,  555 

Caste  the  cause  of  misery  in,  556 

Famine  in,  556-559 

Chas.  Ed.   Russell  regarding  condi- 
tions in,  556,  557 

Romesh  C.  Dutt  regarding  famine  in, 
557-559 

Density  of  population  in.  11 
Indians 

Boarding-school  donations  for,  596- 
597 

Race  suicide  among  the,  641 
Inequality 

Illustrations  of,  554-555 

Prince  of  Wales'  visit  to  India,  555 

The  effect  of  social,  564 
Inhumanity 

Man's  to  man,  two  kinds,  56 
Injunction 

Abuse  of,  151,  301 

A  legal  balloon,  299 

Earned  hatred  of  lovers  of  American 
principle,  299 

Origin    and    application    to    labour 
troubles,  300 

Illustrations  of  abuses  of.  301-305 

Anti-injunction  league,  302 

"  Government  by  Injunction,"  303 


771 


INDEX 


Recent  history  replete  with  outrages, 

303 
Judge  Seabury  traces  development 

of  principles  of,  303,  315 
Blanket,  307 

In  relation  to  the  Pullman  strike,  303 
A  device  of  the  judiciary,  313 
Government  by,  a  legal  quackery, 

313 

Justice  Brewer  on,  314 
The  judge  is  judge,  jury,  and  execu- 
tioner, 313 
New  methods  of,  315 
A  person  can  be  punished  twice  for 

the  same  offence,  315 
Ernest  Crosby  on,  317-319 
Insanity 

Alarming  increase  of,  642 

Number  of  people  insane  in  United 

States,  643 

In  other  countries,  643 
In  Chicago,  644 
Worry,  the  mother  of,  643 
Insurance 

Crime  of  murdering  children  for,  407 
Corruption  unearthed,  408 
Bribery  of  newspapers,  414-415 
Money   put    in    political   campaign, 

416-417 
Cases  of  consumption  not  reported 

because    if    disease    were    known 

would  lose,  688 
Invocation 

By  Rev.  C.  H.  McDonald  at  Albany 

Assembly,  416-417 

Japan 

Copied  American-Philippine  methods, 

33 

Steady  advancement  of,  734 
Socialistic  communities  in,  731 
Japanese  the  happiest  people  in  the 

world,  732 
The  greatest  governmental  trader  in 

the  world,  734 
Export  trade  of,  735 
Intelligence  and  thoroughness  of  the 

Japanese,  735 
Banking  system  of,  736 
Leads  the    world  as    an    organiser, 

737 
Japanese  development  an  illustration 

of  a  natural  law,  738 
Density  of  population  in,  11 
Judge 

"  The  Dollar  a  Life  Judge,"  479 
Corruption  of  the,  159 
Jury 

Trial  by,  151-156 

The,  a  preeminently  political  insti- 
tution, 152 

Attacks  upon  trial  by,  153 
The,  insulted,  154,  155 


Justice 

The    key-note    of    Gillette's    social 
redemption,  743 

Labour  and  capital 
Join  forces,  489 
Walter  G.  Cooper  on,  489 
Land 

Distribution  of  public,  170 
Railroad  grants  of,  171,  257,  264,  265 
Graft,  257 

Amount  of,  stolen,  257,  275-279 
Amount  of,  given  to  railroads  and 

stolen  would  support  three  times 

present  population,  258 
English  noblemen  hold  large  tracts 

of,  in  United  States,  263 
"  Stumpage  "    demanded    for    trees 

cut,  264 

Total  royalty  on,  265 
"  West  Coast  Grafters,"  265 
Beginning  and  history  of  land  graft, 

265-292 

Congressmen  thieves  of,  266 
Benson  "  steal,"  266,  267,  268 
Office  of  "  dummy,"  267,  268,  269 
One  name  may  stand   for  100,000 

acres  of,  270 

Stolen,  sold  to  United  States  govern- 
ment, 270 
Government     officials     bribed     by 

grafters,  271 

Wealthy  western  men  steal,  271 
Senators    and    Representatives    in- 
dicted for  conspiracy  to  defraud 

the  government,  272 
Senator  Clark's  theft  of,  277 
Henry  Miller's  theft  of,  277 
"  Looting  of  Alaska,"  282 
The   McKenzie   trial   and   sentence, 

290-292 
Law 

One  law  for  the  rich  and  another  for 

the  poor,  387 
Illustrative  case  of  a  rich  and  a  poor 

man  arrested  for  the  same  offence, 

389 

Lawyers 

Never  produce,  379 
Genesis  of,  379-385 
Peter  the  Great's  opinion  of,  380 
Many  fine  men  are,  380 
One  class  of  law-breakers,  381 
Business  of,  is  to  sell  their  advocacy, 

382 

Part  in  governmental  corruption,  382 
Congress  largely  composed  of,  383 
Frank  Parsons  regarding,  383 
Peter  Altgeld  regarding,  384-387 
Wendell    Philippe    regarding   Rufus 

Choate,  385 

Boston  has  "  shysters,"  390 
Leopold,  King 


772 


INDEX 


And  Congo  atrocities,  83-107 

"  Philanthropic  "  rule  of,  83-107 

Col.  Williams'  open  letter  to,  91-93 

"  King  Leopold's  Soliloquy,"  99-104 

The  king  with  a  million  murders  to 

his  charge,  107 
Liberty 

Of  speech,  179,  184 

Of  the  press,  180 
.  Thomas  Jefferson  on,  180 
Life 

Average  duration  of,  647 

Why  statistics  mislead,  648 
Locomotives 

Life  of,  363 
Lung  Block 

Description  of,  682-687 

Deaths  in,  688 

Diagram  of,  683 

One  of  its  victims  (half-tone),  oppo- 
site 676 
Lynchings 

Of  negroes,  59,  297 

Not  confined  to  a  few  localities,  59, 
335,  339 

A  social  disease,  335 

Spread  to  all  but  five  States,  335, 
342 

Not  confined  to  negroes,  335 

Cardinal  Gibbons  regarding,  335,  336 

Feud  between  two  families  in  Ken- 
tucky, 336 

Number  of,  336 

Fewer  negroes  than  whites  in  Sing 
Sing  for  crime  of  assault,  336,  337 

Record  of,  337 

In  Statesboro,  Ga.,  337,  345 

President  Roosevelt  on,  337,  338 

Morally  and  legally  wrong,  338 

Prof.  William  James  regarding,  338, 
342 

Deadening    of    moral    sense    makes 
iynchings  possible,  340 

At  Fort  Leavenworth,  344 

In  Evansville,  Ind.,  344 

In  Vicksburg,  344 

In  Springfield,  Ohio,  349 

In  Springfield,  Mo.,  349,  350 

Woman  burned  at  stake  in  Missis- 
sippi, 351 

W.  S.  Scarborough  on,  351 

In  Chattanooga,  351,  352 

In  Wilmington,  Del.,  370 

Machinery 

Use   of,    causes    "  overproduction," 

614 
Mammon 

The  worship  of,  580 
The  god  of  this  world,  580 
Sorry  effects  of  worship  of,  593 
Church    member    amassed    fortune 
by  malpractice  business,  593 


"  Reforms  will  never  come  from  the 

^    gold  box  of,"  671 

"  The  love  of  gold  grows  faster  than 

the  heap  of  acquisition,"  725 
The  "  social  price,"  and  evil  of  wor- 
ship of,  603 
Massachusetts 

Legislature  bought  and  sold,  423 
Thos.  B.  Lawson  regarding  bribery 

in  the  legislature  of,  573-574 
John  B.  Moran  regarding  star-cham- 
ber   "  investigations       in    State 
House,  574 

Massacres  and  atrocities 
Kishineff,  17,  45,  56 
Turkish-Armenian,  77-80 
Congo  Free  State,  83-107 
Fort  Ethan  Allen,  218 
In  Philippines,  229-252 
Militancy 

In  United  States,  18,  219 
Soldiering  morally  disorganising,  344 
The  soldier  destroys.  379 
Money 

Earning  power  of,  554 

Washington      Gladden       regarding 

tainted,  577 

The  nation  money-mad,  580 
The    common    denominator    of    all 

desires,  609 
Monopoly 

Establishes  age  dead-line,  364 
Capital  and  labour  should  join  forces 

to  fight,  429 
Compels  people  to  pay  exorbitant 

prices  for  coal,  467 
Marches  to  the  polls  its  bribed  re- 
tainers, 565 
Mummies 

African,  imported  for  fertiliser,  17 
Music 

Blackmail  levied  in  musical  trade, 
592 

Negroes 

Treatment  of,  Dred  Scott  case,  58 
Lynchings  of,  59,  297 
In    connexion    with     Packingtown 

strike,  296,  297 
Denied  rights  of  American  citi/^ns, 

341-342 
"  Appeal  "  sent  to  the  Powers  of  the 

Old  World,  342-344 
Lynching  of  innocent.  343,  350 
The  equal  of  the  white  man  in  social 

and  moral  development,  352 
Toussaint  L'Ouverture  greater  than 

any  historical  white  man,  353 
Wendell  Phillip's  sketch  of  L'Ouver- 
ture, 353-357 
"  The  Negro  a  Beast  or  in  the  Image 

of  God,"  357 
A  great  negro  novelist,  359 


773 


INDEX 


Paul  Lawrence  Dunbar,  author  and 

poet,  359 
Wm.  Ed.  Burghardt  DuBois,  Prof,  of 

Economics  and  History,  359 
Booker    T.    Washington    has    few 

living  equals,  358 
Progress  of,  359 
First  needle  made  in  England  was 

made  by  a  negro,  359 
"  A  Negro's  Creed,"  359-360 
Peonage,  363-372 

Policeman  sold  negroes  to  a  South- 
ern planter,  making  money  by  the 

transaction,  371 
Disfranchised,  401 
Albert  E.  Pillsbury  on  disfranchise- 

ment  of,  401 
New  Zealand 

Some     contrasts     between     United 

States  and,  34-35 
Parcels  post  in,  149 
Postal  savings  bank  system  in,  149 
Post-office  in,  149 
Telegraph  in,  149 
Abolition  of  legal  precedent  in,  157 
Governed  by  the  ballot  in,  384 
Beyond  the  United  States  in  human 

activities,  413 
Crime -in,  646 
Death  rate  in,  647 

Occupations 

Of  Franklin,  Jefferson,  John  Adams, 
James  Monroe,  Patrick  Henry, 
John  Jay,  Robert  Treat  Paine, 
Richard  Stockton,  John  Penn, 
John  Hancock,  Philip  Livingston, 
James  Madison,  John  Hart,  John 
Paul  Jones,  123 

Optimism    and    pessimism,    399-401, 
521,  675,  726 

Outrages 

Spanish-Cuban  paralleled  by  United 
States  in  Philippines,  13,  14 


Packingtown  and  meat  supply 

Meat  rejected  by  Jews  as  unclean 

eaten  by  Gentiles,  505 
The  "  canner,"  506-508 
Government-inspected  meat,  506-515 
Condition     in     cold-storage      beef- 
houses,  509 

Boneless  ham,  509-510,  538-539 
Meat    rejected    by    foreign    nations 
the  people  of  the   United  States 
eat,  511 
Poisoned  by  sausage  and  dried  beef, 

514 

W.  K.   Jaques,  M.  D.,  on  meat  in- 
spection, 515-518 

Conditions  of,   responsible    for    in- 
crease of  cancer,  518 


Conditions  in  Packingtown  as  told 
by  Doctor  Hedger,  519-522 

Thos.  H.  McKee  on  meat  inspection, 
523-525 

Diseased  hogs  used  for  lard,  524 

Conditions  in  Packingtown  as  told 
by  Upton  Sinclair  in  "  The 
Jungle,"  527 

Bubbly  Branch,  530 

What  goes  into  fancy  grade  of  lard, 
534 

"  Embalmed  beef,"  531 

Conditions  in  pickling  rooms,  535 

Conditions  in  summer  in,  536 

Disappearances  in,  537 

Fertiliser  plant,  537 

"  Thirty  per  cent.,"  538 

Sausage,  539 

Every  detail  known  to  Mr,  Armour, 
540 

Statements  made  by  one  of  Mr. 
Armour's  cattle  butchers,  540-541 

Affidavit  of  Thps.  F.  Dolan,  542-544 

Laws  regulating  meat  inspection 
written  by  the  packers,  545 

"  Armour  pays  $5,000  for  a  gold 
brick  in  Boston,"  542 

Case  of  St.  Bernard  dog  fed  on  arti- 
ficially coloured  foods,  546 

The  London  "Lancet"  regarding  con- 
ditions in  Packingtown,  546-548 

Abominable  premises  in  which  rep- 
resentatives of  science  work  daily, 
547 

Work  by  artificial  light,  547 

Where  soup  is  made,  547 

An    argument   for    vegetarian   diet, 

548 
Parcels  post 

Treaty  with  Belgium,  149 

In  New  Zealand,  149 

Express  companies  opposed  to,  150 
Patriotism 

Two  effects  of,  18 

Real  spirit  of,  is  dead,  434 
Paupers 

Buried  at  public  expense  in  New 
York,  639 

Burial  insurance  of,  639 
Peace  Commission 

How  initiated,  17 

Followed  by  Russian  hypocrisy,  17 

Futility  of,  17 
Peonage 

Story  of  negro  peon,  365-370 

In  Georgia,  365,  370 

Southern  planters  imprisoned  and 
fined  for  enslaving  negroes,  371- 
372 

Negro  woman  in,  372 

White,  flourishes  in  many  cities,  373 

Kidnapping  of  Boston  man  into, 
374 


774 


INDEX 


A    Roxbury,  Mass.,   man    a    peon, 
374 

Escape  of  South  Boston  man  from. 
374 

Trial  of  Bertha  Claiche,  374 
Peril 

The  Yellow,  19,  736 

The  Russian,  19 

The  Northern,  19 
Philadelphia 

One  person  in  every  seventeen  ar- 
rested in,  407 

"  Comfortably  rotten,"  436 

Lincoln    Steffens   regarding  corrup- 
tion in,  447 

"  Corrupt  and  contented,"  450 

Public  school  system  corrupt  in,  452- 
453 

Franchise  episode,  453 

Names  of   Head   dogs  and   children 

used  in  voting  lists  in,  451 
Philippine  Islands 

Senator  Hoar's  view  of  our  course 
in,  19 

Enslaved  by  United  States,  197 

No  rebellion    against   Spain   in,   at 
time  of  Dewey's  victory,  198 

Filipinos  our  military  allies,  199 

Aguinaldo's    cooperation   with    Ad- 
miral Dewey,  199-201 

General  Greene's  report,  201 

Admiral  Dewey  divided  arms  and 
munitions  with  Aguinaldo,  201 

"  Benevolent     assimilation "     proc- 
lamation, 203 

Betrayal  of  Aguinaldo,  215-217 

Beginning  of  war,  204 

American    nation    deliberately    de- 
ceived Filipinos,  204-205 

Funston  episode,  213-219 

Suppression     of    facts    relating    to 
atrocities  in,  221-222 

"  Reconcentrado  "  policy  in,  224 

Conduct    of    American    soldiers    in, 
224-225 

Major  Waller  court-martialed,  229 

Major  Waller's  offences,  229-232 

"  Water-cure  "   and  other  cruelties, 
231-232,  238,  240,  246-247 

"  The  Deadly  Parallel,"  236 

Torture  of  Father  Augustine,  239 

Cost  of  war  in,  244-246 

Jolo  massacre,  248-250 

Atkinson's  statistics  of  cost  of  war  in, 

244-246 
Plague  and  Black  Death 

History  of,  652 

Great  white  plague,  652,  676 

White  plague  killed  more  people  than 
war  and  other  plagues  combined, 
676 
Police 

In  league  with  criminals,  406 


Lost-watch  episode,  406 
Politics 

Degenerated   into  specialised  graft, 

4oo 

Thoreau  regarding,  435 

Bolton    Hail    regarding    corruption 

in,  445 
Voting  at  elections  in  Philadelphia 

and  other  cities,  450-452 
Influence  of  Catholic  clergy  in,  594- 

596 
Catholics  support  Republican  party, 

if  paid  donations  from  Congress, 

cna 

o96 
Population 

Relative  density  of,  9-12 

Chart  of,  11 

Density  in  our  cities,  654-656 
Porto  Rico 

Its  sad  plight,  19 
Poverty 

Needless  and  superfluous  wealth,  12 

Discourages  marriage,  638 

Many  who  toil  suffer  abject,  670 

In  England,  690 

A  close  relative  of  death,  706 

The  Herod  of  modern  civilisation, 
712 

Number  of  people  in,  718 

Charts  on,  657,  661 

Chart  of  death  rate  of  poor,  707 
Press 

Freedom  of  the,  178 

John  Stuart  Mill  on  liberty  of,  180 

Censorship  of  the,  186-191 

Comments  upon  military  measures 
in  the  Philippines,  221-222 

Reports  of  atrocities  in  Philippines, 
223-224 

Efforts    made    in    Philadelphia    to 
muzzle  the,  454 

Elbert    Hubbard    regarding    news- 
papers, 598 

Sidney   A.    Reeve   regarding   news- 
papers, 598-601 

"  Yellow-Journal  "  evil,  602 
Privilege 

Princes  of,  559 

Houses  of  princes  of,  559-561 

Newspapers    and    periodicals    paid 

organs  of,  576 
Progress 

In  manner  of  administering  to  human 

needs,  496-497 
Property 

Rights  of,  right  to  kill,  57 
Prophecy 

Of  Immanuel  Kant  that  commerce 
would  ultimately  suppress  war,  20 
Prostitutes 

In  the  United  States,  604 
Providence 

Coal  barons  agents  of,  13 


775 


INDEX 


Prudential  Assurance  Co.  vs.   Knott, 
300 

Railroads 

Corruption  of,  136-142 

Accidents  on  Southern  R.  R.,  142, 

760 

Postal  graft  of,  147 
French  management  of,  147-148 
Overcharge  government,  149 
Objection  to  government  owning,  171 
Free  grants  of  land  to,  171,  257,  264, 

265 

Poor  service  given  by,  171 
Exorbitant    freight    and    passenger 

rates,  171,  663 
Theft    of   timbe»   by    Union    River 

R.  R.,  281 
General  Managers'  Association,  306, 

307,  309 
Railroad    charges    for    transporting 

coal,  468 

Govern  our  legislatures,  471 
Accidents  on,  471-479 
Accidents  on,  in  other  countries,  473 
Number  of  employees  killed  on,  473 
Increase  in  mileage  of,  477 
Kill  more  people  than  war,  478-479 
Elevated  roads  make  dividends  "  off 

the  straps,"  663 

Railroad  interests  dominate  Ameri- 
can "  House  of  Lords,"  663 
And  Standard  Oil,  664 
Project    for   building   a   transconti- 
nental,  664 

Capitalisation  of  street,  665 
Rebates,  136,  138 
Religious 

Revivals  and  commercial  depression, 

5 
Fanatic  offered  up  son  in  sacrifice, 

298 

Ripperism 
In  Ohio,  404 
In  Michigan,  404 
In  Pennsylvania,  404 
History  of,  404-405 
Roman  Catholic  Church 

Protector  of  the  American  flag,  594 
To  stand  against  Socialism,  594 
Influence  of  Roman  Catholic  clergy 

in  politics,  596 
Difference  between  Catholicism  and 

clericalism,  595 
Roosevelt,  President 

Acts  unconstitutionally,  19 

Carl  Schurz's  criticism  of,  19 

Message  of,  136 

Uses  private  cars,  141 

Treatment  of  Assistant  Post-Master 

General  by,  156 
"  Shot  a  Bear,"  193-194 
Rockefeller  a  bigger  man  than,  388 


Russia 

Rate  of  illiteracy  in,  10,  65 

Official  murders  in,  17 

Kishineff  massacre,  17,  45,  56 

The  strength  of  her  autocracy,  18 

Terrorism  "  white  "  and  "  red,"  18 

Size  of,  39 

Serfdom  of,  39 

Methods  of,  39-40 

Peasants  and  how  treated,  39-40 

Political  corruption  in,  40-42 

Wife-beating,  Maxim  Gorky's  sketch, 

43-45 
Treatment  of  political  offenders,  46- 

47 

An  inferno,  59 
Nothing  "  permitted  "  in,  63 
"  Administrative  methods  "  in,  47 
Houses  searched  without   warrants 

in,  63 

Censorship  in,  64 
Density  of  population  in,  11 
No  enlightenment  of  peasantry  al- 
lowed in,  64,  65 

Relief  of  poor  in  famine  forbidden,  64 
Ignorance  of  peasants  in,  65 
War  appropriations  in,  65-66 
Factory  life  in,  66,  67 
Agrarian  situation  in,  67-73 
Description  of  the  Great  Black  Belt, 

72 
Hibernating  in,  73 

San  Domingo 

Our  treatment  of,  under  protocol,  19 
Schools 

Donations  from  Congress  for  Indian, 

596 
System   corrupted   in   Philadelphia, 

452-453 
University  teaching  costs  more  than 

it  ever  did,  579 
University  in  relation  to  trusts,  576, 

578,  580 
Students  taught  to  accept  text-book 

authorities  rather  than  think  for 

themselves,  584 
Greek  peripatetic  system,  584 
Method  of  frequently  changing  the 

work  of  pupils,  584-585 
"  The  Overworked  School  Boy,"  590 
Build  up  the  character  of  the  student, 

591 

Donations  to  Catholic,  595-597 
Selfishness 

The   present  social   system  devised 

by,  445 
"  Shyster  "  methods  used  by  Boston 

legal  firm,  390 
Siberia 

Awful  conditions  in,  46-69 
Suffering  of  exiles  to,  59-65 
No  schools  in,  65 


776 


INDEX 


Single  tax 

And  free  competition,  624-626 
Has  been  in  operation  in  Japan  for 

centuries,  731 
Slavery 

Russian  serf,  39 

African,  in  Congo,  89 

In  Philippines,  197 

Economic,  363-364 

Chattel,  363 

Negro,  restored,  365 

White,  373 

Oriental,   in   New   York  and  other 

cities,  374 
Economic,  one  cause  of  race  suicide, 

641 

Economic,  in  England,  690-693 
Child,  in  United  States,  715-717 
Socialism 

Prof.  Henry  Davies  on,  624 
Abolishes  competition,  624 
"  The  awful  menace  of,"  664 
Several  successfully  performed  gov- 
ernmental    functions     socialistic, 
731 

In  Japan, '731 
Excites  much  interest,  738 
Social  Problems 

Similar  in  all  countries,  728-729 
Soldier 

The,  characterised,  9 
The,  a  burden,  9 
Speech 

Freedom  of,  179,  184 
John  Turner  episode,  181-183 
Emma  Goldman  episode,  183-184 
Standard  Oil  Company 
Elkins  Bill,  132 
Clark  episode,  133-134 
Covet  monopolies  in  Philippines,  242 
On  watch  for  new  oil  wells,  265 
Defies  court  orders,  421 
Stronger  than  the  United  States,  388 
Proceeding  for  violation  of  Missouri 

laws,  421 
Owns    majority    of    United    States 

Senate,  663 

Colorado  mine  owners  part  of,  426 
And  railroad  privileges,  664 
Statistics 
Falsified,  172 

False  census  reports,  173-175 
Henry  L.  Bliss  regarding  "  cooked," 

175-176 

Juggling  of,  176 
In  Russia,, 172 
Steel  Trust 

One-twelfth  of  the  wealth  of  United 
States   represented   by  Board   of 
Directors  of,  562 
St.  Petersburg 

Founding  of,  40-41 
Strife 


Universality  of,  14 
Suffrage 

Advocated  for  some  women  and  de- 
nied others,  341 
Suicide 
Race,  637 

Robert  Hunter  on  race,  637 
Immigration  cause  of,  637-638 
"  Observations  Concerning  Increase 

of  Mankind,"  638 

Race,  due  to  increased  social  pres- 
sure, 640-641 

Bodies  of  newly  born  infants  taken 
from  River  Seine,  also  from  Boston 
sewer  pipes,  641 
Race,  among  the  rich,  641-642 
"  The  Facts  about  Suicide,"  644 
Rate  of,  in  American  and  European 

cities,  645 
Sweat-box 

Flourishes  in  our  large  cities,  391 
A  system  of  torture  for  extorting 

confessions,  391 

Description  of  the  system,  391-394 
Inspector  Shea  defends  the,  395 
The  victim  a  prisoner  without  money 

or  friends,  395 
The  "  aristocracy  "  of  crime  never 

receive  the  "  third  degree,"  395 
Sweat-shop 

Goods  sold  for  "  goods  made  in  our 

own  factory,"  498 
Babes  four  years  old  work  in,  559 
In    Boston   investigated   by   L.    A. 

Banks,  672 
Laws  if  enforced  would  obliterate, 

674 
Disease  in  homes  where  work  is  done 

for,  675-676 
Switzerland 

Enjoys    more    freedom    than    the 

United  States,  35 
Leads  in  most  things  political  and 

social,  413 
No  trusts,  no  political  corruption- 

ists  in,  413 

Chas.  Ed.  Russell  on,  413-414 
Swiss  astonished   at  fuss  made  by 

Americans  over  elections,  434 
Elections  simple  and  frequent  in,  436 
No  beef  trusts  in,  518 
Density  of  population  in,  11 

Tariff 

Its  effect  in  this  and  other  countries, 

24 

Annual  average  ad  valorem  rate,  24 
American  goods  sold  abroad  cheaper 

than  in  the  United  States  because 

of,  25 

Synopsis  of  methods,  25-29 
The    effect    of,    upon    the    human 

family,  29 


777 


INDEX 


Chart,  "  The  American  Tariff  from 

1791-1901,"  opposite  24 
Telegraph  and  telephone 

Companies  publish  what  they  know 

to  be  false,  481-482 
War  tax  on  telegrams,  481 
Prof.  Frank  Parsons  on  Telegraph 

Monopoly,  481 
British  Telephone  Trust,  729 
Town-meeting 
Principle,  417-418 
Rev.  Herbert  Bigelow  on,  418-419 
Transportation 

Companies  own  mines  contrary  to 
constitution   of    State    of    Pennsyl- 
vania, 469 
Trusts 

The  beginning  of  the  so-called,  465 
Contain    principles    in    accord  with 

laws  of  nature,  465 
Effect  of  existing,  upon  society,  466- 

467,  481 

H.  C.  Ritchie  regarding,  484 
Capitalisation  of,  562 
Reaching  for  the  schools,  576 
Competition  the  mother  of,  617 
Cannot  exist  in  Switzerland,  413 
British  Telephone,  729 
Tuberculosis 

Persons  in  last  stages  of,  preparing 

food  for  public,  499 
The  "  great  white  plague,"  652,  676- 

690 

Record  of,  676 
Lung  Block,  682-687 
Ernest  Poole  regarding,  676,  681-689 
Can  be  stamped  out,  678 
Begin  in  childhood  campaign  against, 

678 

"  The  Prayer  of  the  Tenement,"  681 
Infection  of,  686 
Warfare  against,  687 
Ignorance  and  superstition  prevent 

many  cures  of,  687 
If   disease    is    reported    "  consump- 
.    tion "    the   patient   loses   life   in- 
surance, 688 

Unions,   Labour 

In  the  United  States,  485 

Prevent  labourer  having  his  wages 

cut  to  an  unbearable  extent,  671 
United  States 

England     and     Switzerland     enjoy 

more  freedom  than,  35 
Behind   most    civilised  countries  in 

postal  matters,  149 
Jury  elected  from  all  the  people  in, 

152 

Struggle  in  Philippines,  197 
Imperialism  in,  221 
Law  and  order  breaking  down  in,  310 
No  redress  for  negroes  in,  343 


Incomes  of  working  people  in  the. 
740 

Density  of  population  in,  11 

Negroes  barbarously  treated  in,  343 

Soldiers  at  Fort  Leavenworth 
lynched  a  negro,  344 

Lynching  atrocities  equal  to  any- 
thing that  Russia  can  produce,  345 

Largely  a  government  of  wealth,  383 

Larger  murder  and  homicide  rate 
than  any  other  country  except 
Russia,  407 

American  communities  fifty  years 
behind  foreign  pocket  principali- 
ties, 420 

Senate  at  bidding  of  Standard  Oil, 
421 

Railroad  and  other  accidents  in,  471- 
479 

Second  only  to  Russia  in  railroad 
inefficiency,  477 

Lack  of  dignity  in,  547 

Babes  four  years  old  work  in  sweat- 
shops in,  559 

Twenty-four  men  represent  one- 
twelfth  of  wealth  of  the,  562 

Number  of  men  who  own  the,  562 

Diagrams  illustrating  distribution 
of  wealth  in  the,  563,  657,  659 

Paid  makers  of  public  opinion  cajole 
and  cozen  the  people  of  the,  583 

A  parallel  to  Rome  and  Greece,  648 

Age  dead-line  in  the,  653 

A  victim  of  national  egotism,  737 

War 

Universality  of,  14 
Spanish-American,  17 
Spanish-Cuban,  17 
Filipino-American,  17 
English-Boer,  17 
Chinese  vs.  Allied  Powers  recalled, 

17 

Corsica  with  Genoa,  197 
Appropriations  in  Russia,  65 
The    "  honour  of    the  army,"    208, 

218 

Fort  Ethan  Allen  episode,  218 
Tends  to  brutalise  men,  219 
"  Professional  Militarism,"  219 
Blowing  up  of  the  Maine,  221 
Criticism  of  war  department,  222 
Cost  of  war  with  Spain  and  Philip- 
pines, 244-246 

Peace  more  bloody  than,  478 
Industrial,  479  • 

Captain  Hobson  asked  for  one  thou- 
sand million  naval  appropriation, 
18 
Wealth 

All,  taken  from  the  earth  by  labour, 

10 
Superfluous  and  needless  poverty,  12 


778 


INDEX 

Distribution  of,  in  United  States,  563,  Eltweed  Pomeroy  on  distribution  of, 

656,  657  656 

Spahr's  table  of  distribution  of,  564  Charts  of,  563,  657,  659 

A  small  per  cent,  of  the  people  coil-  White  House 

trol  half  the,  656  Expenses  of,  151 


779 


Abbott,  J.  S.  C.,  41 

Abbott,  Lyman,  596 

Adams,  Alvah,  317 

Adams,  John,  120,  422,  725 

Adams,  Samuel,  419 

Addicks,  J.  Edward    O'Sullivan,    282 

Adler,  Felix,  697,  700 

Aguinaldo,  199,  200,  201,  204,  214,  216, 

217 

Aldrich,  Nelson  W.,  595 
Alexander  II.,  42 
Altgeld,  John  Peter,  208,  219,  304,  308, 

309,  384 

Anderson,  General,  205 
Angell,  George  T.,  501 
Anitchkow,  Michael,  23 
Antisdel,  C.  B.,  105 
Archbold,  John  D.,  132 
Armour,  J.  Ogden,  540,  542,  546 
Armour,  Philip  D.,  541,  543 
Arnold,  Matthew,  564 
Ashbridge,  Mayor,  453 
Atkinson,  Edward,  244 

Baer,  George  F.,  57,  469 

Baker,  Ray  Stannard,  320,  326,  327 

Baker,  Robert,  140 

Banks,  Rev.  L.  A.,  671,  672,  742,  743 

Barnes,  Judge,  154,  155 

Barnett,  Canon,  565 

Barnett,  Ida  Wells,  351 

Beach,  Rex  E.,  282,  283,  289,  291.  292 

Beale,  Joseph  Henry,  151 

Beard,  Dan,  467,  468,  469,  471 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  140,  142 

Behrends,  Rev.,  373 

Bell,  Sherman  M.,  321 

Bell,  General,  423,  424 

Bellamy,  Edward,  624 

Bellini,  Gentili,  57 

Benson,  John  A.,  266 

Bent  ham.  Jeremy,  164 

Bereshkovsky,  Catherine,  48,  67 

Berge,  George  W.,  140 

Bessette,  Ed.  E.,  301 

Beveridge,  42 


Beveridge,  Senator,  206 

Bigelow,  Herbert  S.,  418,  548 

Blackwell,  Alice  Stone,  67 

Bliss,  Henry  L.,  175,  176 

Booth,  General,  690 

Brewer,  Justice,  131,  313 

Brooks,  John  Graham,  564,  613,  656 

Brown,  Edward  Osgood,  216 

Bucklin,  James  W.,  321 

Butler,  Elizabeth  B.,  673 

Butler,  Samuel,  16 

Byington,  Stephen  T.,  4 

Cairnes,  Prof.,  564 

Campbell,  Judge,  323 

Carman,  Bliss, 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  576,  650 

Chamberlain,  24 

Chandler,  Bishop,  336 

Choate,  Rufus,  385 

Christmas,  Captain  W. ,  421 

Claiche,  Bertha,  347 

Clark,  Wm.  A.,  133,  277,  421 

Clemens,  Samuel  (Mark  Twain),  38,  99, 

217.  218,  219 
Cleveland,  Grover,  299,  303,  305,  307, 

309.  320,  324 

Cochran,  Wm.  Bourke,  129 
Collier,  Wm.  Miller,  613,  614,  616 
Commons,  John  R.,  637 
Conkling,  Roscoe,  141 
Cooper,  Peter,  169 
Cooper,  Walter  G.,  464,  489,  611,  612, 

614,  724 

Cortelyou,  G.  B.,  597 
Crosby,  Ernest,  135,  136,  317-318,  357- 

358 

Curtis,  Wm.  E.,  242 
Cutler,  Dr.,  336 
Czolgosz,  Leon,  297,  298 

Daniel,  Annie  S.,  698 
Darrow,  Clarence  S.,  387 
Darwin,  Charles,  381 
Debs,  Eugene  V.,  303,  304,  316 
Dennis,  James,  79 


780 


PERSONS  REFERRED  TO  AND  QUOTED 


Depew,  Chauncy,  141,  414 

Defocqueville,  115,  123,  152,  730 

Deutsch,  Leo,  47 

Dewey,  George,  198,  199,  200,  201,  202 

Dilke,  Sir  Charles,  24 

Dixon,  Rev.  Thomas,  357 

Dolan,  Thomas  F.,  541,  542,  544 

Dole,  N.  H.,  55 

Dooley,  159 

Drage,  Geoffrey,  65 

DuBois,  Wm.  Ed.  Burghardt,  359 

Punbar,  Paul  Lawrence,  359 

Durbin,  Governor,  337 

Dutt,  Romesh  C.,  557 

Eichholz,  Dr.  Alfred,  704 
Elkins,  Stephen  B.r  595 
Elmer,  Judge,  318 
Ely,  Robert  E.,  562 
Ely,  Richard  T.,  747 
Emerson,   Ralph  Waldo,  6,  440,  564, 
571 

Fiske,  John,  565 
Flint,  Prof.  George  W.,  4 
Flower,  B.  O.,  240 
Folk,  Joseph  W.,  440,  449 
Franklin,  Benj.,  8,  117,  118,  169 
Funston,  General,  213,  214,  215,  216, 
217,  218 

Gabbert,  Judge,  323 

Gage,  Lyman  J.,  132,  295 

Ganz,  Hugo,  40 

Gaynor,  Wm.  Jay,  172 

George,  Henry,  Jr.,  13,  136,  147,  171, 
260,  294,  299,  301,  303,  305,  306, 
307,  314,  317,  320,  322,  406,  407,  409, 
416,  421,  479,  552,  553,  559,  579,  643 

Ghent,  W.  J.,  322,  436,  478,  479 

Gibbons,  Cardinal,  335,  336 

Gilman,  Charlotte  Perkins,  525,  721 

Gladden,  Rev.  Washington,  580,  582 

Gladstone,  William,  379 

Goldman,  Emma,  183,  297 

Gorky,  Maxim,  43,  592 

Gould,  George,  320,  427 

Gould,  Howard,  560 

Greeley,  Horace,  169 

Greene,  General,  201 

Greene,  Fred'k  Davis,  78,  79 

Gregory,  John  M.,  616,  730 

Gi-osscup,  Judge,  304,  307 

Guggenheim,  Simon,  576 

Gummere,  Wm.  G.,  479 

Gunton,  George,  747 

Hadley,  Prof.,  579 

Halford,  Lieut.,  229 

Hall,   Bolton,   22,  260,  398,  445,  618, 

727 

Hamblin,  Conde,  282 
Hamilton,  Alex.,  129,  130,  160 


Hancock,  John,  123 

Hanley,  J.  F.,  420 

Hanna,  Mark,  132,  405,  594,  595 

Hansborough,  Senator,  284 

Harris,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  105,  106 

Hawthorne,  Julian,  381 

Haydock,  Rena,  453 

Haynes,  Rev.  Artemas  Jean,  526 

Haywood,  Wm.,   423,    424,   425,   426 

427,  428,  429 

Hedger,  Dr.  Caroline,  505,  519,  520 
Henry,  Patrick,  5 
Hepburne,  A.  B.,  132 
Hewitt,  Abraham,  22 
Higginson,  Thomas  Wentworth,  743 
Hirschauer,    Herman,   483,   505,    507, 

509,  511,  512 
Hoar,  Senator,  19,  207 
Hobson,  John  A.,  728 
Hobson,  Capt.  R.  P.,  18 
Hoffman,  Fred'k  L.,  644 
Holdom,  Judge,  303 
Holt,  Byron  W.,  25 
Hooker,  Richard,  52 
Hopkins,  John  P.,  307 
Horack,  Frank  Edward,  465 
Howe,  Fred'k  C.,  454 
Hubbard,  Elbert,  149,  150,  358,  485, 

,486,  559,  584,  591,  598 
Hudson,  J.  F.,  664 
Hugo,  Victor,  95,  640,  654,  671,  725 
Humboldt,  Baron,  116 
Hunter,   Robert,  473,  525,  637,  640, 

690,  715,  719 

Huntington,  Chancellor,  298 
Hyde,  Fred'k  A.,  270 
Hyde,  James  Hazen,  409 

Ingersoll,  Robert  G.,  429,  570 
Ingham,  D.  H.,  250 
Irvin,  Wallace,  494,  495 

Jackson,  Judge  J.,  315 
James,  Prof.  Wm.,  338 
James,  Lord  Justice,  300 
Jaques,  Dr.  Wm.  K.,  505.  515.  545 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  115,  116,  118,  156, 

169,  170,  180, 313 
Johnson,  Thomas,  404,  405 
Jones,  John  E.,  738,  739 
Jones,  Samuel  H.,  405 
Joubert,  Carl,  55,  59 

Kant,  Immanuel,  20 
Keller,  Judge,  318 
Kellor,  Frances  A.,  373 
Kelley,  Florence,  497,  703 
Kennan,  George,  46,  53 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  600 


Lacombe,  Judge,  182 
Lacy,  John  F.,  284 
Larrabee,  Ex-Gov.,  664 


781 


PERSONS  REFERRED  TO  AND  QUOTED 


Lawson,  Thomas,  129,  132,  133,  282, 

408,  421,  423 
Lee,  Joseph,  236 
Leo,  Pope,  XIII.,  565 
Leopold,  King,  18,  83,  84,  90,  91,  93, 

94,  95,  106,  107 
Lewis,  E.  G.,  191,  192 
Lighton,  Win.  R.,  128,  275.  276 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  163,  169,  172,  196, 

235,  403,  433,  436,  470,  728 
Lloyd,  Henry  Demorest,  447,  575,  664 
Lodge,  Senator,  213,  222 
London,  Jack,  525 
L'Ouverture,  Toussaint,  198,  353,  354, 

355,  357 

Low,  A.  Maurice,  32 
Low,  Seth,  448 

Madison,  James,  119 

Malcolm,  John  W.,  298 

Malins,  Vice-Chancellor,  300,  301 

Malvar,  Miguel,  228,  242 

Mason,  Wm.,  127 

Maver,  Justice,  391 

McCall,  Pres.,  130 

McClelland,  Judge-Advocate,  323,  326 

McClure,  S.  S.,  646 

McCreery,  J.  L.,  170,  171,  279,  280 

McDonald,  Rev.  C.  H.,  416 

McKee,  Thomas  H.,  505,  522, 523,  525, 

540 
McKenzie,  Alex.,  282,  283,  285,  286, 

^89   '-*90   292 
McKinley/Pres.  Wm.,  151,  203,  283, 

284.  291,  299,  594 
McLaurin,  Senator,  203,  204 
McPartland,  James.  428 
Melleigh,  Lord-Justice,  301 
Michaelson,  Alfred,  374 
Miles.  General.  202 
Mill.  John  Stuart,  122.  180,  256 
Millard.  Bailey,  265,  268,  269,  270,  272 
Miller,  Attorney-General,  325 
Miller,  Henry,  277,  278 
Miller,  Kelley,  359 
Mills.  J.  Warren,  576 
Milyoukoff,  Paul,  68 
Montague,  James  J.,  131 
Moody,  John,  562 
Moran,  John  B.,  574 
Morel,  Edmund  D.,  83,  84 
Morgan,  J.  Pierpont,  427,  439,  595 
Morrow,  Judge.  291 
Morton,  Paul,  136 
Mover,  Chas.  H.,  323,  325 
Monroe,  James,  118,  119 

Nevinson,  Henry,  95 
Nichols,  Francis  H.,  717 
Nodal,  B.  H.,  46 
Nordhoff,  Chas.,  728 
Noyes,  Arthur  "H.,  283,  290 


O'Brien,  Charles  S.,  374 

O'Hare,  Kate  Richards,  604 

O'Keefe,  P.  J.,  594 

O'Reilly,  John  Boyle,  552,  589 

Olney,  Hon.  Richard,  468 

Orchard,  Harry,  428 

Otis.  General,  202,  203,  204,  239 

Palmer,  John  M.,  82,  432,  444,  464,  534, 

622 

Paoli,  197 
Parkhurst,  Dr.,  436 
Parsons,  Prof.  Frank,  34,  146,  162,  260, 

312,  383,  412,  432,  433,  444,  456,  481, 

647,  762 

Patterson,  Senator,  213 
Peabody,  J.  H.,  320,  321,  323,  325 
Pentecost,  Hugh  O.,  427 
Perkins,  George  W.,  129,  409,  410 
Peter  the  Great,  41,  380 
Pettibone,  C.  A.,  423 
Phillips,  David  Graham,  383 
Phillips.  Wendell,  385,  496 
Pillsbury,  Hon.  Albert  E.,  401 
Pinker-ton,  Allan,  428 
Pitt,  William,  23 
Podstata,  Dr.  V.  H.,  643 
Pomeroy,  Eltweed.  447,  656,  657 
Poole.  Ernest,  69,  676,  681,  682,  687, 

688.689 
Post.  Louis  F.,  153.  155,  184,  185,  186, 

188,  198,   205,   217,   222,  317,   372, 

400,  579.  624 
Pratt,  E.  Spencer.  199 
Putnam,  Frank,  127 

Quay,  Matthew  S..  452 
Quilter,  Harry,  631 

Reed.  Thomas  B..  128 

Reeve,  Arthur,  763.  764 

Reeve,  Sidney  A..  599.  603,  626,  628 

Richards,  Ellen  H.,  500 

Riis.  Jacob,  690,  710 

Ritchie.  H.  C..  484 

Robinson,  Henry  A.,  265 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  57,  58,  132.  320 

Rogers,  H.  H.,  282,  387,  388,  413,  421, 

422 
Roosevelt.   Pres.  Theodore.   136,   141, 

156, 193, 194,  337,  422,  471.  541,  596, 

597 

Ruskin.  John,  564,  730 
Russell,  Chas.  Ed.,  110.  120,  137,  138. 

139, 147.  413,  457.  458,  459.  460,  505, 

556.  557,  728,  729,  733,  734,  735,  737, 

758 
Ryan,  Thomas  F.,  409 

Salmone.  Anthony  H.,  77 
Scarborough.  W.  S.,  351 
Schurz,  Carl,  19,  132 
Schuyler,  80 

782 


PERSONS  REFERRED  TO  AND  QUOTED 


Schiff,  Jacob  H.,  409 

Seabury,  Judge  Samuel,  303,  314,  315 

Sergius,  Grand  Duke,  59 

Shadwell,  Bertrand,  212,  601 

Shearman,  Thomas  G.,  562 

Sheppard,  W.  F.,  104 

Sherard,  Robert  H.,  504,  692 

Shiels,  Denis  F.,  374 

Sinclair,  Upton,  296,  505,  525,  526,  530, 

540,  544 

Smart,  Prof.,  564 
Smart,  William,  616 
Smith,  Adam,  626,  627,  730,  738 
Smith,  General,  229 
Smith,  Dr.  Goldman,  351 
Smith-Mayo,  Richmond,  640 
Spargo,  John,  704,  705,  711,  713 
Spencer,  Herbert,  52,  179,  584,  612 
Spooner,  Senator.  203,  204 
Stead,  Alfred,  731,  732,  733 
Stead,  W.  T.,  107 
Steele,  Robert  Wilbur,  324,  325 
Steffens,  Lincoln,  437,  438,  447,  448, 

449,  451,  454 
Stevens,  Judge,  323 
Stevenson,  Chancellor,  243 
Stewart,  Senator,  284 
Stoddard,  John  L.,  59 
Storey,  Judge,  152,  157 
Storey,  Moorfield,  248 
Stunenberg,  Ex-Gov.  Frank,  423,  425 

Taft,  Secretary,  153 
Taney,  Chief-Justice,  58 
Tarbell,  Ida,  575,  664 
Taylor,  C.  F.,  279 
Taylor,  Edmund,  169 
Taylor,  Howard  S.,  208 
Taylor,  Rebecca  J.,  189 
Teller,  James  H.,  329 
Thompson,  Slason,  473 
Thoreau,  Henry  D.,  418,  435 
Thrummel,  W.  F.,  130 


Tolstoy,  Count,  47,  53,  69,  181,  548 
Tomilson,  Wm.,  Geo.,  Thos.,  Andrew, 

Abraham,  253 
Tourgenieff,  63 
Train,  George  Francis,  466 
Traubel,  Horace,  750 
Turner,  John,  181,  182,  183,  297 
Turner,  J.  K.,  486,  487 
Tyner,  James  N.,  156 

Upton,  George  Putnam,  337 

VanderbUt,  Wm.  K.,  663 
Van  Vorst,  Mrs.  John,  701,  703 
Verestchagin,  Vassili,  107,  594 
Verner,  Samuel  Phillips,  95 

Walker,  Edwin,  306 

Walker,  Francis  A.,  637 

Waller,  Major,  229,  230 

Wanamaker,  John,  150,  453,  454 

Warren,  Arthur,  760 

Washington,  George,  115,  116,  123 

Waterman,  Nixon,  590 

Watson,  William,  79 

Webster,  Daniel,  386 

Wentworth,  Franklin  H.,  595 

Whitman,  Walt,  12 

Willard,  Frances,  78 

Williams,  George  W.,  90,  93 

Williams,  Oscar  F.,  198 

Winn,  Major,  162 

Wisby,  H.  W.,  632,  633,  634 

Witte,  L.  M.,  42 

Wood,  C.  E.  S.,  182,  196 

Woodruff,  Clinton  Rogers,  451 

Woods,  Judge,  304 

Worrall,  Thos.  D.,  482 

Wright,  Carroll  D.,  176 

Wright,  Edwin  R.,  306 

Zilliacus,  Kouni,  53 


783 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


